Lit One Canon - Merging Legends and the New Canon - TFA spoilers, very much so

Purge: Seconds to Die is a bit problematic as it shows Jocasta Nu being killed by Vader during Operation Knightfall in the Jedi Temple. Purge: The Tyrant's Fist is easy, as it is relatively flexible when it comes to where it fits in the timeline. It may be more logical if it is placed sometime later after ROTS, even a year later wouldn't hurt. It is a pretty big campaign in the comic, and having it crammed in the first month after ROTS is unnecessary IMO. Not that it can't be placed one month after ROTS though. The biggest issue at the moment when it comes to the Purge comics is that Vader uses his own lightsaber hilt, while in the canon comics he still uses Kirak's hilt. My headcanon explanation is that he built his own lightsaber hilt by now, but uses both. Eventually, the canon comics will have to deal with Kirak's lightsaber anyway.

There are a few issues with this one. Vader goes to Murkhana (one of the planets in the novel) four weeks after ROTS, and therefore, we have a specific placement in the timeline for this. The novel states that he killed his first Jedi with his new red lightsaber (the Vader hilt, not Kirak's, so this bit doesn't explicitly contradict the canon comics) on Murkhana. The contradiction here is within Legends - in Purge: Last Stand of the Jedi (which takes place almost one month after ROTS, but before Dark Lord), Vader kills a few Jedi with his red lightsaber on Kessel. There may be more contradictions between this novel and the canon comics as more of the latter are published. But to my knowledge, this novel may be the most difficult to incorporate into the One Canon...

 

Star Wars Timeline, one of my favorite chronology sites, has pleasingly been taking a One Canon approach to things. Not only do they have a complete Clone Wars timeline incorporating TCW, but they've also fit things such as the Kanan comic, Catalyst, Rogue One, Thrawn novel, etc, into the main Legends timeline. http://www.starwarstimeline.net/Riseoftheempire.htm

 

I don't think this would work. The Emperor's Hands had a very distinctly different role from the Inquisitorius in legends. The Hands had a more straightforward role as being purely assassins, albeit with a larger range of targets that simply included any enemy the Emperor ordered them to kill. There isn't really any inconsistency by saying that the Inquisitorius were the only ones tasked with hunting down Jedi and Force Sensitives because it was an assumption and based off of a lack of other information present. There are many different variables to consider when making such an evaluation, which your supposed "inconsistency" ignores, such as the time period it was said. It could simply be said that this was true at that time and the Emperor's Hands were brought in later, or that the different divisions of the Dark Side Adepts were unaware of each other's existence, similar to how the Emperor's Hands were unaware of the existence of other Hands. Another possible explanation would simply be that the Inquisitors held themselves in high esteem, and them saying they're the "only ones" with that job was simply their opinion that anyone else wasn't capable of it.

 

At least in Mara's case, part of the schtick was "being able to talk to Palpatine anywhere in the galaxy without technology, and thus, relay orders."

Now that we've seen Kylo and Rey talking to each other, many light years apart, maybe we could have that as a Palpatine-original - creating this kind of two-way link - a trick that Snoke has nicked from Palpatine's secret books?

 

I like that, actually.

 

Ah, crap. It's been awhile since I've read them and I was remembering the Jedi seen to pretty much just be all new and original Jedi besides like Bultar Swan and Stui Choi in the first one who were in previous things. But yeah, okay, then maybe we can forget Seconds to Die, then. I don't mind too much as I wasn't super into it anyway. I definitely preferred the other Purge comics.

I just figured I'd place it with the rest of Purge since there's no mention of the Inquisitorius but then again, that doesn't really matter. So I may end up placing it afterward... that, or Vader is a busy boy.

For now, I'm simply ignoring the hilt seen in Purge and pretending it's Kirak's. Small visual inconsistencies don't bug me too much (though I avoid them as much as possible -- for instance, in my Clone Wars timeline, there are a few instances where we see Clones wearing Phase 2 before they do in TCW. It's kept to a minimum. Another visual inconsistency for my headcanon idea that Alpha-17 and Red are the same character (which I know probably irks some people to no end but I just personally like it -- I even have a headcanon explanation for the difference in their designations) is that besides the obvious issue of them referring to him as "Alpha" when he returns in Obsession, is that his helmet is a straight up Phase 2 helmet instead of the customized version Rex wears. This doesn't bug me personally but I can see why it can be annoying.

