Comics Dark Empire Trilogy

Those linked threads have Lucas mentioning the 2000 year figure in 2019. Even if that doesn't confirm or deny that it came from him, it's definitely interesting that he had it in his head, when the 1999-2005 interviews just say "thousands".

@xezene, do you remember what interview this quote was given in?

100-150 years of pre-Bane Sith isn't an iteration of the history that I've seen before, and it goes against the TPM novel's timeline.

 

If Palpatine had won in Dark Empire he would have defeated the Yuuzhan Vong?

 

I don't think that's guaranteed.

True, the Empire would have hit the Vong harder but Palpatine would have been caught off guard by their destroying worlds to then transform. As he's used to war being the taking of infrastructure and enemy assets intact. The Vong don't care about that.

 

In the long run I think the Vong were far too outnumbered to have much of a chance of winning, but I think if the Empire had been in charge it would have been an even longer and bloodier conflict, most likely ending in an nigh-apocalyptic plague as both sides throw bio-engineered diseases at each other.

 

If Palpatine had won... his observatories would have reported the Vong long before entering the galaxy. As sleeper agents with ooglith masquers and intendants like Nom Anor tried to destabilize the Empire locally to allow a few observatories to go dark so they can enter the galaxy, the Emperor would have at the first sign of invasion retaliated quick and mighty overwhelming the advanced Praetorite Vong forces and their slave armies taking prisoners for study and countermeasure analysis.

And then, despite superiority, he'd have tried to strike a deal with them like he did with the Ssi Ruuvi to let them plunder so long he benefited with technology and other stuff from them.

That is until he'd have met Vergere returned...

 

That quote’s from the Star Wars Archives 1999–2005 book that came out a couple of years back. It does contradict the TPM novelization, which said the Sith Lords were in power for only a matter of weeks. But like the 2,000 years, I think Lucas is just giving ballpark figures here. I won’t deny that going from a few weeks to 150 years is quite a leap. But in terms of the history of the Sith, it doesn’t really change much of anything. Though it does potentially push Darth Bane out of the first generation of Sith Lords, unless of course he wasn’t human and could live a couple of centuries.

 

Bane no longer being a contemporary of Darth Ajunta Phanius Xendor "Ruin" Pall is what I was thinking of, and I think it's a pretty significant change. Bane's patience and guile are specifically called out as Jedi traits, though I suppose he could still be a Dark Jedi as a later-generation Sith.

 

The TPM novelization implies that the Dark Side corrupted the others to the point that they lost their patience while Darth Bane retained his ability to think ahead. (If KOTOR was set in 2000 BBY with Revan as the “founder”, Bane could be his one follower who didn’t use the Star Forge.)

 

Maybe. Unless they kill him, or someone kills him. If palpatine can stay alive then he can win, but if he dies, then his empire is toast.

 

I bet the GFFA has some Sith Truthers that want to conflate Sith History down to one foundation with all other retellings being just an altered story of the original one. But their version retains something from each founder in a unified inuniverse OneCanon for the Sith.

Or Darth Rivan, our favourite inuniverse timetravelling copycat went to each Sith Foundation and influenced it... heck he could found the Sith himself in a time before 25000 BBY and his order could rise and fall before all the others.

 

Lucas’s words here could be interpreted to mean that “Ruin” ruled for 100-150 years and then weeks of infighting that ended with only Bane alive occured.

 

I would have enjoyed a fully developed “Veitchverse” unrestrained by the rest of the EU, the then-upcoming prequels, or even the Original Trilogy. Imagine if Veitch was able to develop the entire history of the Jedi and Sith. Imagine if Vader was Luke’s archnemesis and really did kill Luke’s father and you never knew when Luke would have to duel him again. Imagine if Palpatine was possesed by the spirit of the very first Sith Lord and hence wants revenge on the Jedi. Imagine if Veitch got to write and publish The Jedi Chronicles.

 

If the Dark Empire I TPB that has Luke clenching his fist on the cover and removed the endnotes is the 3rd edition TPB, what’s the 2nd edition TPB? I’m able to find information about and references to the 1st and 3rd edition, but nothing about the 2nd edition.

 

Probably because it was no different to the first. It was the third that removed the endnotes.

