Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy Books/Comics Review

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. This is just marvelous. This whole concept right here. That saga. They really, I mean, I've read the Zahn trilogy that followed, which is great because now you're an uncle.

[00:00:30] And, uh, am I? You're an uncle. Leia and Han had a child. Leia and Han had, they had Jedi twins. Did they? And, and, uh, and the new, uh, the, the guy who's sort of taken over for the Emperor kind of wants them. So they, you've got that story. And another thing that impresses me is the continuity because this Dark Horse set, the original Dark Empire, Dark Empire 2, fit perfectly with the books, with the films, and just tie totally into the comics.

[00:00:59] And, uh, I get feedback mostly from the fans who really follow it. And, um, I haven't, to be quite honest with you, uh, read the books. But I, I have to tell you that the, the fan reaction is, is very strong. I mean, they feel that they finally, because there were other attempts to turn them into comic books from companies that shall remain nameless. And I don't think anybody really found that perfect pitch better than Dark Horse.

[00:01:26] That, that book, that, that set that came out or series that came out in the early 80s, it was okay, but it was real comic book-y. Right. This is truly a graphic novel come to life. Every panel is painted. These are the folks who are doing your work, uh, coming out in June. That's right, that's right. And you know what they told me, because I love painted panels, and they said with a deadline of June for me, that it would be wiser to do pencil and ink, because two people can work at it at once.

[00:01:53] I say that just to show you the kind of time and effort that goes into a painted issue. Now, I don't know how many pages these are. Uh, black, the black pearl will be 22 pages per, 110 pages total. I believe this is also 22 pages per. Look at how brilliantly the characters are captured in this. It's an incredible saga and a wonderful story too that really sort of picks up.

[00:02:18] This picks up right after Dark Empire 1, which picked up really right after Jedi and takes the characters in some marvelous directions. Directions you really won't have a chance to see in cinema for some time because the movie, the new three movies are going back to episodes one, two, and three. That's right. They go back 30 years in time. We call them Star Wars the previous generation. That's right, prequel.

[00:02:40] You know, I'm sort of tempted, you know, I tried to, uh, go cold turkey because now I, in the sense that I don't have any control over the character and, and I was afraid to read the novels and the comics and all that too. Because if I disagreed with things, it's too late. But look at, I'm sitting this close to it. It looks awfully good, doesn't it?

[00:03:03] They are also, and it's a, it's a good concern you bring up because having to find a character like Skywalker, you'd hate to see him go in other directions. I can tell you that in all the Timothy Zahn books, he is dead on in these. I think you'd be very pleased. That's another, another strength. Their, their art is powerful. Their writing is straight down the line.

[00:03:24] I think enough time has gone by. I should say if Timothy Zahn or anyone who knows him is out there, he sent me a copy of the book and I never wrote him back and I lost his address. So for mea culpa and thank you, Timothy. I will eventually get around to reading it. That trilogy is really good. What do you find out? You're, you're an uncle. And what do you find out where are you headed after, uh, after Jedi and the, the goings on?

[00:04:35] Talking to a beloved YouTuber. Yeah. The one, the only, or your brewer. Yup. We are continuing the month of May the 4th. Talking about the good shit. The stuff that everyone can agree on is good in the Star Wars canon. Enough bitch slapping about the shows. Enough talking shit about the games. Enough disagreeing on the movies.

[00:05:00] We're talking about the comics. It'd be a hard press to find anyone. He's like, ah, that was a slog. That wasn't worth it. Ah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, uh, no. Uh, so do we have, we have Star Trek level technology, but do we have Star Wars or alien or even predator level technology these days? Because it seems like with YouTube, we're sitting, especially you, you have more experience with this,

[00:05:28] or with your daily videos. It's like, are we anywhere near Star Wars technology where we got like hollow screens and holograms? No, not even close. Like we're more, everything is more Trek oriented. Especially with AI and shit. Like. Yeah. Imitating people's voices and finding out it's a conspiracy. I was a Navy SEAL.

[00:05:59] Oh God. Star Wars. I'm surprised. Jesse Ventura. Yeah. They, they got once her name. Stoop Dog's cousin in Mondo. Oh yeah. Mercedes. Yeah. I'm surprised they haven't gotten more wrestlers in here. It'd be perfect. Um, that's true. I mean, they did work in Trek. Right. Yeah.

[00:06:24] I mean, hell, so many, some of these other franchises have used like definitive, like B movie actors and Star Wars seems to be afraid of that. It's like, let's just go with theater people who've got nothing going on. I mean, I've seen so many fans collaborate and push for certain celebrities to be in Star Wars. And a lot of them celebs have flat out said, no, they don't want to because they don't want to be part of a multi-film contract.

[00:06:53] They don't want to, they've seen how. But if Marvel asked them, the answer is instantly. Yes. No, even some of them really use that shit. I watched a, um, a video a couple of days ago on actors who refused roles. Cause I had, it's funny. Um, I came across a video about how Michael Jackson almost bought Marvel back in the nineties. And then that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:22] And then that other video popped up. I was like, okay, I'll watch this too. And it was a good list of people who refused roles. Like, um, shit. DiCaprio was going to do, I forget what it was, but he didn't want it to take away from his boyhood image. Josh Harnett was also considered for Batman Begins. That surprised the shit out of me. That's wild. I don't know.

[00:07:52] But see with, with Josh, I like him because. No, I do too. I, yeah. He went from the slacker genre to redefining himself. I'm like. He was a heart rob in all sorts. Yeah. Even people who didn't know him, they're like, yeah, who was that one guy who my young adult daughter was into? Or men were like, he's kind of cool. He's in two. I mean, he was in two popular war movies in one year. You can say what you want.

[00:08:19] You can say one of them's overrated and one of them's just playing shit, you know, like Hawk Down or Pearl Harbor. But guess what? That was a big deal. You're in two Jerry Bruckheimer war movies in the same year. So. Him as Batman would have been interesting, but he would have been too young for that role. He would have been young, but I could see him doing stealthy with all these with what clips I've seen on Penny dreadful and some of those other stuff. Yeah, it's like it seems like he's kind of.

[00:08:48] Even that lesser M night movie he was in, he seems to be right. Yeah, he just trap was good until until the bathroom scene with the girl on her phone like that just completely killed the film. Everything up to that point was great. Everything was good. And then I'm going to get in there. I'm going to get up like you can bust the door down. You're bigger than her. You have the literal physical force power to kick it down.

[00:09:15] I'm glad that M night never worked on Star Wars or even X files. He always has like a Twilight Zone episode Phil and then he just has like the weakest plot reveal words like, well, hold on, hold on, on, on. That's not worthy of this movie. You want to see his worst work? It's lady in the water. It's I agree. That was bad. Like I like the casting. It's good cast, but he puts himself into his films like Stephen King, but he's not Stephen King.

[00:09:44] Speaking of which, Bryce Dallas Howard's in that. I see how she's directed and done some voiceovers for these Star Wars things. I hope she can actually given how she still had to bring up very true tells on unequal pay that's still happening in Hollywood. I hope she can continue a directing career and get her money's worth. Yeah, for real. It's why I'm the daughter of a famous actor turned director. I and the studio actually had to edit the poster because my ass is too big.