P.S. For anyone wondering why I felt the need to make Alpha and Rex the same, it's for the same reason I really wanted the Microseries to be part of my personal headcanon -- Rex doesn't have an origin/first meeting with Anakin and Obi-Wan which is the same issue Ventress has. With the show as the only canon source, we go from Geonosis and then bam, suddenly on Christophsis there's legion markings, Cody and Rex are very familiar with their Generals already. So with Alpha's intro on the (first) Battle of Kamino, we get this neat dynamic: he's very stand offish and doesn't really click super well with the Jedi; too independent. Over the course of the Republic comics, we see his relationship with Obi-Wan and Anakin deepen -- Anakin wants to give him an actual name and then he breaks out of the Rattatak prison with Obi-Wan. When he leaves, Anakin suggests giving the new batch of clones names which he says he'll consider.

They go their separate ways for a decent amount of time before he returns, having trained some new ARCs and has even adopted a new name of his own: Rex. And the rest is history. This also meshes well with Obsession (ignoring the name issue) because he acts way more like Rex in those issues than he did before which makes sense considering all the time he's spent with them in TCW. I know we'll eventually get a story with the first meeting of Rex and the Jedi so depending on how good that is, I might split them back into separate characters OR just keep it how I have it now. I also feel somewhat vindicated by this since Filoni & Co. were initially going to use Alpha but Lucas overruled that because he wasn't fond of how much alliteration was going on: Anakin, Ahsoka, Asajj, Alpha, Artoo, etc.

If this is the case, it may need to pushed back with a time shift, meaning we'd have to ignore the four months issue. Having not read it, I'm not sure how often that is reiterated. I'm sure it can pushed too far forward as I'm certain he's still coming to terms with the events of ROTS but I think that still gives us at least the first year, if not the first few depending on how long it takes him to actually build HIS saber hilt. As I said, I'm fine with pretending the hilt we see in Purge is just Kirak's because it feels like it just slots in better that way: now that he has Kirak's bled saber, he goes on a killing spree, killing more and more Jedi. Sidious doesn't approve of his reasons for doing so -- he's searching for Kenobi and that means Anakin is still there inside the suit somewhere. Sidious wants him to see, to learn to let go of the past. Kill it if he has to... and then, only then, can he resume his continuous purging of Jedi because he wouldn't be doing so for the reasons of Anakin Skywalker, he'd be doing it for the Empire, for the Emperor, for Lord Vader. But that's just how I see it shaking out right now.

I brought that up because, according to Wookiepeedia, in Imperial Commando: 501st:

It was mostly an issue of when Vader becomes aware of these other factions -- in canon, it's REALLY soon after. But then we have the Purge issues that I slotted in between the two different canon DLOTS comic arcs, Imperial Commando: 501st referencing Emperor's Hand (which I assume means Vader knows about them), and then the DLOTS legends novel is set 4 weeks after ROTS. If Vader is surprised by the Inquisitorius, it wouldn't really make sense if he already knew about the Emperor's Hand which has a number of similarities. Also keep in mind, Legends Inquisitorius and Canon Inquisitorius are pretty different in and of themselves as it is. I'm not saying that's the way to go. It was just an idea: 3 different "factions" so to speak under the umbrella term of Inquisitorius. So maybe Emperor's Hand wouldn't necessarily be a nickname for the ENTIRE group but of a subfaction within? Or, like you said, they can also be separate. The reason I went with what I did was just because Emperor's Hand was by far the most famous of these similar groups if only because of Mara Jade.

But I also don't mind them being separate either like they were in Legends anyway.

