Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
The Great Sith War has begun!
Well not really I guess. It’s been six months since Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun joined forces to bring about a new Sith golden age, and it doesn’t look like too much has happened in that time. The Krath’s war against the Republic has continued much the same as it was before, and no one seems to know that Ulic Qel-Droma now commands their military. Meanwhile, Exar Kun is about to hatch a scheme that involves walking up to people in the street and asking them to join him, which seems like something he easily could have started doing six months ago. What have they been doing all this time?
But before we get into any of that, we get the first appearance of the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians have a long and convoluted history, both within the Star Wars galaxy and in the context of real-world creative decisions, but they are essentially a marauding tribe of space barbarians. For honor and glory, they blow up some mining station in the Empress Teta system belonging to the Krath, the yuppie space cult founded by Ulic’s current squeeze, causing it to crash on the planet below and pissing off Ulic Qel-Droma.
Ulic contacts the Mandalorian leader, Mandalore the Indomitable, and demands his surrender, but Mandalore challenges him to a duel. If Mandalore wins, he gets the Empress Teta system, but if Ulic wins, the Mandalorians will pledge fealty to him. Mandalore’s conditions for the duel include fighting on a Mandalorian world, forcing Ulic to fight while balanced on a network of chains suspended in the air, and being able to use his giant flying Basilisk war droid against Ulic’s lightsaber.
[Continuity Note: Basilisk war droids are large, intelligent, animal-like robots that have giant claws and shoot lasers out of their face and are ridden into battle by Mandalorians like some kind of awesome space horse. “The History of the Mandalorians,” a reference article in Star Wars Insider #80 (2005), revealed that the Mandalorians acquired these droids by conquering the Basiliskans (of the planet Basilisk). The Basiliskans, which were basically just dragons, poisoned their own planet to defeat the Mandalorians, but they still ended up enslaved and used as war mounts in future conflicts. Over millennia their intelligence disappeared and they devolved into primitive beasts known as Lagartoz War Dragons. Because that’s what you’d expect to happen to an enslaved people, right?
[Anyway, that’s the story of how the Basilisk war droids got their name! Except not quite, because author Karen Traviss, equally renowned for her disdain of most Mandalorian lore not written by herself as for her unwillingness to read any Star Wars works not written by herself, introduced the Mandalorian word bes’uliik, literally translated as “iron beast.” According to the inclusivity of the EU canon policy, both origins of the term are equally valid, so apparently it was just some crazy cosmic coincidence or something.]
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YEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Despite Mandalore blatantly throwing the odds in his own favor in the name of “honor,” Ulic still thrashes his ass, taking out his war droid and forcing him to land on one of the chains. Mandalore whines that Ulic is being unfair and insists he trade in his lightsaber for a Mandalorian ax carved from mythosaur bone. Ulic does so and still beats him. Mandalore admits that his life is forfeit but Ulic allows him to live and makes him his second-in-command, thus securing the loyalty of the Mandalorian Crusaders.
Meanwhile, Exar Kun has traveled to the Jedi library world of Ossus to recruit volunteers for his new Sith Brotherhood. A crowd of young Jedi, including Cay Qel-Droma, Oss Wilum, and Crado, gathers around to hear him talk about how the Jedi Masters have been withholding knowledge from them. As evidence, he presents the Sith amulet he recovered from Yavin 4, calling it a “Jedi amulet” and explaining how it allowed him to defeat the ghost of Freedon Nadd. One of the Jedi, a female Vultan named Zona Luka, reflects on how Arca Jeth had been outfoxed by Nadd and failed his mission on Onderon miserably as a result.
Nearby, Nomi Sunrider expresses concern to Odan-Urr, our old friend from way back when we first started this series, over countering Sith illusions like those employed by Ulic’s evil girlfriend, Aleema, in the previous book. Odan-Urr offers to teach her the ultimate light-side technique, the “wall of light,” which a Jedi can use to permanently sever an individual’s connection to the Force. He reveals that he learned this power “when we fought the last of the Dark Lords . . . when the Jedi and the Republic drove the Sith to extinction.” Really wish we could have seen that instead of whatever boring shit happened in The Fall of the Sith Empire, KJA.