[00:10:15] Yeah, funny shit. Star Wars is ridiculous how they've had to do some occasional Photoshop like really not enough visual effects in the world to solve this problem. But so tonight we're talking about the Dark Empire series. Yeah, I I was late to this as well. Like I would see parts of it. I knew the overall emphasis and then I was always like, I still haven't actually read it. So I guess I'm going to give some more extra detail at the end of this episode.

[00:10:44] But as a brief outline, what did you take away from that trilogy of comics? I mean, it was a big deal. Like I gave the audio drama a listen and much like the shadows of the Empire. It was just so rare. Like I can't think of any dark forces you're thinking of. No, I'm thinking dark empire. They did an audio drama for it as well. All three parts. I didn't know there was a three part deal for that. Yeah, for whatever reason is like it's not as well known.

[00:11:12] You can find them on YouTube, but they're not as well known as shadows of the Empire, which same deal. Let's do a book and then let's do a comic book version of it. And shadows has two comics and I have both of them because I was surprised there was a sequel to shadows. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I was like, this is cool as fuck. I was like, and I bought that in the trade paperback. Yeah. OK, so that that would be it.

[00:11:37] So I but but what's weird is like, yeah, you know, shadows already had that awesome video game, much like dark forces across multi-medium. So expanded universe is at its big peak still. And obviously now people are talking, oh, well, this is basically what was the non canon version of the sequel trilogy. It's like you should think of it as more than that. This is.

[00:11:59] Wonderful artwork, even though there it's getting formulaic with the amount of times they reclone the emperor, they expand on how vast the actual dark side powers are in literal shadows. And I like how they have all these other underlings, these other grunts, these other. They call them the Sentinel warriors and other dark side users. But I like how you're first to him as a dark Jedi is like at this point, the Sith are no more. That is true.

[00:12:29] But you are still going to be a dark side user if I have my way. It is actually the only issue I have is the amount of times that the emperor creepily says I'm going to take your onboard child from Leia's womb. I'm like, Jesus, it's kind of catering on PG, PG 13 ish. But I'm going to take your baby like, OK, you're going to be a midwife. OK, yeah. Good, good. Give me the baby.

[00:13:01] Let me see. Did they do toys for this or not? I think they did figures because most of them. Oh, storylines. They had the evil Luke Skywalker and they had. A few other things, but yeah, I. I'll admit growing. I've come to like Boba Fett later in life growing up. I thought he was cool, but overrated because it's like, yeah, he has like two lines and then gets killed.

[00:13:30] But I understand why he was a big deal. Just that mysterious armor and everyone wanted to know. And it is just so funny how many times he becomes literally the Kenny of Star Wars, where he keeps getting beat up or. Force choked by a Sith Lord or. And in this case, owned in a fight with Chewbacca, he shoots Chewbacca at point blank range and it's merely a flesh wound. And Chewie just takes his helmet off.

[00:13:57] We don't see his face strategically and he just throws them and knocks them out. But that's funny. What did you like and what did you would you had changed? It wasn't that great. If any. Let me see. I will admit it goes on a little long. It's a minor complaint. But like once they defeated the emperor, I was like, I don't need to see him brought back again. I would think Luke with enough of his force sensing could have sensed all the clones. I do love all the new spaceships.

[00:14:26] They do look original. They don't look like. It's not like the billionth Death Star, which I hate and all some other expanded universes like if it didn't work the second time, it's not going to work a third time. Just stop. So I appreciate that they just came up with different kind of this is kind of like the Darksaber book.

[00:14:46] Yeah, it's like if the Hutts can come up with a weapon of mass destruction, why not they come up with a different kind of weapons have I did just the Imperials fighting each other and they got their own kind of war droids that are well designed. Yeah, they don't look like anime or other movie knockoffs. They look like their own kind of automated human sized with trooper helmets. Yeah, the dark troopers. Those were cool. Well, that's it.

[00:15:15] Like they look like dark troopers, but they give them a different name like shadow droids. Oh, yeah, yeah. The shadows was rare, but they do look like the dark troopers. Yeah, I'm okay with. But yeah, man, like I it's kind of sad when I look up these comic book artists. Yeah, and they're they're all dead. They're a lot of more. It's like what the fuck? I mean, the recent one was a Greg Hildebrandt.

[00:15:45] And he worked on shadows. Oh, that's right. Fuck. Yeah, because yeah, Tom. Yeah, Tim. Veach. Yeah, he was a writer. He's the brother of comic books writer and author Rick Viteach. And his work is best known for. He actually died from the COVID virus, but he was a Benedictine monk, believe it or not.

[00:16:12] And he worked on a few different other books as well as poetry. Oh, and one of them is death collage and other poems. But yeah, he initiated the start horse comics line of Star Wars comics. Yeah. He did the Tales of the Jedi, which was popular from 93 to 98. Not to be confused with the animation. Yeah.

[00:16:43] He did Superman at Earth's End for DC. He wrote Animal Man. What animal man else worlds? Yeah. And I know what a hell of a name. But yeah, the light and darkness war was a comic book he owned. We're done with artist Cam Kennedy. And who's the other one? Yeah. No, Cam Kennedy worked on this as well. And he's basically the currently still living guy.

[00:17:13] He's Scottish comics author best known for his work on Rogue Trooper and Judge Stredd in the 2000 AD British comics. Oh, nice. Oh, but yeah, it was six years after Return of the Jedi and one year after the Frond trilogy by Timothy Zahn. And yeah, 90 free. So it was a big deal. But yeah, I'm just going to go beyond it instead of just talking about stuff that divides us and everything is like I just find it interesting.

[00:17:43] I'm cool with the fact that they've collected it again. And again, if you guys just want to listen to it, definitely just look it up. You'll find it no problem on YouTube. It's was issued by Time Warner music collection. And yeah, it was a big thing. And for the adaptation, it was kind of cool. John Saigon played Luke, Wedge and Tillies, and some of the different Sith Lords and villains. Rest in peace. Yeah.

[00:18:12] He's done voices for everything Despicable Me Free, Surveys, WALL-E, as well as the SOCOM Navy SEALS game. He played Dash Rendar in the Star Wars games. Oh, I love Dash. I do too. He was my top favorite. Like when I read the first book. The muscles. Yeah. The fucking best. Oh man. Like Dash was just so cool. And I own his figure and his ship.

[00:18:42] I wanted to get it. I don't know why I didn't. I, well. Man, I got that shit for cheap too. Yard sells. No, eBay actually, last decade. Cause yeah, Dash was sealed with a hill. I gotta be frugal. I can't do eBay this year. That's my favorite. For real. Yeah. He, he sealed with a hill, with a hill's price tag of four 86. I was like, damn, vintage price tag. Yeah. And then Outrider.

[00:19:10] I got that was open, but it had the original box and stuff with it. And I paid, I think 20 something for that. And I paid like 12 for dash. You're lucky you. Um, so also in the audio drama was Jim Ward. He played free PO as well as the main Imperial executor. And, uh, you would know him rest in peace, man. All these guys are dropping like flies. Uh, he played.

[00:19:39] Shet and Doug on the fairy odd parents. He played captain quark and the ratchet and clink franchise of video games. And he's done Jack Krauser and resident evil four. And, uh, worked on the Stephanie Miller radio show. So yeah, man. Then all kinds of stuff, but this is the first time that Nick Jameson has played the emperor. He goes on to play him and all the other just video games and cartoon shows.

