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

Judging someone on their appearance? ... What? That would be akin to judging a comic by its cover, not its story. Judging it based on its story would be akin to judging someone's personality.

What you call using logic in this case is actually giving too much credit to authors who wrote a bad story. They wrote something illogical, and you're trying to see things that aren't there in order to make sense of it. If an experienced Imperial Knight forgot about the main war criminals, it's because of bad writing. It doesn't logically point to your fan-fiction having happened off-page.

Seriously, that's like saying "Well, Daala was elected Chief of State, so logically, she must have saved a bunch of babies from a burning building off-page and got the entire galaxy to love her. Just use logic, guys." If it's your theory, cool. But don't try to present it as being any sort of "logical conclusion." Don't give Bechko and Hardman more credit than they deserve.

 

Technically speaking we knew Daala had saved a bunch of babies from a burning building based on information given about her in Revelation, a book in which she was no where near being CoS. Heck even if we don't count her off screen escapades mentioned during the Vong war, if could be argued that she helped save Fondor at the very least.

That said your point likely stands as I haven't caught up on the last few issues of Legacy as of yet. I just wanted to point out that some good deeds done by Daala were presented beforehand and didn't require imagination. Still, her becoming CoS was a huge headscratcher that didn't work at all.

 

If you like huge headscratchers that don't work at all, you'll love the final issue of Legacy Volume II.

 

That actually sounds precisely like the kind of naive conclusion that politicians in real life come to.

 

I don't know why so many people keep jumping on that line about "the end of history" and ignoring Empress Fel's immediate response of "pfft, no".

 

Or really, the fact that it just might have possibly been deliberate that none of the named, leading Sith from Vol. 1 show up in the "final battle" in the end of this issue, almost as if it's like they remained apart and in hiding from the Jedi like they said they would at the end of the first volume and that it is a pretty clear suggestion to readers of the overall Legacy series that the Sith aren't dead. Especially since we know from the above posts that the Sith being completely wiped out wasn't intended to be the case from the creators themselves. And especially since "the end of history" is a reference to a fairly well-known work which made a similar claim that was then spectacularly proven misguided in the real world.

I guess this is the sort of justification that will upset Jeff but I don't think it's unreasonable from an in-universe perspective to see this as something that Nihl and friends would have done deliberately, sacrificed a ton of Sith for it to be seen as the end of history so that they could continue to remain underground infiltrating the government with no suspicion remaining, since that is what they had done in the past as well.

 

The thing is, Nihl would have had no way of knowing that the Imperials would show up at the planet. The Sith thought that they were just taking on Wredd. Which leaves us with Nihl sending hundreds of Sith to take on one guy, and throws the idea of them being sacrificed out the window. Seriously, you're giving waaaay too much credit to the authors here. Fan theories are fine, but let's not kid ourselves that they're all part of some deeper master plan that Bechko and Hardman had.

I think that all of these theories only emphasizes the low quality of this issue, anyway. It made so little sense that we need to bend over backwards with fan theories in order to give it coherence. Let's do the Imperial Knights reforming thing next --- anybody have any ideas for that one?

 

So, would someone be able to tell me if the Sith are still around at the end of this series? Not for a moment did I feel compelled to get this (apart from the fact that I disagree with the entire idea behind the Legacy era and that I felt personally insulted by the way the original Legacy series ended, what I have seen of the artwork told me it is, though very well done, not my cup of tea at all), and I can't really follow the conversation.

If the Sith and the Empire are still around by 140 ABY in "Legends", it gives me hope -- in the sense that, yes, it was better to just kill the old canon in its sleep.

 

Are there still Nazis? You bet. Did Hitler win? No.

I've never seen the issue with whether there are or aren't anybody who still call themselves Sith.

 

Per the dialogue, the Sith are completely wiped out, with no remnants apparently surviving, but we don't see their actual deaths due to the sheer rushed nature of the story.

So make of it what you will, they either are gone, or they ain't. I accept that they are for the sake of just giving a damn ending to those whole thing, and leaving me feel a little 'less' burned about the EU being wrecked. Crucible's last page ends the books (poorly, but it does summarize all Luke's accomplishments), this ends the Legends EU timeline as a whole.

I'm still gonna keep as much of the pre ROTJ (or at least pre ANH) timeline as possible, though. It's canon to me until it's impossible to make sense of it. Especially with TOR still getting new story content.

 

It's just that this whole thing with the Sith coming back after having copied Maul's look and the Emperors ruling the galaxy again completely ruined the post-NJO timeline for me, and I always saw it as an alternate timeline story. I'm glad it doesn't burden the canonical timeline any more.

The worst was K'Kruhk surviving to become president of the Alliance. That is actually unpardonable. Just for that I completely gave up on this era, after having struggled through it. I'm glad the Sith are gone, but nothing can wipe the bad taste of President K'Kruhk from my mouth, ever.

 

Thankfully, no pardon is needed, because that didn't happen!

 

And, you know what? It's almost worth it.