Nomi thanks Odan-Urr for teaching her this new technique, although all he did was talk about it for fifteen seconds, and leaves. Odan-Urr sits back and ponders the Sith holocron he recovered from a derelict warship at the end of the Great Hyperspace War. Suddenly the holocron begins to glow and levitates out of his hand. Exar Kun strides into the room and claims the holocron for his own. Sensing the great darkness inside this man, Odan-Urr casts him back with the Force and attempts to use the wall of light technique he was just talking about, but all Exar Kun has to do is stretch out his arm and Odan-Urr collapses.
“I . . . am old . . . ,” he moans as he lies dying. “Evil is loose . . . in the galaxy . . . and I cannot stop it . . .” His body vanishes into the Force, leaving behind only his robes, which Exar Kun kicks aside as he leaves. Had we read this series in the order it was published, this scene would have little impact, as Odan-Urr would just be some dude we knew nothing about. Having gone in chronological order, however, we’ve already seen him in his prime back during the Great Hyperspace War and watched him help save the galaxy from evil once before. His failure to do so now, at the end of his life, thus becomes somewhat emotionally affecting.
But really not too much.
Exar Kun’s Jedi groupies, except Cay Qel-Droma who I guess just wandered off somewhere, suddenly come in and ask what happened to Odan-Urr. Kun explains that he just now died of old age, but before he went he named Kun as Jedi Master and bequeathed him this special holocron. For some reason, the Jedi believe this very suspicious story and pledge themselves to Exar Kun’s tutelage.
Kun takes them to his stronghold on Yavin 4 aboard his ship, Starstorm One. He shows off the massive temples he’s had constructed but ass-kisser Crado, as always, is the only one who seems impressed. The Massassi come wandering out to say hello and for some reason Oss Wilum thinks they’re attacking and he starts fighting them with his lightsaber. The other Jedi join in but Exar Kun is able to calm everyone down, explaining that the Massassi are his servants and just trying to protect him.
Oss Wilum has seen enough and goes to leave but Kun has one last thing to show his acolytes. He admits that the supposed Jedi holocron he got from Odan-Urr is actually a Sith holocron, but he is going to destroy it and wants the Jedi’s help in purifying Yavin 4 for the light side. Oss Wilum, Zona Luka, Crado, and the 17 other converts decide to stay and watch, and Kun smashes the holocron with his fist, releasing the Sith spirits that were, for some reason, trapped inside it.
Broken pieces of the holocron fly out and strike all the Jedi except Crado, magically absorbing into their bodies and infecting them with the dark side. Now Oss Wilum and the others are all evil, because that’s how the dark side works.
This is the dumbest shit.
Meanwhile, Ulic and Mandalore lead their forces against the Republic shipyard at Foerost, while Aleema masks their fleet within the illusion of a single, suspiciously enormous ship. They capture the shipyard and all the Republic warships docked there with ease, and Ulic immediately begins making plans to move against Coruscant.
He hits up Exar Kun on his cell and tells him about his brilliant plan, and Exar Kun’s like “No, you idiot! We’re each supposed to build our forces independently and then attack together. Do you understand anything about strategy? How did you even get put in charge of our army? Oh, god, what was I thinking?” Ulic and Mandalore are confident in their plan, however, so Exar Kun is like “Fine, just do whatever you want, while you’re getting your asses kicked I’ll be over here resurrecting the Sith.”
Ulic ignores him and goes ahead with the invasion. Feinting at the Republic space station Kemplex IX, Ulic lures away the bulk of Coruscant’s defense fleet, then strikes at the capital world with his combined Krath and Mandalorian forces. Caught completely off-guard, Coruscant is devastated by the assault, and Ulic personally leads his ground troops into the Republic war room, overrunning all the opposition they encounter.