[00:20:06] And I just always found it funny because he does kind of have a giant jaw line that makes me go. He looks a little like the emperor as a matter of fact, but yeah, he's done some other cartoon movies and everything. Like in the tramp to Lufford's big movie, queer doctor movie, dragon hunters and Batman year one. And additional voices for frozen. I know him for playing the Russian diplomat on 24.

[00:20:32] Um, you probably have seen him on other stuff like mission Hill, uh, various voices on what's new Scooby doo and, uh, Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb. Star Wars parody. Avatar, the last airbender, various voices. Yeah. Yeah. The dark empire also has a source book too, which is basically a TTRPG for the story itself. They did that a lot back then.

[00:21:02] Yeah. Yeah. Shit. He's been on the bold and the beautiful lost. I guess start on sign phone criminal minds. So there you go. Various video game voiceovers as well. A lot of them movie tie ins like a bugs life, as well as popular ones like shadow of Rome. I look at your solid portable ops.

[00:21:29] Assassin's Creed to often doing additional voices. So. Yeah. Voice over work is the easiest to get, but then you have to compete with everybody else. Oh, don't I? He has a pretty gruff, awesome voice. So I think that's why he's suitable for this. But yeah, the only returning cast member in the first two parts is Billy Dee Williams. So. So yeah, he does good.

[00:21:52] I doesn't feel phoned in from what I listened to because that there was a plenty of that where you're like, yeah, they clearly only had them for free hours. No such thing there. He's always had a smooth voice. So if he was bored, he still is just charismatic enough. It didn't. Leave me saying, oh, why'd you bother? Yeah, it wasn't. Shitty. Yeah. I can't believe this got mixed to positive reviews. What were the mixed reviews? It happens.

[00:22:22] A lot of people don't like. They expect. I'm trying to think how old. They expect so much. And when those subconscious expectations aren't met, they get some, they just niggle and get madder at people who liked it. I don't get it. Why isn't it written by so and so? There's that is like, what's this guy? Exactly. Used anymore. It's irrelevant.

[00:22:49] Why is Luke beaten so easily? Nothing beats Luke. Why would he go dork? I'll give it credit considering they're taking in ideas that were meant for Kenner's aborted 1984 power of the force. I don't feel like this intrudes with their storytelling. I do feel like the authors make good use of describing the planet without leaving us.

[00:23:16] They still show us while describing what's happening instead of just forced, you know, voice over boxes and yeah. Confusing transitions where it's going off the center of this page onto that frame. I don't, I don't, I didn't have any issue with it, but I know Jim bulky did some of the work. He is rest in peace. He worked with Alan Moore on skis and was a new Scottish musician and comic book artist.

[00:23:46] He would, you probably seen some of the 2000 AD spinoff crisis as well as the new Statesman story. Look in June and Jinty Twilight world and warrior. Yeah. He's done all these somewhat obscure British comics. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:09] But I, I think it's just at least just feels like it's taking a risk and just it's progressive seeing Leo finally utilize her Jedi spirit and just Han smart ass is still in here. And she has enough to do. It's fun seeing Lando and company. Basically they do a, there's a bit of just acknowledging like Lando keeps hijacking starter stores and they keep getting destroyed. He's like, well, that's a shame. We could have kept that sucker.

[00:24:40] Yeah. That was the fun part about the bird. Yeah. Like books back then were easier because they had more free reign to do as they pleased and just let the characters go. They still had a leash on them, but if you're confused about a person, they at least explain who he is by the second page. Yeah. That's so-and-so talking. I agree with so-and-so instead of re-explaining it all over again. Yeah.

[00:25:08] And there was a lot of ground to work with and it was the only way. Cause you gotta remember that's not as in the nineties, that's back when Trex dominating TV. So they didn't really think about the TV landscape. Like what the hell do we do to stay relevant? They had tried to TV show in the late two thousands and it Lucas couldn't get anyone to air it. So it just got shelved away. But yeah, this is the first appearance of Anakin solo. And, um, oh yeah.

[00:25:38] And I do like how Luke is not the savior. Like he goes too far. He's like a cop who's been undercover too long. And I do like though, how he instead of being a selfish dick, he does acknowledge Leah. Thank you. You know, you know, your combined power helped us defeat the emperor, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, no, it's, it's really a fun read. And I, I think it still is going to hold the test of time just cause this is back when dark horse is just given so much. Yeah.

[00:26:07] Well, and even their original comic books, like the darkness and everything is like, I applaud how they had their whole March and, uh, merchandise figured out. And it's a shame that they're still cooking, but you know, it's just so hard to co-exist in a world where Marvel and DC, you know, have continually made comebacks and are unfortunately going to be still the ones that get the most business.

[00:26:32] And yeah, they had it figured out when it came to creating original content along with expanding upon, uh, you know, movie tie-ins. Yeah. That's why that's one of the things that's why I really read Marvel and DC that much, especially Marvel because they play it way too fucking safe with their characters. And I hate that.

[00:26:57] And it's, I've contacted at conventions and talk to like some of them have worked for image and comics and bigger comic lines, but that that's at the end of the day, why they keep working with indie publishers. Cause they're just so tired of the creative restraints and being told, Hey, you played it safe. Yeah. That's why I like IDW image dark horse. Boom studios. Yeah. Especially boom. Like boom. Just goes for it. They're like, let's throw it. Let's explode it.

[00:27:27] Even if you don't like the artwork, even if the idea is just too. Schlocky. We had fun shows. You're going to at least reread it again before you, even if you give it a negative review, you're still going to say, Hey, I understand what you went for. And you just, you had fun. Yeah, they don't. I read the entire power Rangers arc that they did with Drake on that shit was magnificent. Oh my God. They did that so well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:57] I was surprised. Cause like, damn, cause they reinvented it and made it work. And it's still a continuation of 90 of maybe morphing and all that, but they really went all out with that shit and made it work even better. I'm like, this is the 2020. Wow. Yeah. Beautiful fucking storyline. Fucking 16 volumes. Oh man.

[00:28:23] Cause I started the first part of it and I was like, fuck, I have to read the other volumes. So what the hell happened? So I ended up renting all the volumes and then I gradually read them and just pieced it all together. I was like, wow, this is a damn good arc. And then I got to read the rest of it. Cause they're the last left off. There's a new white Ranger. I'm like, all right, it's not. Ranger. No.

[00:28:53] Can't say white power. Cause it's racist now. That would be fucked up. Yeah. All right, gang. So like I promised, I was going to continue the rest of this whole Star Wars, dark empire, comic book trilogy. So I gave you kind of the nuts and bolts. So I might slightly repeat myself, but I'm going into the overall deal. It's like, okay.

[00:29:16] So Star Wars, dark empire set six years after return of the Jedi and one year after the heir to the empire novel trilogy, which also got a comic book adaptation. And what can I say? It's like, let's hats off to the guys who did it. I already talked a bit about him. It's like, yeah, Tom V. Tick. I know you can't hear this. I know you've since left us, but great job. Big visionary. It gets grim, but still.

[00:29:46] It could have worked as a movie. And I know people go, oh, well, that's what the sequel trilogy tried to emulate. It's like, yeah, but they didn't have the nuance. They were mainly repeating stuff. This wasn't repeating stuff. This was giving you an out. And the stuff they knocked off, like the emperor coming back, this one still explained the imperials.

[00:30:09] How they keep, you know, like cockroaches finding places to shelter and how the emperor had his dark soul. So they explained the magic better. And it says a lot. But yeah, so long story short, that first comic, you know, it's three comics total. Four collected volumes.

