Lit The Future Dies Tonight: It's the Legendary 181st Imperial Discussion Group Legacy Marathon!

I thought I'd share a few thoughts on Legacy volume 2 now that I've finished it.

Just like with its predecessor, it's obvious that L2 was cut short. The first two arcs are a wonderful pathway into a new series; one that organically establishes a cast of likeable characters (something L1 always was too deconstructive for), with what's actually quite interestingly a slightly older guy at the headquarters, someone to give perspective and link up with them, even support them. It also establishes a new status quo for the galaxy, divided into a center that is still trying to organize itself and the outskirts that almost fell back to the dark ages in comparison; a fitting follow-up to Krayt's war which we only ever saw the hotspots of.

I think the third arc is a bit of a misstep for many because it takes a long time to solve the mystery of Ania Solo - something that's actually not set up as such an interesting mystery to begin with. The hunt for Wredd is the series' mission statement; whatever Ania did during the war would really need to be more defining than what we got here. Making her wanted for murder when she's already proven to be our main character, and topping that off by making the only person truly hunting her the person who framed her in the first place (with a side of the guy who knew her in that exact same prison camp being the other hunter), is a bit too much of a "murder mystery of the week" crime show. The arc is dragged out so that we get both glass and acid rain; both interesting concepts, but it remains the same Ania-runs-on-a-desolate-planet spiel.

It also dumbs down her crew, who actually have to argue about her innocence; and it changes her character since she started off as the likeable, cocky, a bit arrogant rogue that's in over her head but grows into her role in a larger galaxy. Giving her something bad she did during the war as background came along early on; but the Imperial Knight murder mystery is tacked on. She herself is surprised when this comes up for the first time; and nobody cares to really clarify in a big way why she was in that prison camp. Her actual family history, with her starting a life far away from her famous distant cousins and looking out for the golden ticket getting her out of the dumps - you can fit a criminal past in there, but they never did. And anyway, a mystery about her past makes her appear too competent to truly be in over her head with the bigger players.

So it's a filler murder mystery story, and in the context of the series winding down it was a missed opportunity. It would have been a nice enough arc in a 30 issue series, especially with a follow-up story that explained why Ania was in the prison camp anyway. But with the final arc, there's only one main story to tell: that of how Wredd is stopped, and how it was Wredd's plan all along to close the open plotline of L1, the hidden One Sith.


After all these comic books, I think it's safe to say that roughly 36 issues, three publishing years, turned out to be a good measure for a series. KOTOR tried to go for a second round with #36-#50 but was cut short, and even if it still works, it's not as rewarding as the first three years. With Legacy, I feel like it woud have been best to switch gears more noticeably after the first 30 issues; it did try to go from Cade vs Krayt to Cade vs his past (Tatooine and Corde, Wayland and Kol). With all the other attempts at greatness - Invasion, Knight Errant, L2, Dawn of the Jedi - it always came down to three arcs not being enough to jumpstart your character arcs enough so that you could bring them to a rewarding endgame. But especially Invasion, the one that didn't solve anything at its (premature) end, had moved so fast that I think the Galfridian story should have been over and done with after maybe three more arcs, once again clocking in around 30-35 issues. After that, for the rest of the Vong war, it would have needed new focus on a new overarching plot. Same with DOTJ, when I think about it - endless plotting and brooding and foreshadowing to set up the Tython system for the final conflict could have gotten pretty old pretty soon.

 

I asked this in the other DH related thread, but thought I'd ask here, too - does anyone know of any place where Ostrander and/or Duursema talked about Legacy Vol. II?

 

Good question. I did a quick search and came up with these two:

link

link
Which basically translates into "How does it feel when others build upon your work?" - "I'm not commenting on such situations, the people involved have the right to follow their own vision without me looking over their shoulder".

He did comment a bit on Quinlan Vos making the jump to TCW, didn't he?

 

Sorry to bump this thread up again, but since I never properly closed it, I feel like I should thank everyone involved for reading or at least commenting along. This marathon has been kind of a pleasure, and the best parts were when we really got to talk about this huge amount of material that I subjected myself to. It may not have been a drinking game, but still, it's time to (responsibly) raise a glass to all of you.

Always remember the lesson we learned from Cade and Ania: if people involve you enough in important things and tell you that you have to do something, and you're from a famous family, you can be a hero, too. Also, WE ARE GROOT, apparently.