 

Well, in Legends the Inquisitorius were actually led by Vader himself, while the Hands were more within the Emperor's domain, so that also provides a bit of a conflict. I still don't think it would be wise to deem them as the same entity however, and I think it's a simple enough issue to just explain away with hush hush covert ops style secrecy, in that Vader's surprise of the Inquisitorius was an act, perhaps in order to make sure they didn't know who the person giving them orders was. Gives it more intrigue and dark side cloak and dagger vibes that way too. Sith lie all the time. It makes more sense than reinventing the wheel and deciding that the two entities are the same, especially when there's a high possibility of future canon material throwing a wrench in that and making it even worse.

 

Besides, the Inquisitors, at least in canon, seem to have official uniforms, which would ruin any chances of them being Emperor's Hands like Mara, who wore whatever their mission called for them to wear.

 

The Inquisitors had uniforms in Legends as well:

 

Evasive Action's Inquisitors have had the best uniforms to date IMO.

 

regarding the timeline split:
In my opinion there should be a specific point in the one cannon timeline where it splits off. My head cannon is that the timeline splits in 2 in 29 ABY on the night when Luke Skywalker ignites his lightsaber on a sleeping Ben Solo. The presice date is never given for this event, we only know it happened after 28 ABY but before 34 ABY so I put it at 29 ABY since it is is before Allana’s birth (which is in 31 ABY if you go by one cannon) and it gives Ben Solo 5 years to settle into the first order.

Now onto the real question: why this event?
Before I can answer this I need to say one important point to tie this together. For this spot to work as the timeline split Jacen Solo needs to be at the Jedi temple the same night as this takes place. Perhaps he can back to say hi to his sister and former master or perhaps to extend his leave of abstence from the Jedi order. It doesn’t really matter why he’s there just that he is there. So with that out of the way, there are 2 ways the event goes down:

1. (Disney Cannon) Luke Skywalker senses the darkness in Ben Solo and ignites his lightsaber to kill him while he sleeps like we see in TLJ. This ends with Ben killing all of Luke’s Jedi and leaving to join the first order. So Jacen Jaina and all the others die which means that there can’t be a galactic civil war 2 and Allana is never born.

2. (Legends) Luke doesn’t ignite his lightsaber and instead manages to help Ben through it and brings him back to the light. This ends with Jacen going back to his leave of abstence to continue learning about the force (which leads on to him becoming Darth Caedus) and Snoke not attacking with the first order because he doesn’t have an apprentice to lead the first order alongside him.

If we choose to go by this then we get the 2 different stories and we can also re-brand anything past 29 ABY in legends (basically anything after the vong war if you take into account the 5 year difference in one cannon) to Infinties as a “what if” story. Another thing to take into account is that both in cannon and in legends there is a gap before and after this event of a few years so it doesn’t bother anything else in either timeline.

This is just my opinion feel free to disagree with it if you don’t like it but this is how I separate the 2 continuities in one cannon.

 

Honestly exactly when the purge happens doesn’t bother me too much as long as it gives enough time for the characters and doesn’t contradict anything. I was going by Wookiepedia’s timeline for Cannon galactic events when trying to find out when the purge happened in cannon and it stated it happpened sometime between 28-34 ABY so I just put it happening in 29 ABY since it was 5 years after the end of the vong war and it would give Kylo Ren 5 years to settle into the first order before TFA.

 

I'm wondering now with the Han Solo movie almost on us, how this can all hold up. I'm seriously thinking to simplify things that it should just be slotted as one of the many fictional holofilms in Legends canon known to feature Han that were mentioned in Shadows of Mindor.

 

Well, we don't know much about the Han Solo movie's story yet, but from what it looks like it'll be pretty similar to his origin story in Legends.

 

I'm sure it'll be less complicated than incorporating Rogue One with Toprawa/Danuta/etc.

 

Han probably wrote or consulted on the holofilm script himself. He based them on characters in his life i.e. Garris Shrike, Bria Tharen, Katya M'buele, Vuffi Raa etc. and changed their names. Without going into any spoilers, you can already see a bit of who is based on who, even if their stories in the film are completely different.

 

Yes.

 

The only thing about the whole holonovel thing, is that it'd essentially mean that in One Canon, the Han Solo movie story isn't actually canon.

Also, why not. You already did write this which was pretty good.