[00:30:33] But yeah, the imperial royal guard is wanting vengeance for the death of Palpatine. Yeah. And Luke turns to the dark side. The world devastator machines are unleashed. Boba Fett returns. And then Solo first appears here. And one captured star destroyer, the Liberator, as seen in the movies, is destroyed in an imperial moon earlier. So yeah, that's from part one. We get to part two.

[00:31:02] The Calamari planet must be evacuated, but comes under siege by the Empire's devastator machines. Admiral Ackbar decides, hey, you know, I got to ask the Wedge of Mutilities and General Lando Calrissian a favor. I need you to command the captured star destroyer, Emancipator. They mentioned how the Liberator destroyer from the films, you know, was attempted to be used, but, you know, it's crashed.

[00:31:29] So this is their last captured star destroyer they got to use. Luke and R2 wake up in an imperial dungeon ship made from Mandalorian walls, which reportedly is used to transport Jedi during the Clone Wars. And at the planet VICE, which is deeply connected to the dark side and guarded by various star destroyers. Luke is delivered by mercs to the cloned Emperor's Temple. Luke drops his saver to study the dark side in order to gain trust and fight back.

[00:31:57] Leo senses Luke has been lost via the Force in another part of the galaxy. And Han gives the classic, I've got a bad feeling about this line. Zeb Viers, the son of Imperial General Viers. That's a cool callback because he's a recurring bad guy in the original movies. So yeah, Zeb Viers is one of the rebels on the stolen star destroyer bridge following Lando's orders. He's been misidentified in cards since, but been rectified.

[00:32:25] But yeah, he follows Lando's orders, uses the turbo lasers to take out three other Imperial destroyers via direct hits on the shield generators and bridges. The main Imperial Devastator General is Cleb. And his other eight-seeing crewman who's annoyed by all these distractions and the X-Wing's coming out of that stolen destroyer they're piloting. So yeah, it's getting intense.

[00:32:50] He's robotic TIE fighters deployed from the Devastators take out Green Leader and the X-Wing fleet. Oh no! A vision of Luke in Vader's armor communicates with Leo by saying she shouldn't pursue him as he's keeping everyone away from harm. Leo faints after seeing what a lie that is. You know, she's not buying it. She knows her brother and his vulnerability. Han trains new recruits on Winter Team, that's what they call him,

[00:33:18] to fly new captured Imperial fighters models as well as E-Wings. This is their first appearance before being retconned later in the Soka TV show. Leah asks Han and Chewie to pilot the Falcon to the forbidden areas of the galaxy where she's detecting the Force signs, while Han will use some merc contacts on NowHutta, Glorious Jewel. That's what Hutt means, which is Jabba's homeworld, to get them to this dangerous place.

[00:33:48] If you're with me so far, they do a lot of traveling and finding out unusual realms of the galaxy. So again, this world building is great. It could work as a movie without losing you. And they explain stuff so fast, and it makes you wonder, why does Lucas have to keep hiring people for stuff he doesn't know how to tell on his own? It's just annoying. So it is what it is.

[00:34:17] But it's glorious, guys, if you're still with me so far. So C-Free PO, our beloved golden android, well, not android, robot, comes along and it's nicknamed Golda Ron by Han this time. So, yeah. His pal Nyx, he meets up with on a secured base there, and who they, he then refers to Free PO as Gold Dome.

[00:34:46] And he lets them take an oil bath once they get in, after the Falcon fights with other bounty hunter ships. It's really cool. And, yeah. Now, Nyx introduces them to his gal pal Sala. I wonder if that's a play on the Indiana Jones character. Who's built a monster ship called the Starlight Intruder, which that might help the Rebel fleet. A homeless force-sensitive gal named Vima

[00:35:14] gives a lightsaber to Leia after reflecting that she betrayed her Jedi race 200 years ago during the original Jedi Purge. And put herself down in this slimy part of the planet in shame while hiding. Talk about self-loathing meets survival here. So, while Chewie makes repairs to the Falcon, Han shows Leia his old run-down quarters on here, which I'm out functioning repair droids. Turns out that Dengar, you know, that bandaged bounty hunter human with the giant laser rifle

[00:35:44] from Empire Strikes Back and Boba Fett, fresh out of the Sarlacc pit, are here, waiting to ambush Han at his home, after his other pal, Mako, betrayed them and led them into this trap for an irrefutable price. Our heroes get away and in a gunfight, and Boba accidentally blows up a hut. That's right, one of the same race as Java. He blows up one of those huts. And Han and Leia escape onto Salah's giant ship while the Falcon

[00:36:13] is docked onto it, so they escape with both ships. Boba Fett pursues them in Slave 2. It's basically Slave 1, but refurbished. Meanwhile, in the Calamari homeworld, the E-Wings break through and destroy some of the robotic TIE fighters. While the other rebel ships account for all the skate pods as they, Wedge, and Lando abandoned the destroyer. They're just like, okay, we destroyed, we captured it, it's getting destroyed and disabled, we got no use for it. Let it blow up. It's not going to fall

[00:36:43] into enemy hands. Let's get the fuck out of here. So, some of the E-Wings get shot down by the Devastator's gunning turrets, but they are unexpectedly shut down due to the E-Wings destroying some of the signal towers and other signal overrides being dispatched, causing the main Devastator, Silencer 7, and its crew to self-destruct. So, this is cool because, you know, these Devastators, I forgot to mention what they look like. They're basically just giant cubes, if you will, with like

[00:37:13] four giant AT-AT kind of feet, but they have laser beams that are just basically coming down and torching everything. So, yeah, it's a mixture of everything and it's just a very cool design. If you want a reference, just look up Dark M Empire and you'll see it on the main poster, it's really just as cool as it looks. It's a shame it wasn't shown in any other thing, but this is really, again, good imagination. Instead of building

[00:37:42] a third Death Star, it's like, no, let's come up with the planet Devastates. Because even though they could blow up most of the planet, most of the time they're just, you know, hovering over stuff and demolishing whatever's underneath it. So, yeah, this is back on the Kalamari homeworld and, yeah, that's the E-Wings you know, done some good work and due to the signal override, they get it done. So our four heroes and their two allies get to the shield

[00:38:11] to cover Bice Imperial Planet and their registry number allows them to enter an invisible shield entry opening while evading Boba Fett's Slade 2 pursuit. Fett in Dengar's Slade 2 ship breaks apart and crashes somewhere else while failing to enter the shield along with Solo's ship crew. Separating from Han's pal ship, Leia starts piloting the Falcon so they can go straight to the Force Sense direction despite Han's doubts and manages

[00:38:41] to play Jedi Mind Tricks on the main Imperial base's gunners so they can't target them. 14 of the Emperor's clones are seen in their tanks, you know, Imperial Sentinels are guarding Luke in his chamber, let's cut to that cliffhanger, so yeah, then we go on to the next part. Han's been captured by the giant Sentinel guards while Leia fights Luke in a lightsaber battle while the Emperor taunts that she'll only obtain Luke's dark side energy.

[00:39:11] R2 has been reprogrammed to FreePO's horror. Luke has a new robotic arm, Leia's knocked out by the Emperor's lightning, and taken to quarters to hill before her dark side transformation. Yeah, so if you're with me now, like, this is just so traumatic, this is so much to take in, but it's great, it's just showing how the obstacles are gonna have to overcome.

