All it took was broadcasting “Ackbar is Back” throughout the New Republic, and morale skyrocketed.

I've been reading through the original Marvel Star Wars comics from 1977, and of all the things I expected to come across, a reference to the Cherenkov effect certainly wasn't one of them. This is from Star Wars (1977) #53.

For those unfamiliar, Cherenkov radiation is a real physical phenomenon that occurs when a charged particle travels through a medium faster than light can travel through that particular medium, producing a characteristic blue glow. I know Star Wars has always incorporated elements of real science into its otherwise fantastical universe, but seeing such a specific concept from nuclear physics referenced in a comic from this era genuinely caught me off guard.

In this issue, the Empire glassed part of the planet which left behind radioactive material. I think it's implied that the high energy charged particles from the radiation is passing through that glass which then produces Cherenkov radiation, creating the blue glow Leia observes, though i imagine the glass would need to be sufficiently transparent for the light to escape.

It's little details like this that make revisiting the earliest Expanded Universe material so fascinating. You never quite know what you're going to find! Also this is the very first reference to nukes existing in the SW universe.

Also, there's something hilarious about Princess Leia casually referencing a Soviet nuclear physicist in a galaxy far, far away.

I danced on Vader's mother's grave

Zasm Katth was a Human male Dark Side Adept who served in the Galactic Empire and later Dark Empire. When Emperor perished at the Battle of Endor and returned in a clone body, he established the Dark Side Elite, a cadre of seven Dark Jedi, empowered with the dark side of the Force and imbued with the Emperor's will. Katth, like his fellow Darkside Elite member and often partner on missions, Baddon Fass eschewed weaponry in favor of relying upon their Darkside Force powers. In Katth's case, foresight and obscure mystical abilities. In 10 ABY, Palpatine died a second time during a confrontation with the Jedi Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa Solo near the New Republic's Pinnacle Base.

The leader of the Dark Side Elite, Executor Sedriss QL, took control of Palpatine's Dark Empire in preparation for the Emperor's return in another clone body. Sedriss dispatched Katth and Fass on a mission to the moon of Nar Shaddaa with command of the Imperial Star Destroyer Invincible and a legion of Imperial darktroopers. They were to make contact with the bounty hunter Boba Fett and recruit him to search for the Millennium Falcon and to eliminate, Vima-Da-Boda, an elderly Jedi who had taken refuge on the smuggler's moon.

While in orbit of Nar Shaddaa, the Dark Jedi witnessed the Falcon arriving at the moon. Katth and Fass attempted to lock it down with the tractor beam, but Solo evaded the beam to land in the abandoned Duros Sector. Postponing pursuit of Solo, they instead confronted Fett, demanding he provide his services for free, with Katth threatening to reveal his secrets and Fass using the dark side on the Hunter. However, Fett unleashed his arsenal of rockets, blasting the Darktroopers escort and nearly wounding the Dark Jedi before making his escape in Slave I. The setback was only temporary, however, as Dark trooper team two reported that they discovered the Millennium Falcon stationed inside Shug Ninx's repair shop.

As they were making their way to Ninx's hangar, Katth and Fass sensed the presence of Vima-Da-Boda nearby. Fass ordered the dark trooper Grath to open fire through the crowds with his turbocannon. Despite the carnage, the Jedi was able to slip away unharmed. In addition to that, Dark Trooper Team Two was eliminated by Solo and his allies, who left the Falcon in order to search for Vima. Katth and Fass stationed a number of new guards aboard the Falcon and returned to the Invincible in case the Solos tried to escape through another ship. The Solos were able to rescue Vima and with her help, they reclaimed the Falcon. After evading an encounter with Fett, they raced to escape from Nar Shaddaa.

Solo's local rival Mako Spince, in charge of the Nar Shaddaa Traffic Control spire detected the Falcon as it was passing by and alerted the darksiders aboard the Star Destroyer. Alerted, Katth ordered the tractor beam to catch the elusive ship. However, Solo attempted to take cover behind the Traffic Control tower breaking the lock. Willing to capture Solo at all costs, Katth ignored all safety protocols and ordered the tractor beam on full power. Katth ordered the beam reengaged. However, having been set to full power, the beam started to rip through the massive control spire off and sent it hurtling towards the Star Destroyer. Having noticed that, Katth desperately sought to disengage the beam.