 

But it's already explicitly referenced in Shadows of Mindor. This is no different from "I, Jedi" being an in-universe work. The new Han Solo film is canon to Legends in that it's a holofilm that actually was produced in the Legends continuity.

I don't know if Kessel will be in the movie, but if it is I will go as far as to say the new Solo film is actually: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Han_Solo_and_the_Pirates_of_Kessel . What we are told about this in-universe film is so vague that, as long as Kessel is mentioned in the movie, the Solo a Star Wars Story movie could be this film regardless of what the movie itself actually contains.

From Shadows of Mindor:

The uppermost point of the platform had been carved and polished into a gleaming black throne the size of an Imperial shuttle, positioned so that the long form of Lord Shadowspawn, lounging within it, was shadowed by the lava fall behind and the pool below into a pall of scarlet gloom.

Luke stopped. This place could have been lifted intact from the climax of Han Solo and the Pirates of Kessel: it was so holothriller theatrical that it was almost funny... but Luke didn't feel like laughing.

Now go see drawings of Lord Shadowspawn and go watch the recently released trailers of Solo.

 

We literally have no idea yet how much it'll actually retcon. Do we even know for sure if the Kessel Run is going to be in it? The two biggest potential changes I can see being in the film are:

• Kessel Run: what it is, how it works, where it is, how Han does it. The cloudy, ominous tunnel of doom with the star destroyer chasing the Falcon looks like it could very likely be the Kessel Run. In Legends, he was being chased by an Imperial customs ship. I don't recall if it's described as a star destroyer or not. That area looks like it could be close to the Maw but the film may place it entirely elsewhere and make the entire thing completely different. We just don't know yet.
• When Han Met Chewie...: If the film shows us Han and Chewie's first meeting and it does not match up with Legends, that can be a pretty large inconsistency. We don't really know if the film will show Han and Chewie first meeting necessarily (as far as I know) so who knows.

Even then, those issues could still possibly be explained and justified without resorting to "well one of these is a holofilm/holonovel" type of thing. Until we've all seen the film (COMING SO FREAKING SOON, I'm excited) it's really tough to say if that'll be the only course to take.

Some people have noted there's a slight inconsistency between when Han first starts getting into trouble. In the film he says 10 but... some Legends source indicated it was earlier? That's probably a pretty easy continuity fix, I'd wager, because you can use semantics in your argument to get it to fit: he may be referring to a specific type of scam/con job beginning at 10, for instance, not that he began getting into trouble at 10. Something like that.

We do know the film will have Tag and Bink so now we'll have to figure out a way to incorporate their old non-canon (even in Legends) stories into One Canon! Haha

Also @Sinrebirth...

Yes, do it! I started doing just that myself! I'm reconciling Shatterpoint with the canon version of the battle of Haruun Kal. The Kanan comic never states how long it actually is since Caleb Dume first sees her in the bacta tank to when she rejoins the Council and takes him as her padawan. I really dislike the idea of having two separate battles of Haruun Kal that result in Depa becoming comatose so while my explanation may be something of a stretch, it at least seems a lot less comically absurd.

There are three 'chapters,' each about 5-6 pages (on Google Docs) and written a similar format as the Shatterpoint novel. I'm seeking to reconcile:

• Grievous's Involvement On Haruun Kal
  • There's a small window of time where she's left in the command center/base in Pelek Baw while Mace and Nick Rostu head out to get Colonel Geptun. Between then and when Kar contacts Mace to let him know he's been betrayed, Grievous arrives and battles Depa who uses vaapad and falls further while feeding off the dark side from Kar. Due to her injuries, Grievous gets the upper hand but he didn't expect Kar and the other akk guards there and they blindside him. Kar manages to damage him enough that he has to escape. The only survivors are Grey, Styles, Soot, and Big-Mouth. When the clones serving under Depa awake from their injuries, they inform Mace of Grievous's presence during the battle.
  • Mace heads to the prison seen in The Clone Wars cartoon that held Ziro, which is where Kar is being held. There, Kar explains that after her fight with Grievous, she was so out of it that she did nothing to stop the slaughter of the clones. She didn't agree to it or participate in it herself, she was just broken. This vital piece of information absolves her of the charge of "crimes against civilization", dropping her to relatively more minor crimes. I had this happen before she wakes up since, if she was acquitted only afterward, their very casual reactions to her waking up are even harder to explain.
  • This first chapter's placed just after the Show of Force comics which was the last appearance of Depa in Legends. In the comics, Mace still discusses that she's going to be tried for crimes against civilization if and when she ever wakes up so this story has to come after that. We also know she wakes up six months after becoming comatose so that places her waking up sometime after TCW show has started.
• Rostu Squad and Rostu's Renegades/44th Division
  • The 44th Division, nicknamed "Rostu's Renegades", from Legends is simply the entire legion of clones and other non-clone soldiers serving under Nick.
  • Rostu Squad specifically refers to Commander Grey, Captain Styles, Soot, and Big-Mouth
  • I also retconned the 44th Division and the 44th Special Operations Division, seen in the TCW comic arc In the Service of the Republic, as being the same group just for fun. If anyone's read that comic and can let me know if that works or not, that'd be great. I'll see if I can read it myself otherwise.
  • Also for fun, I had Rostu Squad speak mando'a. It's canon already anyway.
  • The events seen here are during the Battle of Ando which is supposed to be nine months after the battle of Geonosis. I may change this to one of the other battles that Rostu's Renegades was said to have fought in instead though, if it makes more sense. The battle is unimportant, it's just to show how these groups are all connected.
• Depa's Awakening
  • We don't actually have any time established between her waking up and when she's reinstated in the Council, but we do know her taking Kanan as a Padawan occurs shortly before the end of the war. I decided that the quick 'montage/mural' depicting Caleb and the others training as well as Depa retraining herself actually takes place over the next couple years. The reason for this is because, considering how far she descended in Shatterpoint, it would make sense for her to want to spend a long time retraining herself. It's also necessary to explain that she was only in a coma for six months while taking Caleb as padawan only shortly before the war ends.
  • She wakes up in the later half of the first year and then it must be decided what her punishment shall be. I felt this should be done in a similar vein as when they did the same for Vos in Dreadnaughts of Rendili which is perfect as it allows them to discuss the 'trial' of Vos during the debate over what to do with her.
  • So basically, this chapter begins during the Kanan comic when he first sees her/her waking up, then takes place in between then and when she's reinstated on the Council and takes Caleb as her padawan.

The two battles of Haruun Kal are supposed to take place at different points in the war but as I've said before, I really don't like the idea of her being rendered comatose in two different battles of Haruun Kal, but that's just me. I also specifically avoid using any dates or other points of reference other than parts of the Kanan comic and Shatterpoint so that it can be slotted into wherever on the Timeline. I'm not done with it yet though so if anyone has any interest in seeing that, let me know. Otherwise it'll just be my own headcanon short story haha

_______________________________

TLDR:

• Mace and Nick split up from Depa and Kar in Pelek Baw.
• Grievous attacks Depa during this time. She descends further into darkness to battle him but he beats her anyway due to her injuries.
• Kar manages to hurt him enough that he has to retreat. This is not revealed then because Kar was fighting Mace and didn't think it mattered.
• When Commander Grey + other clones wake up, some time after Shatterpoint, Mace learns of Grievous's presence.
• Mace interrogates Kar who corroborates this and explains that she did not agree to or participate in the clone slaughter
• This new information absolves Depa of "crimes against civilization."
• Meanwhile, we see Nick Rostu and the 44th Special Operations Divison AKA 44th Division AKA Rostu's Renegades. Rostu Squad is made up of the clone survivors who served under Depa: Grey, Styles, Soot, and Big-Mouth.
• Depa wakes up six months after Shatterpoint, which also places it after Dreadnaughts of Rendili. The council has to decide her fate and there are references to the Vos trial as well.
• Depa is to undergo an entire fitness assessment and takes the next couple of years relearning what she had learned before.
• Shortly before the end of the war, she is reinstated as a member of the Council and takes Caleb Dume as her Padawan.