[00:39:42] So Han swears to kill Luke with his bare hands, but Luke assures him he's still trying to save the galaxy, and he might have to die, but it won't be by Han's hand. So, yeah, tension. Friends close, enemies closer. So, meanwhile, Han's pal, Sala, and Nix are hiding out at another pal, Han's place, there's gonna be plenty of moments for your likes that a Star Trek reference, I don't know, but pretty coincidental. So,

[00:40:12] they hang out at Han's place with the Falcon park there since their own vehicle got impounded by Imperial Bice security. So, if you're with me, yeah, Bice is the main planet of the Emperor that's going to continually be referenced, shown. The Emperor, you know, he's basically revealed to be a clone, and he shows Lea a Jedi holocron, which is basically an interactive hologram showing Jedi history, to which Lea then protests and refuses to give it back to the Emperor. She takes that

[00:40:41] holocron and beats him up, but she throws the Emperor over his bed quarters, since he's still pretty weak, and takes the holocron after teasing that he can transfer the dark side to Lea's unborn child, Anakin. That's right, she's naming it after her dad. an Imperial officer then reports that three devastated machines have been lost total, while reporting that the signal that destroyed them is coming from somewhere on their

[00:41:25] . Luke reveals that with his combined power and presence he's been able to break the grip of the dark side. Actually, no, Luke, my bad, tells the Imperial officer to keep that to himself. So, he's covering for Lea. And, yeah, Lea gets a blaster, Luke has his power and presence and has the master control code and priority battle plan stored in R2's memory bank while see free PO bitches that it's too much storage for his little robot pal's mind.

[00:41:56] So, again, R2 is very much like you see in some of these other Dark Wars comics. He is always doing computer hacking is what he does best. He gets probably the most kills because he's just making stuff crash left and right and it's great. It's glorious. And Solo's pal breaks the gang out of their prisons by hacking into the probe droids and turrets which target floating Imperial Guard Han still doesn't trust Luke as he figures

[00:42:26] they could kill the Emperor here now while they're in town and he doesn't verbatim what he says but they get on the Falcon to escape Luke says they can plug in R2 into the Falcon's hyperspace con system and transmit the rest of the interference codes even while traveling into hyperspace so yeah we're still not sure to trust Luke at this point he used the illusion he was in the ship with them the whole time as he knew

[00:42:56] they'd never leave if he didn't trick them into getting on their own ship and he still can't stop his dangerous mission to take down the Emperor so it's like yeah I hate we we are fooled this whole time as our heroes is like yeah I swear he was just with us like but nope he used all his remaining power to give that illusion so Chewbacca and Hong get the signals from R2 started while Leah plugs in free PO to frequencies so he can monitor any Imperial distress signals once they begin their

[00:43:26] attack so someone responsible for sabotaging this and so he's caught on it's cool that he's always bright here and just always smart but yeah rebel sea

[00:43:55] commandos on their boats yeah they got some floating boats start shooting jetpacking their way onto the devastators now that the shields and weapon systems are now useless the main devastator being raided has its two engineers start its automatic droid making factories so they can send out various deadly automated water vehicles that give the rebels more trouble while they're already taking down some of the storm trooper brigades on board the devastators raid but this is cool this is like a world war ii sea battle this is again

[00:44:25] what you want in a futuristic war movie so what's in a comic porn hon owners his pal Sala to pilot the falcon she remarks that she'll handle it just like she and londo did back when londo took it at the castle run so that's awesome see free po after being interrupted free times finally tells hon that r2 has created a new code that can cause the devastators to do anything he

[00:45:05] george look can come up with something this brilliant so londo thanks hon leon r2 the rebel alliance having secured victory begin their next attack after r2's data scans show that the whole calamari planet attack was just a minor divergence while the imperial navy reaffirmed its allegiance to the emperor and the empire begins the various stages of upcoming galactic core system takeovers until

[00:45:35] mon mothma tells the other staff to get some more sleep before they meet again and plan possible responses for tomorrow leo looks at the jedi holocron in her quarters and a thousand year old jedi no it's not yona i wish states a prophecy and that prophecy is uh that not unlike their current predicament where she must fight the jedi killer to save her

[00:46:05] children from being claimed by the dark side so she's getting all kind of disturbing visions and it all pays off this is good buildup so much like the cave in empire strikes back so a gigantic dark colored star destroyer with emperor and luke on board jets in leah notes that she feels luke's presence and senses again that he's not winning his battle against palpatine the emperor then gives a transmission to all of the rebel fleet to surrender leah

[00:46:35] in a shuttle that they'll transport her back in leah tells han she has to go as the last possible fight against the unwinnable conflict without having to use a Jedi mind trick so luke has a red lightsaber here the emperor tells his guards to leave them and leah shocks the emperor as he tries to get close to her it's like so she uses some serious kick-ass powers here kind of like yoda

[00:47:04] deflecting doku and emperor prequels so yeah it's cool stuff and and yeah leah activates her green lightsaber while luke admits he went too far just to understand the dark side and the emperor all of a sudden shocks luke as he's turning vulnerable to leah and the emperor tries one last time to convince luke that vader was a weak man in an iron mask who still felt the

[00:47:34] good side of the force luke notes that the dark side has escaped his mind and fights the emperor the latter who's got a blue lightsaber luke chops off the emperor's metal hand the emperor clone then unleashes a dark powerway which wipes out thousands it's noted in the description of the comic book text as well and luke and leah make the emperor's deadly dark side force envelop his entire ship destroying it and they take the shuttle out there with seconds to spare

[00:48:04] so yeah we're getting this is like a sorcery you know dark fantasy but again it's in space so the planet of Balmar rebels and that's just it the planet is rebelling so yeah and this planet is big because it's going to hell in a basket basket

[00:48:34] this is the prime planet that builds the AT-ST walkers rumor has spread that the emperor is dead again so their imperial governor Beltran is rumored to have started a rebellion and Ezekiel Cedris in his superstar destroyer is getting ready to crush the rebels there with his outnumbering forces they give a total number but their droid forces destroy each other but since they're caught off guard the imperials pull back for now Jedi Knight comes

[00:49:04] Salazar as mentioned in other Star Wars books around this time as a Jedi who's brought back from the dark side he's awkwardly introduced here with mild backstory but that's a mild complaint the governor of Balmora unleashes his flying shadow droid bots and the rebel alliance has him join their resistance after he defeats the imperials there Lando briefs the rebels there that shadow droids will be used to target the six top imperial command posts so kick ass the alliance goes with Wedge

[00:49:34] Antilles plan to sneak a cargo ship onto the emperors planet of Bice with war droids and rebels on board after disagreeing with Luke's strategy on using the droids to free other worlds and get them to join the rebels cause Mon Mothma is a respectable it's not personal and we still

[00:50:38] the imperial executor is back on the vice planet with remaining members of the emperor circle and it's made clear that there are remaining clone tanks that Luke didn't destroy with rumors circulating that the emperor will not take another body well his evil spirits are gonna have to

[00:51:10] so two of the emperor's closest friends destroy the five remaining emperor clones while stating how most distasteful it was that Luke didn't finish the job they're rather traitors they hope to gain their own throne of power after waiting years for Palpatine to return imperial Zach Sidris shows his face and kills the two underlings after they both get their dark sabers out once again a remaining clone of the emperor appears and Sidris promises his loyalty as they plan once again to find liaison born