However, the order came too late, and the spire pierced through the engineering compartment of the Star Destroyer, killing the engineers and disabling the main thrusters. Fass contacted the crew of the ravaged deck, demanding them to stabilize the ship, but they were unable to do so, and the Star Destroyer plummeted into the surface of the moon, killing all aboard, including Katth and Fass. Emperor Palpatine, who had returned in another clone body, was irked to have lost two of Elites. Katth and Fass were eventually replaced in the Dark Side Elite by two Darkside Adepts Palpatine empowered and promoted into their vacant spots in the cadre.

Drawing my favorite Warlord

The back cover sounds like Star wars: Zombies. I hope it's fun.

Tested out drawing some outfits for The Separatist Supreme Commander Sev'rance Tann!

◦ My Original Design (2025)
◦ Alternative "Army Field uniform"
◦ Armoured Outfit
◦ Original Galactic Battlegrounds design (2002)
◦ Chiss Defense Fleet Uniform (honour chains)

A while back, on this very sub, I saw a pic of a Stormtrooper Medic. As I'm in healthcare as my profession, I needed to make a dirtied up version that looks like it's seen a bit of use :D

Search for and click on any system, galactic realm, region, hyperlane and more.
The map covers the Legends timeline from ca. 30.000 BBY to 3.626 BBY (SWTOR).

It's still in early development.

A quick drawing I did where I tried to imply some scale. Looks a bit messy but I like it.

The last arc ends so... bright and hopeful. Obviously, I knew where this was going. Aayla dies, the Jedi lose, but still, I thought I would have more time seeing these characters together and that they would have more time together. Than, I go to the next issue and Vader's on the cover. Goes hard as hell too.

I labelled this general so all fans can weigh in, but I know more about Legends (and prefer it) to Disney canon, just so references make sense to people.

Strange question. Do the Sith and Jedi ever destroy the lightsabers of their fallen foes? I mean, I know a lot of lightsabers survive the end of their users (Anakin's Jedi Lightsaber being the one Luke receives in New Hope, and then it's somehow found in Force Awakens)

But I'm writing something as a little exercise right now, and I put down a scene where a Padawan in the New Republic (Legends lore where Luke is Married to Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn is a Jedi Master, etc) looks at the lightsaber of a Sith Acolyte he just killed, and considers taking it with him. Not to use, but to keep from having it fall into the hands of some civilian (he's on a maglev train on Corellia). So, I'm just wondering if Jedi especially, would pick up Sith Sabers, bring them back to the Jedi Temple and have them stored or destroyed, simply to keep somebody else from getting hurt by the saber.

The reason I'm thinking of for why they'd take it with them instead of just chopping through it and leaving it where it is, is because the Crystal and components can still be harvested by randoms, even if they don't know how it all works. It could be bad. The Crystal obviously is infused with the Force by the Lightsaber's wielder upon it's assembly, but the rest of the components could be reused in some way.

Regardless of that last bit, I still think a Jedi killing a Sith and leaving the blade behind doesn't make sense, if they want to keep people safe. That's like a cop leaving a gun out on the street for just anybody to pick up. As for the Sith collecting Jedi sabers, they bleed crystals, so it doesn't matter if it was initially infused by a Jedi, they can corrupt it. Barring that, the same reason of recycling components, or, keeping it as a trophy, a la General Grievous.

Thoughts?

​

The photo is not the best, my apologies, took me three tries to eventually even get that. Also posted on my alt accidentally just now, apologies if you saw that 😭

This is the map of the Western Reaches that I drew for my Star Wars fanfictiom story. It's a copy of Modi's map in the Essential Guide to Warfare, depicting the advances of the New Republic between 4-6ABY. I soloed in on the Western Reaches and the advances of First Fleet, under Admirals Firmus Nantz.

The red depicts advances in 4ABY, yellow is 5ABY and the blue is 6ABY.

I went through every map I could and added as many planets as possible, trying to leave out as many as possible. Kaliska and Validusia were estimated locations, and Tamen is the only planet of my own making. Handwriting isn't neat but would you believe me if I told you this was an improvement on how it usually is

Any opinions, advice or questions are welcomed!!