Ulic tries to coerce some dude into transmitting coordinates to the Republic fleet that will cause all their ships to collide with one another, but before he can carry out this masterstroke, he is betrayed by Aleema. While the Mandalorians pillage the Republic’s armory, Aleema tells Mandalore the Indomitable that Ulic has been killed and their forces are pulling out. Fresh from the battle outside, Cay Qel-Droma, Nomi Sunrider, the Twi’lek Jedi Tott Doneeta, Dace Diath, Shoaneb Culu, Qrrrl Toq, Sylvar, and Vodo-Siosk Baas, accompanied by Supreme Chancellor Sidrona, a gray squid-man, burst into the command center and take Ulic prisoner. Master Vodo and Nomi lead the other Jedi in casting a temporary wall of light around Ulic, and the Supreme Chancellor announces that he will be put on trial and sentenced to death.
We cut to Master Vodo on his training planet of Dantooine, where he gazes up at the stars and reflects on how he failed his greatest student, Exar Kun, as he repairs the wooden staff Kun severed in the previous book. Although Ulic has been arrested as the perpetrator behind the attack on Coruscant, Vodo knows that he is just a pawn, another victim of Exar Kun’s hunger for power. Resolving to settle things with his wayward pupil once and for all, Vodo sets out for Coruscant, to attend the trial of Ulic Qel-Droma. Considering that he was just there, one wonders why he bothered leaving in the first place. Cool scene, though.
Elsewhere, Mandalore analyzes the battle to figure out how they were defeated and realizes that Aleema has been lying to him. Determined to rescue Ulic, he sets off to Yavin 4 and reveals to Exar Kun everything that has happened. Kun doesn’t seem too concerned, agreeing to help Mandalore free his master almost on a whim. But he decides that maybe Ulic will have learned a valuable lesson from this experience, and that it’s time to show the Republic what they’re truly up against.
On Coruscant, Ulic is brought before the Senate in chains, his chest still seeping blood from the stupid magical wound he got in the previous volume. Addressing the assembled senators, he declares, “I don’t plead with fools. You are puppets of tradition pretending to be important. The coming golden age has no place for you. Your Republic is an empty, self-indulgent diversion . . . signifying nothing. The lost glory of the Sith will turn all of your supposed accomplishments to dust!”
His brother, Cay, attempts to intercede on his behalf, reminding the Senate of all the good Ulic has done for the Republic and of how he’s under the influence of the Krath. “Cay, you don’t understand what’s going on here. You don’t understand anything,” Ulic snarls, his shackles abruptly falling open.
The doors to the Senate Hall spring open with an echoing crash and the Dark Lord of the Sith cheerfully strides into the center of the galactic capital, flanked by Mandalore the Indomitable and an honor guard of Massassi warriors. “Excuse me, might I join the discussion?” asks Exar Kun, smiling broadly. “I’ve got something I’m sure you’ll find interesting.”
Using the Force, Kun freezes the entire Senate in their seats, rendering them unable to speak or move but forced to watching the proceedings. While Ulic and the Massassi hold back Cay, Nomi, and Sylvar, Exar Kun seizes Supreme Chancellor Sidrona and, manipulating him like a ventriloquist’s dummy, forces him to announce to the paralyzed Senate that they are all irrelevant puppets. He kills the Chancellor and turns to leave, only to find Master Vodo-Siosk Baas standing in his way.
Kun invites his old mentor to join the Sith Brotherhood, but Vodo reluctantly declines. He asks Kun to reconsider his actions and realize how far he has strayed from the Jedi way, but Kun has already learned everything Vodo tried to teach him and found his knowledge lacking. Exar Kun reveals the modifications he has made to his lightsaber, igniting a second blade from the bottom of the hilt, and he duels against Master Vodo’s enchanted staff before the horrified Jedi and immobilized Senate.
[Continuity Note: This is the first appearance of the double-bladed lightsaber anywhere in Star Wars canon, almost four years before Darth Maul’s in The Phantom Menace. Chronologically, The Sith War also remains the earliest appearance of this weapon. For some reason, however, the EU decided that Exar Kun couldn’t actually have invented it by himself. Instead, he just followed the instructions in a Sith holocron, possibly or possibly not the same one he stole from Odan-Urr and later destroyed. I don’t know why they couldn’t let Kun keep this small achievement for himself, but I’m not surprised, honestly.]