[00:51:40] child and trap Luke while the rebel alliance is due for yet another deadly uprising so it's like yeah this Sidris guy they do good at just making him stand out instead of just under Grand Moff Tarkin or you know underling and yeah it's all kinds of cool stuff he basically makes it for half of this

[00:52:10] but then we don't see much of him afterwards so now he's pretty deadly while he still has the time so yeah he's loyal and he gains the emperor's loyalty and so yeah reigning clone of the emperor appears promises loyalties the Anakin and trap Luke while the rebel alliance is due for yet another deadly surprise on back at that smuggler planet we mentioned before Boba Fett's being interrogated by two other

[00:52:40] dark side force using imperial underlings so this is cool Boba gets away in his ship after shooting one of the troopers and the troops getting reports at the falcon resurfacing on their smuggler planet Han and Chewie land at their pal Nix's ship garage after slaughtering some stormtroopers with the falcon's guns the gun turrets that is and accidentally blowing up their pal Nix's getaway ship hey had to happen the two mysterious emperor right hands and their trooper squad make their

[00:53:10] way to the garage while detecting the mysterious jedi woman Vima we mentioned earlier the homeless they blast the street with their cannons killing civilians in the way but Vima has already jumped out of sight last minute into the planet sewers Han and Leia encounter ganks who are basically bounty hunter creeps who work for the huts so it's cool that they're expanding on this you know it really does show you just

[00:53:39] the whole shoot on sight Nazism that the empire has and it's just so cool that they're able to just show what all these worlds are like in between all the different battlefields and everything so yeah they do some cool stuff and they just keep going at it they mainly are just you know it's just non-stop intensity intensity you can't put this down

[00:54:08] in any way shape or form Han and Leia getting away from those ganks bounty hunters and Leia and Han blast one each and get away with Chewie after out running the gang and that's just it we still get some good camaraderie between them even though they're now husband and wife you know it's like that same dastardliness we dug in the saga is still here and it's great and so

[00:54:38] yeah just non-stop chasing and shoot them out here and so yeah after out running the the gangs those bounty hunters start blasting each other they get all traitorous they don't want to split the piece of the pie of the bounty so the trio then blasts away free storm troopers guarding the park falcon and they find their pals sala and niggs have fled after a protocol droid they have their leaves a message for them bastards couldn't wait

[00:55:08] the falcon takes off boba's trying to stop them in his repair slave one ship but they go through a narrow hangar maze and speed through one of slave one's wings leaving boba in the dust the falcon loses all sensor frequencies and after seven wrong turns lands on a bottom port of the spaceport city as they get closer to finding jedi survivor veema they retrieve veema onto the falcon despite her saying she's not worthy of serving a jedi like leah's worthiness oh cry me a river so

[00:55:39] yeah boba fett shoots and wounds chewy on foot but chewy after playing dead then takes boba's helmet makes his jetpack go out of whack again causing him to get knocked out once he hits the ceiling so yeah it's fun for a back to return the jedi come up and it's cool just seeing a beast like chewy do as usual play dead and knock everyone out so chewy keeps boba fett's helmet as a souvenir i love how they strategically don't show what boba's

[00:56:08] face looked like they still kept him as serious even back then and this was the 90s the falcon avoids the two imperials on board their star destroyer by flying behind the space traffic tower where a contact named mako from earlier has given them up to collect han's bounty for his arrest as a result the destroyer's tractor beam is trying to track solo but they instead pick up the traffic control base and it tractors that up splitting the destroyer in half due to its own incompetence and han's trick

[00:56:37] so yeah some cool dispatches and not takeouts so meanwhile han's smuggler pals solo and neeks still a docking bay code they have their generic transport pose as an imperial tech support machine and they bypass imperial security on the emperors planet so they can find solo as confiscated ship the star flight intruder palpatine is now giving executors address a scolding that's right

[00:57:07] can't have that so as his two dark jedi associates are reported dead from that star destroyer collision and he orders to capture luke and his jedi pal cam on the osis planet before they get what artifacts they need to fight them luke and kim are in luke's new ship the jedi explorer in osis which is revealed to have been 4,000 years ago as a jedi teaching ground during the sith war but yeah kim is just one of the

[00:57:36] other pals they pick up on the osis planet and so they didn't actually no no it's cam still i'm just having it wrong so yeah they encounter force power shaman villagers who fire force power projectile heroes which are no match to our duo but yeah this is a 4,000 years old jedi teaching ground during the sith war

[00:58:06] so we're talking years and years centuries ago so an imperial hunter exclusive ship for the story which looks suspiciously like a klingon warbird from star and that appears they have seven force sensitive troopers they get killed cam slaves the one dark sider while luke holds cedris in his force grip cedris tries to take hostage jim so there's you go there's the gal who's going to be here for a one of the force

[00:58:36] sensitive shamans women but the powerful tree which coincidentally is referenced in the holocron that's in that area crushes cedris while unleashing a powerful laser energy luke begins to understand the jisana language through jim's force powers so yeah she and her brother become a big key part of this so meanwhile at by the emperor has the galaxy gun super station it looks literally

[00:59:06] like one giant turret floating around and we don't know the exact people on board but it really doesn't need that many people to operate but we see a few but again I like how you know we got the emperor's you know dretnaut ship and then we got this thing so it's so cool that we have two other things other than just super star destroyers and another death star so yeah this thing can obliterate anything anywhere in the galaxy and it's being constructed

[00:59:37] computers really off the chart and it's been developed by someone I'll get to later who has developed the original death star so the emperor gets news of his last four dark servants dying by skywalker and company as he takes his 200 grunts who are loyal to him and literally transforms them into dark jedi in minutes so boom I like how he's getting this upper hand he's doing the oldest trick in the book that every villain does and that's to be cheating so

[01:00:06] Luke and Salazar get into their jedi artifacts temple while jim can you know spelled like it jim like g-e-m but you know it's a j so she confirms once again to skywalker that she's definitely interested in becoming a jedi herself now that they can communicate the trio leaves the planet together and gets the asana people to agree to guard the temple until they get back with rebel reinforcements so as you do they just meditate there until the narrative requires otherwise so han leah and chewie escape

[01:00:36] narshana planet but with 10 minutes left of reserve power and boba fett slave one still pursuing them after eliminating two bounty hunter patrol ships han takes the falcon into a gas cloud to finally evade the falcon gets through surprisingly well but is stopped and towed by a robita colossus steam powered colony ship where this colony has lived far away from the rest of the galaxy the empire's domain is successfully infiltrated by the stolen bots while the emperor unleashes his own

[01:01:06] viper war droids wild how this was before the prequel and mandelorian had so many other droid armies in their portrayals so the stolen droids being used by the rebels are badass as they absorb any turbo blasted lasers fired at them and use it as their firing energy so think of a solar panel but it's firing lasers back at you so the emperor then orders genetically altered ranker sized beasts and they're able to finally take out the stolen battle

[01:01:36] droids the rebels are using due to their armor not absorbing any lasers and having no energy to fight being torn to shreds the rebel troops are to see free PO offload from the bots as they continue their ambush Sala Han's pow meanwhile reappears and convinces military freighters and smugglers to assist the rebels they're willing despite knowing the consequences that they give a brief you know you know game plan it's like they still away their