Tim announced he’s been cancelled for GalaxyCon St. Louis and likely will not be doing any other of their events. Check Tim’s FB page for the announcement and updates.

As the title says, I finished my first five novels in the larger Star Wars EU, and I wanted to share my thoughts!

I have never read a single Star Wars book before this and only ever watched the movies and the Clone Wars show(s). I played Star Wars: The Force Unleashed when the Hoth Episode came out, and I liked it gameplay-wise, but thought it was a bit of an uninteresting story in and of itself. I also thought the idea that the rebellion started by such an obvious faux pas by Palpatine and Vader was a bit too silly for my liking. But then again, I never put much more thought into it.

Besides this, I have played the GameCube game "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II," which I really, really like, but besides two or three missions and the "alternative story type of missions", everything was a retelling of the events of the OT.

With that out of the way, I want to give my thoughts on the five books that I actually read:

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn

After I rewatched the 2008 Clone Wars show, I wanted to get into the Legends continuity, and as a starting point, I wanted to read the Old Republic Series first. This may be a weird start since the book is obviously based on the video game series "Knights of the Old Republic" and the subsequent MMO "The Old Republic", both of which I had never played, but I wanted to read it. The book is separated into two parts and written from the perspective of first two, later three characters. From what I gathered, Revan's storyline basically starts where the first game ends. Revan has lost his memories (due to the events depicted in the canon ending of KOTOR I, I assume?) and is trying to regain them by following his own steps. This actually fits very well with me, because I haven't played the games, so getting a retelling by the character in it works as intended. We get to read what he did in the game, or at least the parts important to the storyline.

I have to say, though, the parts written from Revan's perspective weren't all that interesting to me. From what I gathered, Revan was a Jedi in the Old Republic, before the Sith Empire made their public appearance. He led an effort against the Jedi's judgment in the ongoing Mandalorian wars, and thereby learned about the Sith Empire on the outskirts of the Galaxy. When he met the Immortal Emperor, Revan turned to the Dark Side, prompting him to attack his Jedi comrades back in the Republic. They somehow captured him and were forced to delete his memory. He also apparently saved the Republic in some way (that I honestly forgot), which is why they keep him as an honorable member. He has a wife who, at the start of the book, is pregnant, which is her reason to never really show up throughout the first part of the book. During his time as a Sith, he also recruited some Jedi to his briefly existing Sith Order. Including the third character, Meetra Surik, from whose perspective the story is told in the second part of the book (who was also the main character in Kotor II). At the beginning of the story, Revan actively searches for her, but she does not appear before the second part of the book.

However, because he lost his memories, he also forgot about the Empire and can't say anything about the Emperor himself. We find all of this out with him, as he retraces his steps. Sounds interesting, but I think it is a little lackluster in the way it is presented. I liked the part on Mandalore, because it was quite nice to see why the Jedi have such a prominent position in the Republic's military. He basically defeats an entire army more or less by himself while everyone else is struck in awe. I also liked the part where the two storylines of the first part finally interlink on the former home planet of the Emperor himself. Here, the Emperor performed a dark side ritual, absorbing the "Life essence" of a large number of Sith, which made him immensely powerful and also granted him eternal life. This reveal was new to me, as I have not played the games, and it was really nice to read. It reminded me a lot of the Mistborn series, which I also really like.

The other perspective was that of Darth Scourge. A Sith in the Empire who does not know about the Republic, but does know of the Jedi in a mystified retelling that the Emperor purposefully spreads to invoke fear within the Sith society (and the Empire as a whole). Darth Scourge works under a Dark Council member called Darth Nyriss and is doing some missions for her. He is also involved in the infighting of the Dark Council and kills another member and his two apprentices for Darth Nyriss. Darth Nyriss then opens up to him a little and shows him the homeworld of the Emperor, "Nathema," where they stumble upon Revan, who has just arrived there himself. They quickly capture him and bring him to Nyriss' citadel to interrogate him about the Republic (which, if memory serves me right, they both didn't know existed).

Nyriss also tells Scourge about her plan to gather many members of the Dark Council to try and defeat the Emperor. She and some other members of the Sith Order know about "Nathema" and also know who the Emperor was before he became the Emperor. They figured out the Emperor's grand plan is to invade the Republic and perform the same ritual once again on a Galactic scale, a form of Galactic Genocide, all to make himself even stronger.

