Lit Salvaging Shadows of the Empire for Nu Canon

I sort of hope this is considered worthy of its own thread, but I think it’s a common enough debate and I feel like the, uh, Shadow of Shadows of the Empire looms over Marvel’s publishing initiative at this time.

Shadows of the Empire is sort of split down the middle: you’re either a fan and it’s like the golden age of your 90’s childhood Star Wars fandom, or it’s “Dash Rendar and Prince Xizor are such outdated characters, I’m glad it’s not canon!”

War of the Bounty Hunters and Crimson Reign make up two parts of a three part trilogy taking place in between Empire and Jedi. I can’t really help but think that we are gonna ultimately get some sort of big culmination event that is, at the very least, gonna be drawing SOME inspiration from Shadows (if it’s not outright called ‘Shadows of the Empire’).

Im personally checking Twitter every week to see if anyone mentions Dash Rendar showing up in War of the Bounty Hunters. I honestly think with a little fine tuning of his character and design, he’s be a perfectly suitable replacement for Han Solo in any further live action projects, considering Lucasfilm stabbed Han, dropped him into a never ending chasm, then blew him up into a supernova for good measure.

If they’re doing Shadows in any form, it’s now or never. So what would you like to see out of some sort of Disney adaptation of the 90’s crossover event?

 

Definitely worthy!

First though we must list what of Shadows has been recanonised and what is a goner and replace with else. As SOTE was a multimedia project tackling several angles of the same TESB-ROTJ era in several media, we do not only have Black Sun and Xizor's underworld gamble to consider but also the multitude of tie ins into the main book. The game, the comics, etc.

We know the story with the Bothan spies kinda remains the same as it has been mentioned in some sources but not depicted in any (like Bothan's themselves in their canon look). But an early Disney canon young adult novel even followed Leia on a tour to distract the Empire from the Rebel fleet amassing at Sullust. Her story thus is different than her SOTE story with Xizor especially as it references Luke and Rogue Squadron's working with the Bothans as it was in SOTE concurrent to this story.

The current Bounty Hunter War event with Crimson Dawn I see as a replacement, not replay of Shadows of the Empire, albeit in the same style as the Underworld is prime focus as is the hunt for Han.

Could the Bounty Hunter War event be a prequel to SOTE? SOTE has Han in Boba's custody and everyone gunning for him trying to get Han, be it the Rebels or other Bounty Hunters as he is detouring before making his way to Jabba.

Qi'ra reminds me less of Xizor replacement and more of Guri actually as a badass. Maul was her Xizor so to speak, but in the past and gone by now. Maybe if Disney forgets female empowerment for a second they could give her a new master post Maul in a recanonised Xizor with Crimson Dawn just a front for Black Suns coup without alerting their enemies and allies too soon it is them behind it all? But I doubt Qi'ra gets another master ever.

IF she survives the event and may end up in Mandoverse or elsewhere if returning to live action (thx autocorrect for turning live action into love action... lol also fitting!), well, if she survives, she may have a Mara Jade type post Endor role. Former powerful player with the elites, fallen from grace, in hiding in the underworld, that instead of Luke may meet and flirt Han again but redeem herself to him and Leia by helping them?

 

Funny this has been mentioned in another thread but I'm kinda surprised Xizor hasn't shown up yet in all honestly, he'd seem like a easy transfer to do even at this stage of the game

 

Honestly, just give it a few weeks.

I really don’t buy Disney NOT recanonizing Dash, Xizor, and Mara Jade.

Also, I wanna point out the IG-88 one shot has a LOT of imagery lifted from Shadows, and I tweeted “ord Mantell junkyard?” at the artist and he likes the tweet.

I kind of see War of the Bounty Hunters like Act 1 of Shadows with Gall and all that, stretched over a bigger arc.
https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2021...-of-the-bounty-hunters-one-shot-this-october/

 

I kept wondering when this would pop up in the OneCanon thread, but this certainly seems a big enough topic to merit its own.

