Lit Series featuring Hero Separatist protagonists?

Imagine a hero that comes across a few elitist detached bureaucratic Jedi Knights, enforcing some corrupt laws of the Republic and don't understand the situation. The hero flees... right into the arms of the beginnings of the Separatist movement, before the Clone Wars, as it was just gaining steam, the influence of the corporations and the Sith were still secret, and no war criminals have yet emerged. A whole series following a sympathetic Luke-like Separatist hero, and spotlighting other heroic and sympathetic figures on that side, and more of just how "that side" worked... and what they thought of Dooku, Grievous, the Separatist Council, when they and their flaws emerged, and how they were lied to by them. And how they continued to fight for their Separatist cause, in corners of the galaxy during the Clone Wars where the Separatist side wasn't tainted by those mentioned above, and were opposed by more flawed Jedi (or where the Jedi were completely absent) and by Republic officers already starting to act like Imperial officers. Perhaps some Separatist heroes who even believe a droid army will advance ideas for droid rights.





After the opening crawl of Episode III some 16 years ago, I'm surprised this still hasn't been done.

Who would be interested in stories like this?

Why do you think it hasn't it been done yet?

 

Andor may well have shades of that, but I don't think that that topic will ever have an entire TV series primarily dedicated to it. A book series, maybe. What's Alexander Freed doing now?

 

I discovered Firefly just a month or two after Revenge of the Sith came out. It struck me at the time that Mal and Zoe would work fairly well as Separatist veterans struggling to make ends meet in a post Clone Wars galaxy.

 

The Dark Times comics have Bomo Greenbark as one of the main protagonists, who is a former separatist soldier trying to survive after the Empire took over the galaxy.

 

I think the Greenbark story was one of the best Separatist-side tales. I always got the impression that the Seps were predominantly non-humans (a much greater proportion at least than the alien/human ratio of the Republic), and I felt that was never entirely addressed properly except in a few rare cases. Dark Times did it well.

 

I can for sure see more sympathetic Separatists in the future (we've gotten those portrayals before), But after almost 20 real world years and countless stories where they're the "bad guys" or at least in opposition to our POV characters, I think it would be too much of a story change. At the very least they can be "misguided villains" instead of "pure evil" villains with names like "Whorm Loathsome".

 

When I first saw Firefly, I sort of headcanonned it into Star Wars, but at the other end of the timeline - it's set way in the past, with the Alliance and Unification either being the original Republic or a forerunner to it. In hindsight given information that I'd read about later, the Alliance/Independent War could end up being the original Coruscant/Alsakan conflict, between federalist planets who wanted unity under a strong central government and the more agrarian ones that didn't want that kind of big fish swimming around in their ponds.

(Naturally none of the names match, but heck, with a 25,000 year history gap, that's not the sort of thing that should bother anyone).

 

The Separatists have always been one of the odder and more contradictory factions to me. Like, you have legitimate individual-liberties idealists like the Bonteris fighting side by side with the same all-devouring corporations that corrupted the Republic to begin with. AND they're also supposed to be a "manufactured perfect enemy" to justify The Sheev's power grab, while simultaneously being a cause that people can legitimately believe in or else the ruse would be too obvious.

I hope they get the next Jedi Path-style in-universe reference book. If anyone can make all the Sep lore make sense together, it's Dan Wallace!

 

Post-RotJ, the "evil" and "good" Separatists could be shown to have split into the Confederacy of Corporate Systems and the New Separatist Union. Maybe put Lux Bonteri in charge of the latter. Then the Clone Wars' Separatists can be explored from a safe distance through flashbacks and exposition.

There's also ten years (or perhaps closer to twenty) of Tyranus forming the Separatists left untouched for books to get into.

 

Erm.... About that....

 

I always felt the Separatist were Star Wars attempt to try (But not quite succeed) in creating a faction with a lot of nuance to it.

 

As far as I can tell it wouldn't be impossible:

Spoiler

He was alive as of the end of Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, according to Wookieepedia:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Lux_Bonteri

After the Imperial Captain Iden Versio, who had infiltrated the Dreamers along with her special forces team members, revealed that she intended to kill Bonteri in order to recover the stolen information in his possession, he entreated Versio to always have hope before she fired. Instead of killing him, Versio had instead stunned him, leaving her to question his whereabouts.[7]

 

Ah, my recall was off then.