Then starts the second part of the book, and it's okay, I guess? It wasn't anything special, besides the ending, which I really enjoyed. Revan's wife, Bastila Shan, has a now 4-year-old son. He plays no real role in this book. He serves as a hindrance to Bastila, so she can not join the newly returned Meetra Surik (the main character from Kotor II and Revan's accomplice from the time when he was a Sith) in her search for Revan. Meetra quickly finds the Empire itself and also finds out that Darth Scourge and Darth Nyriss are holding Revan in captivity. So she arranges a meeting with Scourge, and slowly she and Revan gain his trust. Scourge is convinced that Nyriss' plan is doomed to fail, but he has seen how powerful Revan is, so he figures if anyone can actually stop the Emperor, it's Revan and Meetra. So Scourge frees Revan, and together with Meetra, they kill Nyriss on their way out. Scourge uses the fact that Nyriss planned to overthrow the Emperor as a trick to gain his trust. So Revan is going to confront the Emperor for a second time.

During the confrontation, however, Scourge quickly realizes that they are in over their heads and the Emperor is too strong for the three of them to beat. While talking to Revan in captivity, Scourge learned a few Jedi techniques, and now, in the middle of the battle, he has a Force vision of a bright character defeating the Emperor, not them. So he betrays his partners, kills Meetra in front of the Emperor, and attacks Revan too. The Emperor is apparently not Force-sensitive enough to see what's going on here and captures Revan (I guess so that Revan can appear in the MMO later). He also performs the same Dark Side ritual again, this time deleting the inner threat: the conspiracy within the Dark Council to overthrow him. He performs it on Scourge, who becomes the Emperor's Wrath.

As a first step into the expanded universe, this book works well. It explains everything it needs while not getting stuck in explaining too much. It obviously reuses a lot of tropes from the Prequels and the OT, but overall I think it has been a good read. I especially liked how visual the descriptions became. When we first get introduced to the Emperor, we are told his voice sounds like he is speaking with several minds instead of just one. Which is a really cool description of how I imagine him to talk due to the ritual he did back in the day. I also really liked the way we get introduced to the larger "Sith Society" and the way they behave, which is new territory for me since I haven't read anything about the mentioned Hyperspace War and thus did not know there was a Sith Empire before this. Overall, I'd say the novel was about what I expected from a Star Wars book because, to be honest, my expectations weren't high, but also not low. I did not expect a Star Wars book to be the new Lord of the Rings, if you catch what I mean.

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp

This novel is set roughly three hundred years after the events of the Revan novel. The Empire has made its appearance and attacked Republic space. While they did make a lot of progress, they also failed to get a foothold in the core worlds. And the successful operations they did have were at immense casualties; thus, the Empire is strained. But so is the Republic. The book starts at the tail end of the war between the two opposing factions. On Alderaan, where a recent battle concluded with a Republic victory, diplomats, Jedi, and Sith gathered to negotiate an end to the conflict. However, the Empire used these negotiations for a surprise attack on the capital world of the Republic. This attack was led by Darth Malgus, who becomes our main antagonist/evil protagonist of the book.

Together with his girlfriend Eleena and a Mandalorian woman, he storms the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and leads an entire army of Sith Lords directly into the inner sanctum of the temple. Here, Malgus fights and kills Jedi Master Ven Zallow, and with that, the battle over Coruscant concludes with total victory.

Back on Alderaan, Aryn Leneer senses her Master's death in the Force. She sets on a path of revenge and tries to kill his murderer, who himself is occupied with the usual Sith infighting that we already saw in "Revan". Because he has a Twi'lek girlfriend, he is being ridiculed by his superiors, who see Twi'leks as an inferior race made to be slaves and nothing else. Malgus is also angry with "upper management" because they do not conclude the recent victory with an orbital bombardment. Instead, by the highest authority, they are told to stall their offensive and keep Coruscant, which the forces realistically couldn't hold for much longer. This angers Malgus, because he is not privy to the greater plans of the Emperor. When he finally learns that the sacking of Coruscant was meant to lead to a peace agreement with the Republic, he is infuriated and, from now on, plans to overthrow the Emperor and found his own Empire.