 

I’m trying to figure out if there was a 2nd edition, and if not, what counted as the 2nd edition. For example, this article on this very web site (http://www.theforce.net/comics/darkhorse/dhSer_darkempire.asp) lists 1st and 3rd editions but no 2nd edition and Wookieepedia has articles on the 1st and 3rd editions but none for a 2nd.

 

My impression is that Veitch was most interested in telling stories about the conflict between light and darkness in the lives of Jedi Knights. Sometimes these conflicts would result in a fall to the dark side, but not always.

Veitch told this story with Luke in Dark Empire, then with Ulic Qel Droma in Tales of the Jedi, and it was also what he envisioned for Anakin Solo’s future storyline. But I get the impression that these were just indirect ways to explore Anakin Skywalker’s backstory, which was off limits to writers in the nineties. So instead Veitch was exploring similar ideas through these parallel stories.

We also know he wanted to explore the legendary past of the Jedi Knights, which would naturally include many internal and external conflicts of light and darkness. Veitch was very interested in the spiritual side of Star Wars, but I think the specific dark-side figures or cult in a story mattered less to him than the role they played in the conflicts faced by the main characters.

Indeed, EU writers at the time didn’t know or care much about the Sith until that info started trickling down from Lucas as he developed the prequels. And Dark Empire I and II and parts of Tales of the Jedi show that Veitch saw the Sith as only a single manifestation of the dark side, much like the Krath. I think his preferred and more general term for the villains was simply “darksiders.” Later, he and other writers would adopt “Dark Jedi” as the go-to term before the term “Sith” gained more prominence. And that’s basically how we got the complicated patchwork history of the Sith in the EU.

But like I said, I don’t think Veitch cared about the specific cult or term too much. And his endnotes for Dark Empire are still some of the best explorations of the mentality behind “darksiders.” This is likely because of Veitch’s own rich history with spirituality, which was far more involved than that of most other Star Wars writers, since I believe he spent a few years studying to be a monk. And all of this talk about his spirituality reminds me that I really need to read his book Visions of Elias if I want to get a better look at the ideas that he was wrestling with in his SW work.

Truly, no writer has been as attuned to the spiritual and mythical dimensions of Star Wars that Lucas developed as Veitch was. I think he and Lucas were truly kindred spirits in that sense in a way that no one else who has worked on the franchise has been.

 

Loved how Han Solo destroyed the last Palpatine Clone Body Dark Empire is a Cult Classic for me it was a good Sequel to Thrawn Trilogy in my opinion showed how Luke increased his power evolved as a Jedi and expanded Palpatine Character more

 

I was thinking lately wasnt Dark Empire the first time we saw Palpatine with a Lightsaber?

 

Now when you mention it, think so too

 

I recall that I was surprised about Dark Empire using blue or white Lightsabers for Palpatine and dark Luke rather than red. Of course that was before the distinction in color became attached to factions in the EU.

What source did this again?

But I read DE after some other EU back in the day only as it was harder to get for me (who started Comics rather later than the novels).
Even TOTJ still had Exar Kun use a blue saber. So I guess, the "artificial crystal is red" red-con/retcon must have happened afterwards. Did JAT do it as it was the trilogy that built on both DE, TOTJ, COPL and first tried to integrate and unify a lot of early EU?

Funny enough, Luke's artificial crystal he made on Tatooine as per deleted scenes before ROTJ turned out green, not red! So not all artificial crystals would be red even as per movie canon.

 

The lore about Ilum crystals being blue and green crystals and red crystals being synthetic comes from Star Wars Insider #62. JAT definitely doesn’t say anything about lightsaber colors having meanings or in-universe reasons. In toys, comics, and video games published in between TPM and AOTC, Adi Gallia has a red lightsaber.

 

Heck, Luke once built Leia a lightsaber with a red blade(Corellian Trilogy), which seems crazy considering her trauma from Vader specifically.

The factional saber colors was really a Lucas idea, that wasn't enforced until after AOTC. Star Wars: Acts of War had Jedi wielding many different colors. Yoda's was orange.

 

Do you think he regrets losing Mace's sabar out the window?

 

Nah, he got that one back... after Mace returned from certain death to get revenge... and Palpatine stepped aside to watch Boba Fett have the fun of his lifetime with Mace.