Master Vodo is unable to withstand the vicious onslaught of Exar Kun’s twin blades. “This is not the end, Exar Kun,” he says as his defenses are battered aside. “You and I will fight again . . . perhaps not for a long time, but I will defeat you.” Exar Kun meets his master’s eyes for the last time, then, with a single stroke, cuts through Vodo’s wooden staff a second time, striking down the Jedi Master on the floor of the Senate Hall.
“Words,” Kun says dismissively. “Go on to your higher plane, teacher. The galaxy is mine now.”
The Sith depart, leaving Nomi, Cay, and Sylvar weeping in a huddle. Exar Kun seems dissatisfied with this victory, however, and the words Master Vodo once spoke to him bubble up in the back of his brain: “I sense something missing in you—an empty place hidden even from yourself . . . a place that remains unseen because no light escapes from that region of your heart.”
Exar Kun assigns his 20 followers with murdering their Jedi Masters. Across the galaxy, Jedi die at their own apprentices’ hands. Well, eight Jedi die at their hands, anyway. I guess Kun’s 12 other minions just fail miserably. Oss Wilum and Crado certainly do when they try to assassinate Master Thon on Ambria. They sic a couple of dark side dragons from Lake Natth on Thon, Nomi Sunrider, and Crado’s felinoid mate, Sylvar, but this plan just ends with Oss Wilum captured and Crado escaping in shame, his face now bearing the claw marks of his former lover.
[Continuity Note: The Sith War shows Kun recruit only 20 followers, all of whom besides Crado serve him only because they are possessed by Sith spirits. Later works depict a much larger number of Jedi converts who apparently joined the Sith of their own free will, such as the wife of Jolee Bindo from Knights of the Old Republic and RPG sourcebook character Larad Noon. These characters and others imply a far larger scale of conversion than that shown in the comics, to the extent that while we’re wasting our time with Exar Kun’s ghost-brainwashing scheme, there are apparently several full-scale battles between Jedi and Sith forces taking place just off-page.
[Flashbacks in the Knights of the Old Republic spinoff comic show a hint of these, while the Clone Wars novel Shatterpoint introduces a Republic warship full of Jedi that was shot down during the war. Knights of the Old Republic itself, the videogame, contains many references to Exar, Ulic, and the Great Sith War, treating it as a much more devastating and transformational conflict than one might suspect just from reading the comic alone.
[The 2002 videogame Star Wars: The Clone Wars for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox introduces a completely new campaign from the early days of the war involving a Sith superweapon called the Dark Reaper. A giant disk-shaped machine capable of draining the Force from large populations at a time, the Dark Reaper was used by Ulic to spread “genocidal-scale death” among the Republic, until I guess he felt bad about that and told the Jedi how to turn it off. So that explains what the Sith were up to during those missing six months at the beginning of the war?
[Almost 4,000 years later, Ulic’s Force ghost appears to Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars to give him some protips on destroying the Dark Reaper, which has been reassembled by Count Dooku. For some reason his spiritual form bears a large diagonal Sith tattoo across its face, despite never having such a mark there in life.]
As Crado confesses his failure to Exar Kun, Mandalore informs Ulic of Aleema’s betrayal. “She has always manipulated me . . . ,” Ulic admits. “First through torture, then poison . . . then love.” Aleema runs up and embraces him, but his thoughts are troubled by memories of Nomi.
The Sith prepare a double feint, striking at Kemplex IX for real this time. Exar and Ulic put Aleema and Crado in charge of the mission, entrusting them with Naga Sadow’s warship and its Force-crystal superweapon.
Meanwhile, all the main Jedi characters have gathered on Ossus to discuss what to do about this rash of assassinations when they get word that Kemplex IX is under attack. Dace Diath, Shoaneb Culu, and Qrrrl Toq, the Three Musketeers of Pointlessness, volunteer to go repel this threat while the others defend Ossus.
