Comics Dark Empire Trilogy

Since I learned of it a few years ago I've always wanted to read Test of Wills but I can never find the .pdf anywhere.

 

I'd be happy to send you one if there's a means by which to do it here.

 

A re-read of The New Order in Power is also highly recommended:

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=122169&sid=45f4983e07a9a1a15badcb996d630eac

 

Big ups to @Sable_Hart for the Test of Wills .pdf.

Had to get up at 2 in the morning to come into work and I've already started reading this bad boy.

 

Decided to put this on it's own post because I have a lot more to say about Empire's End than I thought.

Speaking of this esteemed trilogy, I just finished another re-read of the whole Dark Empire saga, and I'm convinced that there is enough material in Empire's End to flesh out and make it a closer experience to the previous two comics. It's definitely got enough story there, but while the first two comics linger and let things move at an easier, but still tense pace, Empire's End is just on steroids. There aren't any moments for the characters to stop and just talk about anything. In a single issue, the Rebels establish themselves on Nespis, and then evacuate Nespis, go to Ossus, leave Ossus, arrive on Vjun, and then leave Vjun.

I would split this one issue up into three:

The first begins with the rebels entrenched on Nespis and ends with the Galaxy Gun projectile about to ram into the city. The second begins with the revelation that the projectile is a dud, and then the Rebel fleet escapes (to flesh things out further, there could be some Imperial reinforcements arrive to give the Rebels a little more trouble escaping). Finally, the Rebels decide to go to Ossus, where they discover the Empire has taken the chiefs to Vjun. The third issue is the assault on Vjun, far more fleshed out as a sequence.

EDIT 2: Maybe I would put the Emperor's visit to Korriban at the end of Issue Three and leave issue four devoted to the flight to Onderon, with the last two issues devoted to the final assault on the Eclipse and the death of the Emperor.

So after Han and Leia land on Onderon, there's an interlude where they are being stalked by the Beast Riders. There can be some tension there with Han and Leia thinking they've met a new enemy, only for Modon Kira to announce his intention to help them. After this, they formulate the plan to have Chewie and Vima go off world, but the Emperor isn't fooled and begins landing a whole Imperial army onto the surface to look for the Solo family and lock the planet down.

Issue 5-6: Chewie meets up with Luke and they formulate the plan to capture the Emperor. The battle begins above the planet's surface as the strike force attacks the Eclipse. A ground party of Luke's Jedi and Rebel soldiers land on the surface, and with the help of Han and the Beast Riders they attack the Imperial army. But the Emperor outwits them and is infiltrating the Fortress with a battalion of Imperial soldiers not far behind to help hold the fortress once he is inside. The Emperor confronts Leia as Luke assaults the Fortress, trying desperately to gain access to his sister and her children. They make it inside and Han foolishly shoots Palpatine and Brand blocks his spirit from entering Anakin. The Eclipse is hurled towards Byss and the planet (and the Imperial fleet) are destroyed in the chaos.

 

So I’ve been doing my re-read of Dark Empire....(Got it more Christmas ;p) yet there is one thing I’m not sure about.

Does anyone know where exactly it states that Palpatine is a Sith.....I’m trying to find that phrasing in the story yet I can’t find anything.

So far from what I’m reading my interpretation is that Vader belonged to the Sith but Palpatine was something else, his own Dark Side entinity if you will.

Anyone have a good answer for this?

 

There's nothing in Dark Empire that states Palpatine is a Sith.

 

True but that doesn't make him a Sith (In the context of Dark Empire alone) it just means he has affinity for those spirits of that order.

 

One of the interesting aspects of that entire sequence on Korriban is the mutual contempt that Sidious and the Dark Lords have for the other.

DE had Sidious declare himself to be the dark side and he certainly had the ambition to rule forever. But, when he went to Korriban once more, his reign still was only measured in decades. To the still present Dark Lords in spirit, that's amateur status at best. As far as Sidious is concerned, he's ruling, they're not and they already helped him once, thus they will do so again - and in that respect, Sidious is shown to be correct.

 

It's even more interesting without the Prequels as context too...Not knowing if Sidious was even Sidious but JUST Palpatine, that his rule for decades was more than 2 decades.....Palpatine might have then just been....a Evil Wizard.

