Lit The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: Dark Empire!

Nope.

 

they were written at the same time and Zahn made clear he was not going to reference it or use it

 

Dark Empire was written before the Thrawn trilogy and was originally slated to be published by Marvel. Dark Empire #1: The Destiny of a Jedi was published on December 12, 1991 -- The Last Command was published in May 1993.

 

I see. Still, Heir to the Empire at least establishes Palpatine's collecting "mementos of his conquests" first.

 

I didn't realize it was a contest.

Dark Empire was written first, though, which is why Zahn was asked to incorporate it into his trilogy.

 

Dark Empire plays up the idea of Palpatine collecting "Jedi stuff" (holocron, lightsabers, etc) at least.

 

Would you say that Dark Empire is receiving "more love" lately- what with The Essential Guide to Warfare, the various SW-Blog Imperial Warlords articles that reference it, and so forth?

 

Interesting question - as someone who doesn't follow any of this "non-fiction fiction", I generally have a hard time understanding why and when EU fandom is "redeeming" or "hyping" sources.

That said, one of the first things mentioned in this thread was how the source book does so much to enhance the experience of the comic book and tie it into the continuity. Thinking back, I wonder when I stopped really enjoying this approach of "fleshing out" material - maybe because of availability of sources, or of the amount of stuff you'd need to read (all those insider articles, for example, meaning you should have a subscription for that). Was there a lot of backtracking/reinterpreting going on, especially regardng Dark Empire's timeframe/context? I only ever hear a bit about Mandalorian history here and there.

 

Did you read the Dark Empire end notes that were published in the original six issues and collected in the first few editions of the trade paperback? Sadly the hardcover trilogy release didn't include them.

It's similar to the DESB material.

 

I'm told DESB goes into a lot more detail on people like Ars Dangor, the capabilities of the Eclipse (and superlasers in general), and hints at the possibility that Rukh was planted on Thrawn by Palpatine to kill him if necessary, and so forth.

 

Yeah, those notes really help DE but tey got removed from the 3rd printing, which is the one with the Palpy-Wants-A-Hug cover.

 

Yeah, that's really lame that the 3rd printing and the hardcover collection don't have them.

 

The line at the time was that the info was available elsewhere thus the notes were not needed, however my counterpoint would be they give a window into the early EU that the later material can't, but obviously that can't be permitted!

That and the notes play a key role in expanding the story beyond what can be done within the confines of 22 pages.

 

I read the German edition, no specials in that. It's possible that a recent re-release has some material in it - maybe the handbook, but I wouldn't know.

I went through the comics again to see if we missed something vital in our discussion, and we haven't had a proper rant about the "Solo kid as grown-up heroes" vision. Anyone care to take on that responsibility?

Other than that, I'm slowly getting the hang of DE2 again. They do spend a lot of time in one place, though - Nar Shaddaa is one huge sequence instead of a steady mix of the different threads. About the romance - I think it's not out of the ordinary to have a romance come along this quickly (and you might even speed it up through some effect of the tree's "Power Of Love Force" explosion). And while I always think it's a somewhat old man and a very young woman, like some teacher/student relationship, it's notable that the comic goes out of its way to say she's in her mid-twenties, and Luke is only thirty. But then again the comic points out that Luke has fought battles for half his life and gives a context of weariness that makes this sound less like a "rough approximate" statement, so he does seem to be older than 30, I guess.

Oh, and I finally get that Boba Fett - you know, the cool toy favourite killer machine - basically continues to be the PANTS end of the joke. His appearances build on the fact that Fett went out like a punk at the Sarlacc pit. Cool he may be, and he may always get his man, but he's also Wile E. Coyote. I love it.

 

Dark Post 2

 

I think that got resolved as being a scene during the Edge of Victory books,

 

Rather Star By Star; EoV was the one with the Junior Jedi Knights prophecy.

Or maybe Luke is mistaking Ben for Anakin, and it's shortly before Jacen falls.

 

Just another unfulfilled prophecy. It wasn't trying to convey a Polaroid snapshot -- it was a general sense of the future of the Jedi.

 

Haven't read Junior Jedi Knights series- what prophesy was that?

What I was thinking of was this:

http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/26835077112/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-15

For readers who are surprised that this narrative places all three Solo kids on Yavin 4, the reference is to the scene implied towards the end of Edge of Victory: Conquest, where Karrde’s fleet touches down to rescue the vast number of slaves liberated from the concentration camp. It’s also a reference to the final panel of the Dark Empire 2 comic, where Luke sees the bright future of the Jedi Order: the three Solo kids full grown, with Jedi cloaks and drawn lightsabers, and with typically “boxy” Rebel-style ships coming in low behind them. We never really saw that anywhere else in canon, and I knew that I wanted to fit it in somewhere.

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Intriguing, if a bit... random, since it's still not a scene we actually see in a "proper" narrative work.

Thinking about it, I guess I was mistaken about the prophecy coming from JJK; Ikrit only tells Anakin and Tahiri about their glorious future in Conquest, doesn't he.

 

The Essential Guide to Warfare may not be a proper novel, but it has a lot of good stuff.

The "narrative" being referred to in those endnotes was a scandoc of the events of the Vong War, given in TEGTW- somewhat biased against the New Republic commanders, but still interesting. Its insights (and flaws, and the possible identity of the author) were discussed on the theforce.net temporary forum, a while back:

The relevant bit:

No-one knows if the skirmish at Yavin 4 was a deliberate provocation, Tsavong Lah's way of finding an excuse to restart the war. It doesn't matter. A group of smugglers and rogue Jedi apprentices liberated one of the invaders' largest slave plantations.

There's a holo of Han and Leia's three kids standing on the dirt strip with lightsabers drawn, and Talon Karrde's ships coming in to land behind them to free the slaves. That marked the resumption of the war - but perhaps more important, it served as an example of what the Defense Force was failing to do.

 

So I guess Luke did have a vision of a Polaroid snapshot. Awesome.

 

Or at least, a vision of that same moment, that happened to also be captured by someone with a holocam.

 

Maybe he had a vision of looking at the Polaroid. While sitting in his armchair or something.