Kemplex IX is located in the Cron Cluster, a closely packed group of ten stars apparently arranged by the (ancient precursor) Celestials because they had nothing better to do. Dace, Shoaneb, and Qrrrl arrive and hail the Sith ship, to which Aleema responds by using Naga Sadow’s ship to amplify her Force powers and yank the core out of one of the nearby stars and hurl it at the Jedi.
The radiation completely sterilizes all life aboard their ships, killing the trio instantly, but Aleema and Crado did not foresee the rest of Exar Kun’s plan. The collapsing star goes supernova, destroying Sadow’s ship and setting off a chain reaction that causes the other nine stars to explode as well. As Aleema is vaporized, she realizes that Ulic has discovered her treachery, but Crado is too stupid to understand that he was killed simply for being an annoying sycophant.
Back on Ossus, the Jedi scramble to collect all the ancient knowledge in their library, because the combined supernovae will reach them in a few years and they need to evacuate. Oh wait I guess it’ll just be there in like fifteen minutes, never mind. Present for the chaos are Master Thon, Cay Qel-Droma, the Twi’lek Jedi Tott Doneeta, and Nomi Sunrider and her daughter, Vima. Cay insists that there must be something more they can do to save the Jedi texts, but Thon says, “We have greater concerns than your precious scrolls!”
Suddenly, Cay and Nomi sense Ulic’s presence aboard a ship entering the planet’s atmosphere. They are overjoyed, thinking that Ulic has decided to come back to them, and Cay rushes to his own ship to meet up with his brother. They don’t realize that Ulic and Exar Kun have come to plunder the Jedi archives while Mandalore and his men attack Onderon. Jesus, again with the Onderon. Why does anyone even care about that shitty backwater planet?
Exar Kun leads a group of Massassi warriors into the Jedi archives, where Master Ood Bnar, whom you may remember as the Jedi who is a tree, is busy burying a stash of antique lightsabers in the hope that this will save them from a supernova. For some reason, Exar Kun decides that he must have these crappy old weapons, and demands that Ood hand them over. The Jedi Master refuses, to which Kun cheerily responds, “Looks like I’ll be chopping wood today!”
Knowing that he can’t outfight the Dark Lord of the Sith, Ood draws Force energy from Ossus and initiates his species’ metamorphosis, growing even larger and more treelike and sinking his roots into the ground directly over the lightsaber cache. Foiled, Kun leaves, saying that it would have been better for Ood if he’d just handed over the lightsabers. It sounds like bitter grapes, but he’s actually right. Ood is now anchored to the doomed planet, essentially sacrificing his life to protect some garbage.
Fortunately for Exar Kun, his Massassi have collected a great wealth of Jedi scrolls and tomes for him, and he is getting ready to leave when Sylvar confronts him, blaming him for corrupting Crado and killing Master Vodo. Then a Massassi just clocks her and they all get in their ship and take off, leaving Ulic to fend for himself.
Annoyed at being chased by his brother, Ulic swings his ship in behind him and shoots him down. Cay extricates himself from the crash and finds Ulic waiting for him, lightsaber in hand. Reluctantly, Cay takes up arms against his brother, and they duel in the streets as Cay tries to assuage Ulic’s guilt over the death of Master Arca. This succeeds only in enraging Ulic further, however, and Cay gets his arm cut off.
Again.
“Ulic, I love you!” Cay cries. “That’s why I’m doing this!”
“Then you should have just . . . left me . . . ALONE!” Ulic says, and kills him.
Nomi and the Twi’lek Jedi Tott
Doneeta run up to where Ulic, immediately struck by grief and regret, is
cradling his brother’s body. Cursing Ulic for what he’s done, Nomi goes all
Jean Grey and loses control of herself. The Twi’lek Jedi Tott Doneeta begs her
to stop, claiming there has already been enough suffering today, but Nomi
ignores him. “Ulic—I loved you, but
this . . . this!” she cries. “I imprison you in a wall of light. A fortress to
block you from the Force . . . blind you to your Jedi powers!”
Ulic collapses, completely weak and powerless. The Twi’lek Jedi Tott Doneeta demands to know what Nomi has done to their friend, and Nomi, seeming to regret her impromptu judgment already, admits that she had no idea the technique would be so powerful, and that she has no idea how to undo it.