Aryn Leneer makes her way to Coruscant with the help of a smuggler called Zeerid Korr, who works for a criminal organisation called "The Exchange". They get involved in shenanigans with the Hutt cartel and a former Imperial spy working for them before they finally reach Coruscant. Aryn is disturbed by what she sees. There are battle scars everywhere; thousands, if not millions, of Civilians are dead or wounded. The hospitals are full. Aryn finds out that Malgus, who is still in charge of the operations on and in orbit of Coruscant, is the one who killed her former Master. Malgus separately finds out that Aryn is looking for him and is trying to kill him. Perhaps intrigued by a Jedi seeking revenge on a Sith, he heads for the ruins of the Jedi temple to confront her.

They have a short fight, where Aryn realizes that Malgus has a weakness in his girlfriend, Eleena. She and Zerrid can escape from the temple, and Aryn plans to kill Eleena at a spaceport. She apparently has a quick change of heart and chooses against killing her, but lets Malgus know that if he does not let Zerrid leave Coruscant alive, she will kill her. Malgus does as he is told but confronts Aryn for a second time. In this fight, he overpowers her only to not kill her when he had the chance, as a thank-you for not killing Eleena once the opportunity arose.

Then Malgus kills Eleena because he sees her as his only weakness.

The book ends with Malgus killing his main political rival, Lord Adraas, who was a foe to him since at least the beginning of the book.

I liked this book even more than Revan. It was quite enjoyable to read, and Malgus was a really interesting character. But what I disliked was that the Hutt Cartel was already around 3500 years before the prequels. This seems odd to me, almost like the galaxy is at a standstill. The Republic is still around; the Hutts still have their own galactic territory; the Twi'lek were slaves for the Sith Empire; and they are commonly used as slaves both in the Clone Wars cartoon and the original trilogy; the world seems too equal overall. It is almost like, in the grand scheme of things, nothing has changed, not within the 350 years between this book and Revan, and not within the entire timeline from Revan (roughly 3800 BBY) to the Prequels. This is not an issue with this book in particular, but with the timeline itself. I don't think I can blame Paul S. Kemp for this, as he is writing the narrative within the world as stated.

1. Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon

Taking a break from the Old Republic series, I tried to read an entirely different narrative arc. One without Sith, without Jedi, and without the Republic. Set 25000 years before the events of the movies, the Novel is placed at a point in the timeline where interstellar travel is probably possible but extremely slow; even travel within the Tython system itself takes days. The Je'Daii from which the Jedi Order later emerges incorporate Sith (the species, not the faction) as well as many other species under their wing. The story is told through the perspective of Lanoree Brock, who is a Force-sensitive Je'Daii ranger. The novel starts with Lanoree learning her presumed dead brother is still alive and leading an organisation that works contrary to the Je'Daii Council on Tython. She and her brother, Dalien Brock, got separated during their great journey, a trial to become a Je'Daii Ranger, and he vanished into the ruins of the "Old City". In flashbacks, we later learned he faked his own death there and found remnants of a long-lost civilisation called the Gree. They used to travel around the galaxy with their hypergates, and one of those was located deep within the ruins.

Dalien plans to lead his so-called Stargazers into the ruins to activate the hypergate, and with that, gain the opportunity to reopen the wider galaxy to them. The Je'Daii council and his sister, however, fear that the activation could destroy the entire Tython system, so they put an end to this. Lanoree confronts him in the ruins and kills him before he can activate the hypergate.

While the broader story is actually quite easily told, the details of the siblings' relationship are really fun to explore. I loved Dalien's perspective on the Force as a non-Force-sensitive, and I loved the description of the world in a time before Hyperspace was discovered. I also liked the mystery of an old, highly advanced civilisation, which reminded me a lot of cosmic horror tropes such as the Lovecraft mythos. Since the book takes place so long before anything in the timeline, it does not feel like Star Wars the same way the other two books I have read felt. And while this may sound like criticism, this is actually meant as a compliment. It is a book that would work, even without the "Star Wars" title in front of it. The magic system is still called "The Force," but other than that, everything else is new. The Force, as the Je'Daii see it, is very distinct from both the Sith and the Jedi. They see it a lot like people who say things like: "How can there be balance in the Force if there are 10000 Jedi and only two Sith?" or similar statements. This is a book I highly recommend to people who aren't into Star Wars, but are into Sci-Fi as a whole. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of interplanetary travel. Unfortunately, besides another short story, the Author has not written another Star Wars book. So far, this book has been my favorite overall.