 

The way I look at it is we were very lucky to actually get an ending, personally I really enjoyed the story and characters. As with any series you do have to use your imagination though, even with the films if Wedge Antilles isn't in Episode VII you have to assume that he isn't there for a reason like with the Sith from Legacy 1 in this series. You could debate all day why their not there but the fact is we don't know.

The series started off with a more personal focus on Ania and ended up with the whole EU on it's shoulders, the writers were in an impossible situation to please all Legacy/EU readers and fans because I doubt DH originally intended for this to be the series to wrap everything up and tie off all of the lose ends. Overall I loved the series but everyone is entitled to their opinions.

 

There's so many ways to deal with the supposed issues you're caught up on that it astounds me to think you've not just done the thing that "Legends" continuity now essentially encourages: making up your own mind about things. Can't imagine that Nihl and whoever died in that battle? Well, then, you've got one more great adventure to map out in your head. Embrace that. Enjoy it. Make it yours. Canon's always been a matter of personal engagement, even when people were saying that it wasn't.

 

It really boggles my mind that so many people are confused by the fact that I'm judging a piece of media intrinsically. I'm not loathing it for being an unsatisfactory end to the EU or for issues related to canon --- I'm loathing it for being a bad twenty-two pages of story. I'm loathing it for its poor writing and storytelling. I've elaborated on my problems with the comic several times, but people only seem interested in arguing the fact that some Sith might still be alive somewhere. The fact that Nihl might still be alive has no bearing on how poorly the pace and progress of the battle was written. Even if he is still alive, it doesn't make the decision to send virtually his entire order against one man any less of a ridiculous one. Nor does it render any sense to Wredd's plan of turning Jao dark in order to wipe out the Sith, or the Imperial Knights' decision to reform their order. Those are the "headscratchers" to which I refer.

The argument "Canon is a matter of personal engagement" does not make a bad story good. It's the kind of argument that turns every bad story good because you can improve it and make sense of it with your own personal fanfic. If people disagree with my criticisms and enjoyed this issue, that's obviously their prerogative. I haven't tried to take that away from anyone. What I do reject, however, is the idea that the issue is a high-quality one because you can write a better ending than its authors did. That doesn't improve the comic; it only highlights and emphasizes its awfulness. The SW Universe is vast, and we can imagine myriad events taking place in it, but bad writing is still bad writing.

 

It occured to me that we may be missing the point and in fact may have been deceived. Bear with me here, for what I'm telling you may be hard to believe at first.

K'Krukh is a Sith infiltrator.

He has managed the Jedi order so badly, it is almost non-existent now. Intentionally?

He is the only visible Jedi by Legacy 2. The most powerful masters have so far sacrificed themselves, while he has not been anywhere near harm's way. Yet he wields one of the most important positions in the galactic government.

Yet, the operative and military parts are dealt with by the other two parties: the Empress and Stazi; leaving K'Krukh free to be close to the business end. Who knows what deals he has made and the power he has consolidated while the others were busy with this crusade?

Why is a being who spent centuries "in-hiding" suddenly one of the top 3 people in the Galaxy? Where is the Jedi council?. The Jedi knights have been replaced by the IK, who are conveniently more muscle than philosophy... And they are about to be reformed into a more jedi-like organization!

I believe the reason for his long post-dark times abscence is that he is the banite secret apprentice of Hett, who ALSO dissappeared for more than a century. Maybe not his apprentice... maybe the "one sith" were a ruse and the rule of two was being held as much as ever... and he is the master.

The devil may have won, gentlemen.

As a matter of fact, he may not even be the real K'Krukh, as history records show him slain by General Grievous during the Clone Wars, yet he showed up alive after some implausible and made up explanation?.

The clues are out there. Isn't it the Sith way to infiltrate and consolidate power? He has done it swiftly and silently.

Actually... what is he is a vessel for Palpa- what? I'm just here meditating Master, hey what's wrong wit your ey-eeeeeeargghh.

*bzzzztfff*

 

I think we may have a winner of the Create A More Ridiculous Ending To Legacy Than The Actual One competition...

 

K'Kruhk for Sequel Trilogy Villain!! Finally an idea worthy to challenge Luke Skywalker!!!

 

"Young Skywalker, you have only, until now, fought the dark side.....

Now you will face the power of..... the Hat."

 

Finally got my copy. It wasn't quite as sweeping a conclusion as The Unifying Force, but it was as good a conclusion to the EU as I could hope to expect. It was pretty neat seeing the crew of the Mynock again too.

My favorite line from this issue:
Ania: "It's like I always say--who needs the Force when you've got a good blaster at your side?"
Sauk: "Are you sure you're the one who says that?"
Ania: "I'm sure I've said that before."

 

Anyone else having a MAJOR delay in getting Book 4: Empire of One?

 

Nope, got it ages ago.

Where are you based though? If you're UK, it may be Titan are taking their sweet time to issue it!

 

I didn't even know the book was out.