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“Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew!” |
“First my Master Thon,” weeps Ulic, apparently forgetting that Master Thon is standing right there and his dead master’s name was Arca Jeth, “then my brother Cay, now my own powers . . . Nothing is left!”
Then Oss Wilum is randomly there all of a sudden and I guess he’s gotten over that bad case of demonic possession, because he tells Ulic that he too understands the guilt of having done evil, but what’s important now is that they stop Exar Kun. Ulic agrees to lead them to Yavin 4, thoughtlessly selling out the guy who broke him out of jail as if he had anything to do with Ulic killing his brother.
As the Jedi make their final preparations to evacuate Ossus, Thon stops to pay a last visit to his old friend Ood Bnar. The dumb dinosaur Jedi tells the dumb tree Jedi how sad he is to lose him and it’s adorable. Then Thon leaves and the shockwave hits the planet, scorching it to a cinder but somehow only causing Ood Bnar to fall over slightly.
The Twi’lek Jedi Tott Doneeta has sent a Facebook invite to all the Jedi—literally every Jedi in the galaxy—and, even more improbably, they’ve all clicked accept and all several thousand of them are en route to Yavin 4 right now. “We must create a wall of light . . . ,” says Nomi, because that worked out so well for her the last time, “. . . either to cleanse . . . or to destroy.” Hey wasn’t the point of this technique supposed to be to resolve conflicts nonviolently? Pretty sure you just said that a couple pages ago after metaphysically castrating your ex.
Meanwhile, in a completely irrelevant plotline, the Mandalorian Crusaders are busy attacking the walled city of Iziz on Onderon, but Oron Kira and Queen Galia, great and memorable characters that they are, are able to beat them back with their Beast Riders and giant laser cannons. Republic reinforcements arrive and Mandalore the Indomitable retreats with his men to the evil monster-populated moon of Dxun, but his Basilisk war droid is shot down in the process. He crashes in the jungle and is immediately devoured by ravenous beasts.
With that subplot out of the way, the Jedi fleet assembles in orbit around Yavin 4, and Ulic sends a message to Exar Kun telling him that all of the Jedi have united to stop him. Master Thon, wearing a tiny radio headset on his massive Triceratops skull, adds, “Exar Kun, nggrrssh, your dream of a Sith golden age is but a nightmare . . . from which we must now awaken.”
Outraged at Ulic’s betrayal, Kun nevertheless admits to himself that even he can’t stand against the combined power of all the Jedi, so he makes preparations to win in another way. He gathers every Massassi on the moon together in the Temple of Fire—save for the largest one, whom he sends into the isolation chambers beneath the temple to be his last line of defense. We’ll be seeing this guy again in a few thousand years, believe it or not.
Shackling himself to an obelisk in the center of the temple, Exar Kun drains the combined life force from all of his willing Massassi followers, a sacrificial Sith ritual designed “to unleash his powerful spirit . . . to shed the chains of his mortal body and run rampant throughout the cosmos!”
Famous Last Words: “My spirit will live forever! FOREVER!” – Exar Kun
At the same time, the wall of light generated by all the Jedi in the galaxy simultaneously sweeps across Yavin 4, cleansing it of the dark side by causing the jungle moon to burst into flames. Confused over how they managed to inadvertently firebomb an entire ecosphere, the Jedi depart, leaving the moon to be consumed by flames as they go about the business of rebuilding the parts of the galaxy they actually care about.
Back on Dxun, Mandalore the Indigestible’s men are combing the forest for their leader. One of them spies his mask lying on the ground, presumably near a pile of bones and toothmarked armor. In the tradition of their people, he puts the mask on his own face, proclaiming himself the new Mandalore. We would be seeing him again in the next series, but they retconned it into someone else!
