Lucas and Dark Empire

We've probably all heard the story: Lucas liked Dark Empire a lot, and stated that it was the closest thing to his planned sequels (what exactly this means has interpreted a few ways, but that's the common thread). He liked it so much that he gave out copies of DE as a Christmas gift.

So, where exactly is this from? I've heard it said a lot, but I still don't know where it originated. It could even be apocryphal.

 

It came from Lucasfilm.

 

Uhuh.

 

You're so helpful.

 

Your lightsaber just got recalled.

 

Oh for crying out loud.

Fine, here's an interview with Tom Veitch about the series...

http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2007.asp?intID=432

RV: What did you find most enjoyable about writing Star Wars comics?

Tom Veitch: I loved that George Lucas gave us "carte blanche" to think up new ideas and stories. The first idea we gave him (this was back in 1989, you understand) was that the Empire had preserved Vader's costume or a duplicate of it, and that they would put somebody else inside it, so that "Darth Vader" could continue to inspire fear and obedience among the far-flung worlds of the Galaxy. George said "no" to that. Our second idea was that the Emperor should continue to live, through the process of cloning. George said "yes" to that.

and

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/features/starwars/

TV: We had great response. I still get letters from people telling me that Dark Empire was the best of the continuing stories, that it should be made into a movie, that it should be a novel, etc. George Lucas told me personally that he loved it. Some people had a problem with the bringing back of the emperor. But as I have explained elsewhere, we did that under George Lucas' direction. Originally we asked him if we could bring back Darth Vader, assuming that the empire would want to perpetuate the image of Vader in order to strike fear into the hearts of billions. So they would put somebody else inside the Vader costume, of course. But George nixed that and told us we could bring back the emperor.

I thought the actual story came from Sue but I haven't yet been able to find the original.

 

Darth Vader impersonator menaces galaxy versus unholy return of the galaxy's greatest evil.

Well, different strokes for different folks.

At the very least, this puts to rest SOME rumors about DE.

 

He's in The Phantom Affair. I thought that was funny.

Artist teams should cameo themselves in comics.

 

Now see Charles, that stuff actually is helpful. Thanks for posting it.

Actually, I'd be interested in any of this behind the scenes stuff. There's as much stuff behind the story of DE as in the story, it seems. I'm guessing some of the old interviews with Veitch would be helpful there; in addition to the original topic, anyone know a good source of info on the whole TTT/DE writing conflict thing?

 

Anderson talked about in . . . KOTOR? How he suddenly had to incorporate Dark Empirean events into Jedi Search. Like mentioning Coruscant's cityscape devastation, and Luke's ordeal. Not want you wanted precisely, but it's one viewpoint.

 

Original? Maybe. Can't say I think it's a good idea, though.

 

Put the clone emperor in the Vader suit.

Might slow done the clone decay.

and

It would be freakin scary/cool.

In all honesty though, anyone reading DE and sees Luke after he turns...dude looks like Vader, sans the mask...he must have had 4 sets of shoulderpads on atleast!

 

Dude, the part in the beginning where he shows up out of the mist casting Vader's silhouette (do you cast a silhouette, per se?). Not only does it foreshadow the rest of the arc, but it also foreshadows the posters for Episode I. It's brilliant, and a little creepy.

GAJ, I think DE as it is has enough Vader via his kids. The Armor would be kind of a lame angle, actually, because Luke would know right away and blow the whistle on the whole operation. "Guys, don't worry, that's not Vader. I killed Vader. It's some schmuck in a replica of his armor!" On the other hand, you have the Emperor revived in body and soul, scaring Luke ****less. Now that's intimidating.

 

The only reason cloned Palpatine seems unoriginal is because it was done to death in DE2 and EE. That and others have run with the clone idea and cloned everything. Technically Veitch's idea came before Zahn's second wave of Clone Wars in TTT. DE was and is great and original.

 

I loved the Dark Empire comic series becuase it was fresh and exciting. Unfortuantely, everytime I see one of these threads I get the becuase to many times people/fans spend to much time bashing a great series than excepting a great entry into the Star Wars EU.