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams

Since this post is already getting rather long, I am going to keep this one shorter.

The book's prologue is set in Wild Space. It depicts the destruction of an unknown vessel called the Cinzia. This sets up the major mystery of this book.

The main story is again told through the perspective of two major characters: Shigar (a Jedi Padawan who recently got rejected from finishing his trials) and a Sith apprentice called Eldon Ax.

On Coruscant, Shigar intercepts an ongoing fight and thereby learns of a Mandalorian called Dao Stryver, who mentions the Cinzia and a person called "Lema Xandret" to him while they fight.

Meanwhile, on Dromund Kaas, Eldon Ax is reprimanded for failing a mission by her Master, Darth Chratis. Eldon has also recently conflicted with Dao Stryver and also learns of the Cinzia and Lema Xandret. Darth Chratis, recognizing that Eldon is conflicted about this, reveals that Lema Xandret is Eldon's presumed-dead mother.

Soon both parties meet on Hutta, where the Hutts are holding a special auction of the remains of the Cinzia. An Imperial spy, working as a Republican diplomat, wants to find out where the ship came from.

Before the ship can be auctioned, the different factions clash, and from the remnants of the ship, a group of highly advanced droids appears. They actually put up a good fight with both the Jedi Padawan and the Sith apprentice, and even with the help of Republic forces, they cannot defeat the "Hexes," as they are dubbed because of their hexagonal appearance.

Shigar, Eldon, and the Imperial spy, as well as a smuggler called Jet Nebula, somewhat independently find the origin planet of the hexes, Sebaddon. A planet in orbit of a black hole at the edge of the galaxy. The planet has multiple factories working overtime to produce more and more of the hexes. Every ship of the arriving fleets that is destroyed serves as additional material to create more hexes. Realizing neither the Republic fleet nor the Imperial fleet can take on the planet alone, they forge an alliance to eliminate the threat to the wider galaxy. Jedi Master Satele Shan, Shigar, Eldon, and Chratis all make planetfall to destroy the factories and possibly find and kill/capture Lema Xandret who they see as responsible. It turns out Lema Xandret created a clone of her daughter, Eldon, who is unknowingly in control of the army of hexes. That clone is killed by Satele Shan, and Eldon takes control of the remaining hexes. Instead of using her new ability to kill her master, she chooses to destroy all of the hexes by sending them into the lava seas of Sebaddon.

This book was the longest one, and it was surprisingly boring. The prolonged fight sequence when they first find out about the hexes was so annoying that I stopped reading for multiple weeks and had to force myself to continue. Then it became more interesting, and I actually liked the part where they arrived on Sebbadon; the description of the black hole was really well done, which is something I did not expect from a Star Wars book! But the part dragged on too long again, and the descriptions of the battle weren't quite as interesting as I hoped they would be. I liked Darth Chratis and Satele Shan. They had obviously very different philosophies regarding the Force, but I liked how these clashes turned out. Overall, this has been the worst book I have read so far. It is not a total flop by any means; I just did not find it intriguing enough, and a lot of the plot twists were seen from a mile away.

1. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn

I read through this book yesterday. This book takes place after the events of the main story of the MMO. The immortal Emperor has turned out not to be immortal and is (apparently) dead. The story opens up with the birth of our soon-to-be main character, Theron Shan, son of Satele Shan. I have to say, the birth of the main character is the bad joke answer to "Where should our story start?" but it kind of works here, as it opens up with Satele and we learn something about Theron's upbringing before the events of the actual story.

The story is about a Republic plot to destroy the Ascendant Spear, an Imperial superweapon designed by Darth Malgus and controlled telepathically by his former apprentice, Darth Karrid. Theron Shan and some side characters are annoying one-liner-spewing characters who I could not care less about. But the overall story was actually pretty well-written. I liked the plan to get the codes for the Sith Empire pendant to the real-life Enigma. I liked Gnost-Dural, and the Ascendant Spear was a great threat throughout the story.