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| Costas Mandylor is dead; long live Costas Mandylor. |
Two years later, Ulic returns to Yavin 4 aboard his ship, Cay’s Dream. He has searched the galaxy for a way to restore his connection to the Force but come up with nothing. His pilgrimage to Yavin 4 is equally unsuccessful; he finds no survivors, and no hint of what else he might be looking for. There is nothing for him here. “Still searching, still lost, Ulic Qel-Droma walks away . . .” As he leaves, he doesn’t hear the disembodied voice calling out to him from the darkness: “Ulic! I can feel you out there. It’s dark. I’m trapped. I survived . . . but I’m trapped. Ulic! Why don’t you answer me? Don’t leave me! Ulic! Ulic?”
Meditations
In an interview a few months after the final issue of The Sith War was published, TotJ creator Tom Veitch remarked, “I don't feel I really had a chance to get into some of the characters I created. Ulic Qel-Droma was taken away from me and trashed. Honestly, I feel that some of the characters like Master Thon and Master Arca have a built in richness that we barely began to explore. We really should have woven a much more detailed and complex tapestry before we rushed into the events of Dark Lords of the Sith. I feel now that it was a mistake to ask another writer to collaborate on that series.”
It’s easy to blame all the series’ missteps on Kevin J. Anderson, and The Sith War certainly isn’t going to win any awards for its writing (and the less said about KJA’s solo prequel arcs the better), but the pre-DLotS comics, despite some interesting ideas, really aren’t anything to write home about either. Veitch is absolutely right that the characters should have been much better developed before the war broke out, but in the end KJA was the one who actually made Ulic an interesting character, and that hasn’t happened yet.
We have one more item to go before we’re done with Tales of the Jedi, but The Sith War is basically the culmination of the storyline we’ve been following since Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon. And as such, it’s . . . ehh. Many of the structural flaws are the result of weaknesses in the previous volumes, such as Dace Diath, Shoaneb Culu, and Qrrrl Toq being non-characters and Ulic’s fall to the dark side being less than narratively earned. Cay’s death probably would have been more dramatic if I didn’t keep forgetting he existed, too.
The art isn’t completely terrible, although it is noticeably much poorer than the first five issues of Dark Lords of the Sith and replete with characters drawn with spit lines stretched between their teeth. Tom Veitch wasn’t involved with writing this arc, but surprisingly the story doesn’t suffer too much for it. The writing of this whole series has been pretty lukewarm; Chris Gosset’s art, infrequent though it is, is really the heart and soul of TotJ, as will become apparent in the concluding arc.
The tone of this comic also goes hand in hand with KJA’s goofy, juvenile writing. Now that Exar Kun is a full-blown villain instead of a tortured soul sliding into darkness, he can get away with one-liners like “Looks like I’ll be chopping wood today!” as he fights a tree, and his cavalier attitude as he invades the Republic Senate. KJA’s penchant for over-the-top Force powers is also something of a boon here; we have to deal with nonsense like Aleema wrenching the cores from stars, but Exar Kun freezing the entire Senate in place and controlling the Supreme Chancellor like a puppet are suitably impressive abilities for the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Despite its frequent silliness, this story also boasts a few genuinely cool or affecting moments, at least on paper. Exar Kun’s final confrontation with Master Vodo is legitimately well done, but one can only wonder how much better it could have been if more time and care had gone into fleshing out their relationship beforehand.
Unlike Exar Kun, who is now finally cool but somehow even less nuanced then before, Nomi Sunrider continues to be utterly unlikeable. It’s clear from the text that her decision to strip Ulic of the Force was motivated purely by revenge; Ulic was no threat to anyone at that point and was clearly already remorseful for what he’d done. Nomi literally cripples him just to make herself feel better, but no one ever says anything to her about giving in to the dark side. Not like poor Ulic, who ends up killing his brother and losing his connection to the Force because Nomi refused to rescue him from the Krath when she had the chance. She just really cannot get over being dumped, I guess.
In all honesty, this comic isn’t
that great, and it’s noticeably a step down from Dark Lords of the Sith, but it’s still easily above the first three
TotJ arcs. It’s worth it to see the conclusion to the war that this whole damn
series has been building to, even if we care about very few of the personages
involved. For a Star Wars comic, it’s
pretty all right. 3.5/5 Death Stars.
Really though you could probably just watch the movie.
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