 

I love Dark Empire as well, it is easily one of my favorite post-Jedi stories. It doesn't deserve the bashing it tends to get at all, even the art. By today's standards it might seem crude, but for the early 90's it was edgy and modern. The pencil's really remind me of Frank Miller's 80's and 90's work, like 'The Dark Night Returns' and early 'Sin City'.

I would love to see a re-release of the Dark Empire books with slight tweaks to fit in with modern continuity (like Palp's references to dying before and Boba's back story in DE2). I only think it is necessary so that it is not continued to be written off and forgotten simply because it contradicts movies that were not written yet when it was made. For new fans to see the importance of the story it should probably mesh in better with the prequel films.


And to get back on topic, I am not surprised Lucas liked DE. It fits in so well with the feeling of his films, especially ROTS. The whole quest for cheating death plot line feels like it is continued perfectly between the two.

 

A request: can we not turn this into another discussion on the merits/lack thereof of DE? I'd really like to find this information and not have the thread go down this oh-so-well-trodden road.

 

I would love to see that not retconned into a lie. It made Palpatine so much more intimidating when we believed that. The 'fact' that he's now lying about that just ruins his intimidation factor, and for what? So the same n00bs who complain that it karks up Anakin's sacrifice will have one less little line to complain about?

 

http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=667

Kevin J. Anderson: On the basis of other science-fiction novels I had published, LucasFilm gave me the opportunity to write for them. They like my work, I turn it in on time, and they kept offering me more and more projects.

Gilman: How, then, did you make the transition to comics?

Anderson: I got to working with Tom Veitch in order to make his Dark Empire comics series and my Star Wars novels tie together. My Jedi Academy Trilogy has a character, Exar Kun, who is a spirit from 4,000 years in the past and Tom was writing his Tales of the Jedi series set

4,000 years in the past. I asked him if I could write a guest issue telling the origin of Exar Kun, but Tom was thinking much bigger. He said, "Let's do this grand epic where we pit your guy against my characters in a big war that wrecks half the galaxy." That certainly sounded more fun than a guest issue. So I worked with him on Dark Lords of the Sith. We plotted the whole 12 issues together, even though I wrote the last six of them solo.

http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=665

MM: Next up is Empire's End. What happens?

BC: Dan Thorsland, who was the original editor of Dark Empire II, noticed that the plot of the sixth and final issue of that series left several minor and major plot threads untied. We decided to compromise between just wrapping everything up in issue six of Dark Empire II and launching a third whole miniseries: we decided to do a two-issue follow-up called Empire's End. This title was picked rather than, say, Dark Empire III, because one of the plot points involves the final and absolute death of Emperor Palpatine. He will not be revived again or brought back in any way. This is it. We won't be seeing him anymore.

BC: Tom Veitch has been very concerned with bringing the Dark Empire saga to a close, with tying up the loose ends for Dark Empire and also those threads that then tie directly back into Kevin's Jedi Academy trilogy from Bantam. For instance, we're using Empire's End to explain Leia and Han's third child, Anakin Solo, who doesn't appear in Dark Empire but does appear in Kevin's Jedi Academy novels. So Anakin Solo does not only appear in Empire's End, but also plays a major role -- but that's as much as I'm going to say about that.

 

Woo! Searching old newsgroups has paid off:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.starwars/browse_frm/thread/2fd76dad114d22b0/96eaf568d7f2acb0

Question: Do you know what is George Lucas' fave of all your SW comics?

Tom Veitch: No, but he gave sets of Dark Empire to everybody for Xmas.

It's probably mentioned elsewhere too, but that's another mystery down.

 

Did Lucas pull a bit of plageurism on ol' Veitch with the "life after death" business in RotS? I personally see it as a nice circle of continuity wrap-up, Sidious's Master knew the secret, left clues but never told, Sid's got fed up waiting & kills him, works on piecing the clues together, finds the secret, dies & comes back in clone bodies!

 

In his interview with Nathan Butler on Chronoradio, Kevin J. Anderson states that Lucas gave copies of one of the Tales of the Jedi arcs to his employees for Christmas. A mistake, or a different year?

 

Different year, I'd guess. I remember there was a Veitch or KJA interview in one of the old Star Wars Galaxy magazines (or Galaxy Collector), where he mentioned that Lucas had personal input on the TotJ series, including okaying/nixing specific Force powers.