[01:02:06] giant marauder ships with illegal modified shielding and far more illegal ion cannon blasters to use in their combat with the imperials the ships escape and blast the war beasts the emperor lets them go as his fleet could risk firing on his galaxy gun station and he refuses to waste any more power on the so-called scum the falcon's emergency repair finishes up on the hidden

[01:02:35] planet the are people with other tech sources and floating robotic spacesuits that this hidden thing haunts at and they allow them to breathe in space as well with the leader tagging along with the falcon king brand is the leader of these people and he was a jedi knight in hiding and wanted to further assist jedi user zima and leah he king brand alerts his men to keep his hidden ship and

[01:03:05] visitors safe while he leaves for this battle he's kind of like Lando where he has a noble cause but he's also I love that whole space kingdom kind of thing and again he's a jedi in hiding he's basically like a flying kind of robot circular with some muscle and blaster cannon hands yeah he's very cool design so the falcon now has antique fighting guns which incapacitate boba fett's slave one ship

[01:03:35] as they get out of the glass gas cloud it's it's a lot guys but we're getting through this so they continually mention hidden planet which is codenamed that name as the place where leah and hans kids jaina and jason are still hidden so meanwhile Luke trains a new padawan and his jedi explorer ship where he and jim both acknowledge

[01:04:05] loving feelings for each other so back in Luke's orbit he and his ship's crew notice a missile blast from the emperor's new particle disintegrating weapon that's striking apart the dashusha water planet where the main rebel base is hidden I know it's like this can't get a break and yeah and it just goes on and

[01:04:35] on and it's awesome but yeah they gotta fight back and this planet explosion you know will then result in a nucleonic chain reaction Luke notes how this weapon has not only destroyed the planet completely but spread through the different molecules and claimed the lives of the entire rebel alliance in Mon Mothma that were stationed there meanwhile on new Elderon Leia's wondering where the rebel supply ships are she senses this disturbance

[01:05:06] and yeah she's like I don't know how to take this she's like holy crap all this is gone and yeah and just go back and forth and just like man and she and her caretaker winter note that they can't signal to the fleet as that would give away their hidden location but Luke and his free Jedi arrive in his explorership with the grim news

[01:05:36] then on the Vijon planet where the Emperor's dark castle which was previously Darth Vader's refuge harbor some of the four dark Jedi minions who are torturing rebel supply ship pilot Major nothing so they can find out the new Elderon location the Emperor arrives and the location has been found psychological torture does that so the Emperor wants to obliterate all opposition so bad but knows he won't get the Jedi Jedi children any other way so he sends seven dark Jedi

[01:06:05] ships to retreat them Luke the free Jedi King Bran Han Chewie and Leia meet in the hollow images room on their planet so it's like a new Elbron after King Bran has introduced the free Jedi to some teachings that Yoda taught him once so I like this throwback we don't see Yoda we just get him mentioned the hollow images then project some Jedi meditation skill sets Luke must teach his free students all the Jedi information while Han and Chewie

[01:06:35] head off again in the Falcon to alert Lando wedge in the remaining rebels at the Emperor's Planet Abyss for the next battle stages Luke is having a very bad dream of the Emperor being victorious with visions that's right of Luke becoming the next Vader once again so it turns out there are some robotic scarab droids that have snuck into Luke's quarters that are trying to poison him I feel like George Lucas totally ripped this off from his own people for Attack of the Clones beginning assassination scene but

[01:07:06] I say this as a fan but yeah Jim lightsaber stabs the first of the two dark Jedi who are entering the tomb Leia then stabs the new second in command dark Jedi after Jim engages them in a blaster fight and is critically injured this was a little confusing at first because everyone was drawn a little differently but I reread and I got it all don't skim read for this so ancient Jedi Vima she comes out and is a badass she heals both Jim

[01:07:35] and Luke using her force ways Padawan Rife you know who's the brother of Jim and King Bran battle five dark Jedi outside the sanctuary so that's epic Salazar fights the main dark executor guy you know Salazar you know is our main guy who was a force previous dark sider so he's you know they're telling him all the stuff you know come join us again he's like no I won't betray Luke I'm a good guy now

[01:08:05] but yeah he fights the main dark executor and gets info from him the executor signals to the last main dark Jedi who's stealing Leia's twins the kidnappers stopped and killed by Leia herself that's awesome new Elderon is getting walloped by the new modified AT-ATs you know the giant chicken walkers with camel walkers not chickens with advanced turbo lasers and the Jedi evacuate with Luke fully recovered

[01:08:35] and making sure Vima is safe Luke is saddened that his guard went down so now the Empire has an extra grasp on the planet during his recovery the Falcon and Lando's reinforcements get back just in time you know this is a ship raid against all the AT-ATs so the three smuggler ships and an X-wing squad found in a nearby system come along with them they're pretty much just improvising this because they don't have enough they don't know if anyone else is left out there

[01:09:05] so three of the six AT-ATs are taken out by the X-Wings thanks to Lando's coordinates with Lando and Han both targeting one in each of their respective ships cannons all rebels are evacuated and all four ships jump to hyperspace as Dark Jedi Hal Runner ships shoot at them in vain the new rebel hideaways in the deep spaces of the oral system located on the city planet of Nespas VIII which is a city abandoned before the Clone Wars and now part of a system dating 4,000 years back to the great Sith war so

[01:09:35] news flash Blond Mothlin and Rock reeked our heroes they state that the Rose were able to evacuate their older planet just in time will go into hiding so yeah pretty big fake out but I'll allow it Leo goes into labor and we see the birth of Anakin Solo Luke sees an optimistic vision this time of all three grown-up solo kids as Jedi bringing light back to the galaxy so yeah epic epic Han is racking up the body count

[01:10:05] just Luke and Leo are facing the ugly side of reality so the Osa's planets in part free of empires in these ancient warriors are keeping the Jedi temple safe on Luke's orders but are encountering other visions that are a mishmash of what the audience has already seen so yeah they're going crazy just doing the right thing now the alliance troop shit Pelagaya commanded by Captain Tekba is sent to meet with an X-wing

[01:10:34] fight group in the Ottawa system and armed with 100,000 armored rebel ground troops the entire green leader and Pelagaya rebel ships are evaporated by the emperor's galaxy gun as it exits hyperspace so thousands of kills for emperor and a diplomat from the gamma system comes to the emperor station to offer allegiance but the emperor negates it the emperor notes that he's a genetically unstable clone body as his physician asks him to take

[01:11:04] a look at him and get him to calm down because he's so angry so they don't hold back they make sure you hate this guy you know he is worse than the actual you know first emperor so the emperor gets notified by his imperial ships on the new whereabouts the rebels current base and the coordinates are locked the emperor now just wants blood no more warning shots the rebel nephes eighth hideout is now a giant space hangar and coming along very well

[01:11:34] 3PO locates the imperial spy placed a homing beacon in the same place where R2 is doing repairs and scanning the nav computers mon mothma announces the news of the 100,000 troops deaths and Chewie brings the captured imperial spy to the main quarters after a free field points about so location of the base has already been betrayed and a slowed down missile fired by the emperor's galaxy gun station doesn't explode but the base rebel bases evacuated yet again they're

[01:12:04] just going to keep running it's kind of like balistar galactica hide fight run little fighting but yeah keep running and hiding so the rebel electronic crews are ordered by Han to hack that missile and figure out its machinery in the meantime the emperor's probe droids see this attack was unsuccessful and the emperor orders another projectile missile made the emperor's position once again asks his excellency to remain calm or otherwise face his body's rapid decay since it's