I also liked the intrigue within the new Sith Council now that the Emperor is gone. It was also cool to see the events unfold from the perspective of someone who himself is not directly involved with the Jedi. Even though I did not like Theron's constant spewing of Marvel-esque one-liners, his annoyance with the preaching Jedi was actually understandable from his perspective, especially since he is personally involved with the Grandmaster of the Jedi.

I think it is a bit over the top to have this character not only be the son of the Grandmaster but also of the commander-in-chief of the Republic's armed forces, but that is okay. Teff'ith was fine, but not too interesting- a typical female character in these types of stories, which is actually quite sad. Satele Shan is much more interesting, but only appears briefly here and there. Darth Karrid, another female character, is cool, especially in the way she talks to her superiors. But then again, she is also often reduced to how "hot" she is, which is just a bit weird. Overall, I liked this book more than the last one I read, mainly because it was not actively hindering me from reading it, but it was not as good as Revan, even though it was written by the same author.

Now that I have finished The Old Republic novel series, I think it's quite sad that a lot of the characters only appear in their respective novels and are never mentioned again afterwards. For example, Lord Scourge from the Revan book became immortal, yet in the novels themselves, we never get to know what happened to him. He is not mentioned one time after the events of his own novel transpire. Same with Revan. Sure, this is probably both addressed in the MMO, but I would have loved to learn more about their inner thoughts, etc. Same with most characters from the other books: Aryn from Deceived is never mentioned again; Malgus is at least mentioned once more in Annihilation, but he never appears outside of Deceived.

Since I have not played the MMO, many of the setups inside the Novels had no payoffs for me.

The next book I want to read is "Red Harvest" as it is spooky season and it is also placed in the timeline of the Old Republic. A possible follow-up is: Death Troopers.

Thanks for reading, if anyone did. As I said, I just needed to get my notes off my chest.

Wanted to do a childish and cutesy looking artwork for the series, considering it's for young readers. So I mainly used oil-pastell brushes to evoke the vibe of a kid's drawing.

The Dark Side Elite, also known as the Dark Side Warriors and unofficially as the Emperor's Dark Jedi, was a cadre of seven Dark Jedi established by Emperor Palpatine during his resurrection in several clone bodies. The elite group was hand selected by Palpatine to lead Operation Shadow Hand in the Dark Empire's quest to retake the galaxy. It was led by Sedriss QL composed of initial members Vill Goir, Krdys Mordi, Kvag Gthull, Baddon Fass, Zasm Katth, and Kam Solusar. Palpatine made sure that the group always contained seven warriors, and if one of their number was lost, he made sure to immediately appoint replacements. When a Dark Side Adept was selected into the brotherhood, they went through an initiation of sorts in which the adept was empowered with the dark side of the Force and imbued with the will of the Emperor by Palpatine himself. As the war accelerated, the Dark Side Elite began to take a more personal role in the war and were tasked with hunting down Luke Skywalker to prevent his interference in the Emperor's plans.

And I LOVED them.

I managed to get the first book for 35ish on an auction, wasn't so lucky with the second. That one I paid ~100 for, but it was all well worth it.

I originally wasn't a big fan of the Dark Empire trilogy, but I also wasn't much into Star Wars as much at the time (the wounds of the sequel trilogy have finally healed for me), but I later tried the audio dramas and LOVED the first, and enjoyed the other two, Dark Empire II moreso after reading Tales of the Jedi, now that I see the lore and backstory that was followed up in it.

What I feel like Tom Veitch did best was bringing a more fantasy and mythological feel to Star Wars, and Kevin J. Anderson was a great fit to play in the setting he started. Another thing that didn't sit right with me the first time around with Dark Empire was the art, not because of Cam Kennedy's work (he did Rogue Trooper for 2000AD, I know his pencil work is good), but the coloring just didn't work out for me. The coloring here is more normal, so it was way easier for me to see what was going on.

The story of Tales of the Jedi is just so good start to finish, I felt so bad for how Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider both had such tragic lives and ends, and how the Dark Side ruined what could have been a great future for them. Really adds to Luke overcoming the Dark Side and Palpatine in Dark Empire, showing how powerful he and Leia are.

I plan to play Knights of the Old Republic soon, got the OG Xbox version and gonna play it on my One; I read that it was influenced by these stories and references them. What should I watch out for to find them, and what else do you recommend I read first, besides the KOTOR comics themselves?