 

Dark Empire never says that Palpatine is a "Sith", nor does anything published before TPM (and even then, "Sidious" was referred to as a "Sith" while "Palpatine" wasn't until ROTS allowed the EU to state that Palpatine is Sidious). In fact, TOTJ saying there can only be one Dark Lord at a time and Palpatine not having a throne on Korriban implied that Palpatine is NOT a Dark Lord of the Sith. As you said, the idea was that Vader was a Dark Lord of the Sith while Palpatine was independent of them.

My headcanon is that the Korriban Dark Lords don't recognize the Banites and that at some point in between ROTS and ROTJ, Vader went to Korriban and went through the trials to become a Korriban Dark Lord, perhaps hoping that the Korriban Dark Lords could help him revive Padmé.

 

Why do you think that? I've always thought that Dark Empire and Crimson Empire seem sort of disjointed.

 

The thing I love most about DE is it fleshes out a few significant things about palpatine-the sort of person he actually is, how much of a force(pun not intended) of nature he is in the force, and his long term ambitions-godhood and universal conquest and dominion.

It introduces a lot of esoteric force powers and really showed that the force was more than just telekinesis and some telepathy. That with the force its users could do things closer to that of gods or demigods than mere mortals.

The dark atmosphere and tone is appropriate as well-becuase it's grim and foreboding.

I also liked the introduction of chaos-and the fact that palpatine while being distilled into his essence, is basically cackling mad-he himself says "chaos is madness and loneliness without end"-that doesn't make him sympathetic but it does allow one to understand that palpatine isn't interested in patience or politicking-but war, destruction and enslaving everyone.

 

I find it fascinating that Dark Empire really established a lot of things that we now understand about him without much thought--that he wants to transcend the Force and be a god over the universe is the biggest one I can think of, but even down to his portrayal in ROTS in the latter half of the film as this cackling demon...evil incarnate.

 

Hey..... what kind of horror could Palpatine unleaseh if he managed to go Beyond Shadows and drink from the Font of Power / Bathe in the Pool of Knowledge?

 

I feel that Crimson Empire (the first one only) works as a bookend by expanding on the clone sickness/sabotage stuff from EE that was compressed into a few panels in the original comic. Though even in EE, I forget if it was already a retcon to explain the failing clone bodies of Palpatine from the original DE. (It's also notable in that CE is one of the few times where we saw a scene from an earlier comic 'redone' in a later one.) CE II works as a bookend inasmuch as it shows how the Empire falls apart after the end of DE, though I don't think that's absolutely needed as it can pretty much be taken for granted given what happens in EE.

I do think it's ironic that, just as DE originally was going to be an immediate post-ROTJ story, so was CE (from the original Marvel days when it was the Royal Guard hunting down Luke for revenge). And I feel like as with DE, it would have worked better in that context, too.

 

I wonder if Veitch's idea was that Palpatine would say, "Who cares about being a Dark Lord of the Sith? I rule the galaxy and they don't."

 

Yeah DE really establishes the sort of villain Palpatine is and who he wants to be in the long term.

As for Palpatine in beyond shadows-now I wish we had gotten a glimpse of him-maybe with some indication of him being "held down" in chaos. And I can't imagine what he would be capable of if he drank from the font of power

 

I think Lucas's intention in 1977-1983 was that Sheev not being a Dark Lord of the Sith was like Snoke not being a Knight of Ren. The Dark Lords of the Sith were supposed to be Jedi who pledged themselves to Sheev when the Jedi Purge began. By the time TOTJ was written, Lucas had decided to make the Sith as ancient as the Jedi, but he didn't inform Veitch or KJA of the Rule of Two or of his decision to make Palpatine himself a Dark Lord of the Sith.

 

So this is vaguely related to DE, but I'm still playing through Jedi Academy, and in the Bast Castle level, there's a room that looks to be some kind of droid workshop, with a table where it looks like a Threepio unit was in the process of being assembled. I liked the idea that Vader (maybe after the events of the Thank the Maker short comic) went back to his castle and decided to build a new C-3PO.

 

Triple Zero?

 

A brother and sister born to walk the sky,

But reckless brother falls-into dark side's eye!

Jedi sister carries hope for future in her womb.

Only she can save the Skywalkers from certain doom!

A Jedi-killer wants to tame her.

Now the Dark Side Lord comes to claim her.

She must battle join against this thief,

Or the dynasty of all the Jedi will come to grief!​