RotJ novellization, the Emperor's will, and the "one Master" rule...

An old friend e-mailed me today with something he'd come across in the Return of the Jedi novellization (pp. 172-173 in the original Ballantine printing)...

For the Emperor was dead. The central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire was gone; and when the dark side was this diffused, this nondirected--this was simply where it led. Confusion. Desperation. Damp fear.

Now, maybe it's just me, John and the hive mind, but that looks a lot like it's anticipating Thrawn's "it was the Emperor's will that drove you" speech in HttE, and, for that matter, the whole thing about why they need one Sith Master, be it in Jedi vs. Sith, or the Prequels...

Also makes me wonder about the emotions of some Jedi at some points in the saga...

Over to you, folks...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I just want to be snarky and point out that maybe Zahn did his homework and decided to work out the whole control theme because of the line in the novelization....

 

Dude, this is old news. Of course Zahn took the idea from the end of the RotJ novel. lol

It's also reminiscent to the consequences of the Dark Lord Sauron's death if you've ever read Return of the King, which is probaly where Khan got the idea.

 

ATimson: *snark!*

Matt: Indeed?



It's not simply Zahn it relates to, though - it's the whole "rule of two" thing... the Dark Side is strongest when it has a single guiding will to focus it...

Which raises a thought - are Vergere, ZS, and Jacen kinda like Sith, only with the Light Side?

And is that necessarily any better?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

"Which raises a thought - are Vergere, ZS, and Jacen kinda like Sith, only with the Light Side?"

Zonoma Secot certainly had an effect on its inhabitants similar to that of Palpatine. However, unlike Palpatine, it is focused only in its own sphere of influence, the planet proper, and (at least in Rogue Planet) seems to be even more selective than that in its participation. Also, the inhabitants of ZS were/are willing participants, and able to function outside of it. So while the concepts are certainly similar, goals, motivations, and consequences aren't.

Vergere and Jacen, as proponents of ZS's philosophies, would then be analogous to the Sith, or at least the apprentices. Oddly enough, they echo the succession seen in the movies, with one master having two apprentices (Palpatine with Dooku and Anakin, and Zonama Sekot with Vergere and Jacen)....

And is that necessarily any better?

Yes, if only because ZS seems to allow choice about the joining. Palpatine's efforts were a blanket effect, leaving the members crippled upon removal.

 

And if Zahn did make that connection and furthered it in HTTE a decade ago, it was a nice catch---and later books expanded it even further, like TOTJ and the Battle Meditation introduced there.

Although, just to provoke something here, Grand Admiral Declann was abord the DS, right? Who had BM abilities himself. But that was made much later than ROTJ, of course . . .

 

Declann was totally unhinged by the Emperor's death, though.

But personally I just thought of him as a low-end human Yammosk.

 

He was strangely enough, a pretty darn good TIE pilot (he seemed the only starfighter pilot we know of to become an admiral, all the others seem to become generals)