I'm probably wrong, but I'm thinking the entire WOTBH arc takes place before the last scene of TESB. Sure, Luke's had his hand replaced, and Lando's been to Tatooine, but there was nothing in WOTBH about Luke planning to rendezvous with Lando there. In the final scene of TESB, it appears that the entire Rebel fleet has already regrouped, and Lando has a more trusting relationship with Luke, Leia, and Chewy. If WOTBH does take place entirely within TESB, it will be that much easier to reconcile with SOTE. I'm assuming, though, that Crimson Reign will be fully post-TESB.

Very rough, very incomplete, and very provisional, with assumed overlaps:

- TESB: Escape from Bespin
- WOTBH
- TESB: Rebel Fleet
- Crimson Reign
- The Will of Darth Vader
- Old Marvel SW #45-72/ TESB Monthly #149, 153, 155, 156, 159/ Annual #2
- SOTE
- Old Marvel SW #73-80/ Annual #3
- Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure
- SW Kids 12 Gambler’s Quest
- Tales from Jabba’s Palace
- Ewoks: Shadows of Endor (epilogue)
- ROTJ

I think the biggest difficulty is going to be trying to figure out how WOTBH and SOTE together fit with The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy and "Payback: A Tale of Dengar" from Tales of the Bounty Hunters. But WOTBH is already drawing on those for its Dengar backstory, so I think SOTE won't so much be adapted or redone in nu-canon as referred to. They'll probably leave a SOTE-shaped hole in canon for those who want to see it.

 

WOTBH takes place after TESB i think, Luke got his new hand. and also now got a yellow lightssaber. I think probaly a month after ESB.

 

The comics have been 100% post-ESB since the first scene of Star Wars (2020) #2. Luke's got his tourniquet on and is having his new hand made, and the Falcon's docked aboard Redemption. Next scene is Lando in his Han clothes going to Tatooine, and once we get back to Luke at the end of the issue, he's up and about with his new hand.

 

I wonder how long it has been since that issue, maybe a month,

 

If one were so inclined one could keep SOTE as is, with a twist:

In Legends: Leia goes to Xizor
In Canon: Leia does not go to Xizor
In One Canon: Leia does either go to Xizor or not but Winter takes her place impersonating her in the stories that do not need Leia.

 

Xizor does exist in canon, so it could be cool if he did show up in this conflict with CD.

 

Does he, where has he been mentioned.?

 

He has a salad named after him at galaxy sleep edge and a cameo in ep1 at the race.

It’s not much but it’s more than Thrawn had before rebels.

 

Is his cameo-via-action figure in the final movie? I thought it was a pre-CG stand-in.

 

It was a Micro Machines figure used by the VFX team to "fill in" the stands alongside all the colored Q-Tips. The figure(s) are virtually invisible in the final film. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is not quite enough to "canonize" Xizor, but opinions will surely vary.



That salad, though...

 

Xizor's estranged cousin.

 

I wouldn't say Legends characters having these offhand mentions in canon material makes it more likely or easier for them to be introduced in a more major fashion -- but that said, there've been less overt references to Xizor in things like Scum & Villainy that could form a stronger basis for his reintroduction. As I recall, the implication is that Xomit Transport Systems gets taken over after Xomit's death by some mysterious figure who keeps the company's initials.

 

I wonder if by this time Xizor is high up in leadership but not quite there yet and this new leader of black sun gets killed of in this crossover event or soon after. Sure he could be behind the scenes.

 

So I guess this is partially my fault.

 

I still love Shadows of the Empire. At the time it was so ambitious and it actually worked. The novel, comic book, video game, trading cards, roleplaying book, and toys without a movie was unbelievable.

 

I know Dash gets a bad rep, but you did a good thing, it may be weird, but I was 3 years old playing Shadows of the Empire and Dash is just as iconic as the OT cast to me.

 

More Iconic than Han to me.

 

#EndTheDashHate

 

If his canon wardrobe ditches the shoulder pads, I will consider it.

 

Why not just ask him to cut off his own head.

The shoulder pads help set him apart and make him cooooool. 90s style.

 

Crimson Dawn seems to have kind of replaced Black Sun in that "superpower of the underworld" capacity, with people like Qira, Dryden Vos, and Darth Maul occupying the spots that earlier might have been Xizor's. So I'm not actually sure Xizor would return, at least not for more than a cameo.