[01:12:34] the last clone body currently on file the emperor will go to osis while the shaman's jedi bloodline would be enough to create a new body for the emperor so that ancient jedi temple they're going there the emperor's new enhanced star destroyer the eclipse 2 is ready for battle and again it looks like a star destroyer but with a big giant vertical line in between it just making it more intimidating it can definitely demolish through a bunch of destroyers and crush it without

[01:13:03] filling anything that's how powerful and armored it is so yeah luke and his four jedi take two separate ships and try to find out why the emperor kidnapped osis and the two other shaman she's from osis the rebels have split up so that not all their ships can get destroyed all in one place while lee and her kids go into hiding once more to preserve the future uh cam salazar remembers the planet v john where lord vader used to have secret meetings at you know back when he was you know imperial underling and you should just look that they checked

[01:13:33] that place out so again it's all friends close enemies closer they're remembering all their sneaky stuff back when they had to and they're using it to their infiltration gain so i really dig cam salazar he is very underrated much like dash rindar and even you know kalkitar and same kind of deal you know former imperials and bounty hunter turned rebel heroes yes i love these anti-heroes you know and so

[01:14:04] yeah uh luke and his jedis land on that planet and cut through the troopers and dark sides and engage in all these gun fights and laser sword struggles plenty of action here this is the standout fight alone and luke ends the overall fight by causing a giant darth vader statue to squash the sith minions while cam is getting outnumbered luke captures darksider nist after besting him in a fight nist is bragging he'd be successful at bringing luke's head to the emperor himself

[01:14:34] the jedi crew find that the free shaman have been frozen in carbonite and the captured darksider nist states that only the emperor can unfreeze the prisoners here luke announces that only he can stop the emperor once and for all like how about those apples blam so leah hides out with her kids on the endurian planet ship isis while solo gets the falcon repaired and the inhabitants to pledge defense forces to their cause

[01:15:03] the falcon escapes this planet to draw away attention and han finds a way for the emperor's main ship to not be able to use tractor beams on him and make it briefly malfunction luke han and his other jedi get an imperial ship captured so that yeah yeah the rebels can assault the emperor's eclipse to dretnon flagship while the imperials

[01:15:33] in charge have the galactic gun ship ready but learn from one of the emperor's underlings that palpatine isn't there here and he's actually at leah's fortress luke's apprentice salzar helps land out chewie and rebel soldiers board the emperor's flagship and connect cables to hackable planets so that r2 can do some kind of computer hacking he did prior so so much going all at once i'm glad he's able to make this all make sense so outside the emperor's ship wedge and blue team

[01:16:03] rebel fleet fighters you know x-wings all that they fight the emperor's shadow droids and tie fighters in space emperor palpatine uses his remaining powers you know he goes down to the protective planet where leah's hiding out at on the isis planet and she weakens leah's protective he weakens leah's protective pal kira another character sounds like a star track reference and the jedi pal vima by

[01:16:33] posing as a weakened individual king brand and rife come in and defend leah uh actually yeah yeah palpatine first electrocutes leah and c-free po he's malfunctioning while his two assistants tell him once again to stop using his remaining powers it's you know using up his energy king brand you know our floating you know jedi robotic guy and rife you know come in and defend leah with rife killing one of the sith

[01:17:02] and yeah it's like man uh palpatine didn't electrocute rife to death but i forgot to mention some of the other stuff it's like yeah uh so many other people die you know uh he's already again you know just killed the sister and jim and before this and all that so yeah it's it's getting intense and it's a shame but yeah

[01:17:33] palpatine then does what all bad guys do you know after he's electrocuted rife to death he goes and monologues how he's going to try and have his dying soul enter you know leave his body and cross into his newborn anakin han shoots palpatine's current form he gets to this base you know in time and the injured king brand jumps in front of the emperor's soul as it's escaping his body making it connect with his body instead hey so you know he's saving anakin as he's

[01:18:03] falling out of the hands and it's like but yeah king brand remarks to luke that he's keeping palpatine's spirit as a prisoner within his dying body and then he himself dies sealing both him and the emperor's fate for the sudden but heroic sacrifice so again talk about spiritual cat and mouse game it's like man i got it and luke laments that now that they've lost jim rife and now king brand that he'll be crushed if his protege cam salazar doesn't survive this onslaught

[01:18:33] he does don't worry but yeah it is a shame it's like all three of those other jedi we've grown to love have not made it so the rebel hacking crew is successful on the emperor's ship as chewie defends the guys from stormtroopers in the hallway and r2 makes the emperor's eclipse two ships start flying out of control and then fly into the galaxy gun the galaxy gun is being operated by its engineer umak lath you know he constantly is showing up in the story and

[01:19:03] yeah i mean the imperial commander has been left there they're muttering traitorous words between themselves are like we could fire this gun now like it's dawned on them it's like we could just blast the galaxy gun on everything now and we would become the true emperors of the empire yeah i like that idea the emperor takes any longer we're gonna fire this thing but lo and behold the collision uh of the emperor's

[01:19:32] you know let me get the name sorry guys there's so many notes um excelsior 2 you know it's like uh it destroys this galaxy gun and while also making the galaxy gun's missiles go flying outwards toward the emperor's vice planet obliterating that planet as well so everything on that is like r2d2 you caused all this destruction good on you the millennium falcon with our heroes you know lando you know

[01:20:02] by this point wedge's fleet has already stopped fighting they've gone elsewhere but it's so complicated the way it happens like excelsior 2 like jumps uncontrollably to warp and then collides with the galaxy gun and then the falcon jumps off just in time before it all blows up they jump to hyperspace long before all this mayhem we live happily ever after with worldwide galaxy peace until the next time that is but yeah it's like it's just like whoop whoop whoop we are getting

[01:20:32] one whopping thing after another but yeah four and a half out of five for me this is an essential entry in the Star Wars canon accepted by Disney or not but it is a classic definitely listen to the official audiobooks as well as I mentioned earlier like you will not be let down it is some good stuff and all together like you just feel just so committed and it's great it's really great and what else

[01:21:02] can I say like please check it out guys if you haven't already you won't be let down don't let you can easily find any of the audiobooks that were released I think by like time corner on YouTube users have compiled them all together much like the various comics and other audiobooks people have even done fan recreations with their own voiceovers whatever would entertain you and much like Splinter of the Mind's Eye and some of the other

[01:21:32] stuff it's all worth it it truly is and this is the golden era of Star Wars this is probably the second best trilogy if anything if we're gonna go there so yeah check out the other stuff we've talked about already in this you know these last few weeks including infinities and enjoy we'll return after these messages we've got a 90 minute weekly shack stop it's growing all over

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[01:23:30] then listen to the Florida men on Florida man podcast that's Florida men plural on Florida man podcast do do ever find yourself thinking about who would win in a fight between Goku and Superman hi I'm James Gavsey and on the who would win show me and my co-host Ray ignore anything important happening in the outside world and debate fictional battles between characters from comics movies and video games we got a new show every week and almost always am I the winner not true Ray in the past we've discussed such matches as

[01:24:00] Captain America versus Darth Vader Solid Snake versus the Iron Giant classic matchups like Robocop versus Terminator and even the Muppets versus Sesame Street that one was crazy so if you're a fan of geek culture and love a spirited debate check out the Who Would Wins show wherever you get your podcasts or check us out at whowouldwinshow.com

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