 

More than anything I'd like to see what the Separatist idealist think of some of the more questionable military commanders like Grievous and Venteress.
Its not hard to see how people like Mina Bontari and others might admire Dooku since he does a pretty good job of putting on the face of an idealist, its much harder to ignore the bloodthirsty Jedi killing Kaleesh cyborg and the Dark Acolyte who's very job is to Assassinate Dooku's enemies.

I wonder if the Dark Disciples Arc would have offered any additional thoughts on that cause in the novel Grievous accompanies the Count to a ceremony where he is presented with a humanitarian award, and Ventress is apparently acquainted with one of the Gossam Senators.

Still, when I looked at some of the more prominent Commanders of the Separatist army I can't help but think of the "Are we the Baddies Meme" and wonder how the CIS deals with these optics.

 

I mean if they can do it for the Empire, they could do it for these guys.

Also Whorm isn't even a BAD guy, he is willing to discuss surrender under a flag of truce, while Obi commits a warcrime. Plus it would be funny if someone with the name "Coward McEvil" is actually a brave and nice guy.

I mean you can have these characters help the early Rebellion, maybe Whorm (who is still alive last I checked and so is the Nemodian admiral from the blockade of Ryloth), be an early leader for the Rebels.

 

Mina Bontari: General Grevious is a upstanding general and a good leader for our brave moment

Cut to General Grevious laughing evilly as he leads a assault

 

Well for the Empire, there's certainly stories where we get into the minds of Imperial characters. But I'm struggling to think of stories where I'd call an Imperial character a full on "protagonist" portrayed in a heroic light. (I'm not counting characters like Iden Versio or Kyle Katarn who start out Imperial but then join the Rebels). The closest I can think of is the protagonist of the TIE Fighter video game, Ciena from Lost Stars, and Janek Sunber from the Dark Horse comics. The last two are borderline because while they never leave the Empire for the Rebels they have very conflicted loyalties.

But yeah, since the CIS isn't a full on dictatorship like the Empire, it's easier to justify them in a more heroic role. I find it hard to imagine heroic Seps being the protagonists of their own series, but as a supporting role to some Rebels would lead to good character dynamics.

 

Alphabet Squadron has full on Imps as the view point characters. And that view is at worst grey. You also have the Tie fighter comics in legends. Star Wars Squadrons also has Empire view and, while they are evil, they don't suffer for it.

 

I haven't played Squadrons. Alphabet Squadron is on my (pretty long) "To Read" list. But from what you've described I don't know if they would fit my definition of a protagonist. I've seen Imperial viewpoint characters loads of times, but usually they're part of an ensemble of different characters on both sides on the conflict. They're not what I'd consider a main character who drives the whole story.

You can have a character who is a protagonist but isn't heroic of course. (Darth Bane was the protagonist of his novel trilogy). But for the purposes of this thread I find it hard to think of a Separatist or Imperial character who is both unambiguously heroic and the main protagonist of their story. Emphasis on "both".

 

On the topic of sympathetic Separatists General Kleeve definitely has a lot of potential, though he hasn't appeared in a lot of sources, and his motives during the war aren't explicit. He certainly wasn't pro-imperial after the conflict ended, and even went so far as to help Caleb Dume on a couple ocassions.

 

Interesting concept. It is one they could explore in books or comics...it's a little too "grey" for animated series or live action.

The great "switch" that gets thrown by Order 66 and the end of the Clone Wars extends far beyond the clones or Palpatine's personal revelations. As the new order sets in, and people start to realize the bargain that was made to "end" the war, the perception of who the enemy is/was and the justifications for the fighting have to be re-examined by everyone...participant and spectator alike.

The eventual verdict...no matter the intentions, the righteousness of one's cause, the good will of the masses...once the first blow is struck...war is a MESS.

It makes strange bedfellows indeed.

My hope for Andor is we get yet more confirmation of this in our shiny white hat Alliance...but sadly, I get the sense that they will turn our hero into a tortured soul who roots out the bad seed in the Rebel movement, rather then get the tales about the seedy things he did...they will remain even further in the past then the show. Now a book or series about Cassian's early days...THAT could get dark.

 

Dangit, Grevious not getting a humantarian award is now the prequels' Chewbacca medal.

"Philanthropy is the gateway to power, Count. *cough cough*"

 

Just for absolute clarity it was Dooku who received the award in the novel (That also had him commit Xenocide at the very start so its still pretty absurd).
I'm guessing most understood what I was saying but just because there is some ambiguity with the order of words in my comment I wanted to be sure.

 

I think the best way to explore this concept is just show more Pro Sepratist world militias instead of the usual droid armies

Like show the Umbaran side of the conflict