Not much of a story, while it basically finished off Dark
Empire II. Again, it was unrealistic, with over the top characterizations
and technology, as well as too-powerful Force abilities.
The Emperor once again fires the galaxy gun at the once-secret
Rebel base, and destroys it, but thanks to a bad timer, they fleet is able
to escape once again. The emperor is so angry, that he uses the Force
to lash out at anyone and everyone. This causes his clone body to
accelerate its aging, so that he is becoming an old man, fast. He
decides to change his strategy, and pursue the new body that he wishes:
Anakin Solo.
Luke goes to Ossus once again, where he discovers the leaders
of the people who helped him last time are being captured so the Emperor
can have temporary clone bodies with some Force sensitivity in them.
The Emperor goes to Vader's former castle (from The
Early Adventures, I think), but Luke and his new Jedi foil him there.
So he goes to the ancient planet where the Sith
originated, Korriban, to gain the help of the spirits of the former Sith
lords. I was under the impression that only the Light Side users
could live on in their spirits, but I guess it's not impossible for the
Dark Side, too, especially in a place with such focused Dark Side energy.
The spirits want to take him to their realm, and tell him that
only Anakin can be his salvation. So he then follows Leia to Onderon,
the planet where Knights of the Old
Republic takes place. It was neat to see this place again, and
to see that it hasn't really changed in four thousand years. It also
seems that the ruling line has been around for at least that long, as the
leader's name is the same as in that book.
The showdown is in the fortress that probably belonged to Freedon
Nadd, where other showdowns must have taken place way back in time.
The Republic fleet engages the Emperor's new flagship -which
I think was built too large, in much too short a time period, again.
It looks just like the one in Dark Empire,
which I thought was stupid to begin with. However, it does provide
for an awesome full page panel at the end, when the Eclipse emerges into
hyperspace to crash into the galaxy gun. The gun fires on the ship,
but it is too late, and the torpedo destroys the Emperor's world of Dark
secrets, Byss.
But before that happens, the Emperor defeats many of the Jedi
Luke has just begun to train. But when it looks like all is lost,
the Emperor is shot by Han. Luke realizes that this is a big mistake,
because the Emperor now tries to jump into Anakin's body. But the
Jedi with the mechanical suit floats up into the air between Anakin and
the Emperor's spirit, and absorbs the spirit instead.
The two spirits fight for a few seconds, then the Jedi dies,
taking the Emperor's spirit with him into death. Hopefully, that
is the last we ever see about a resurrected Emperor.
by Warren Dunn, all rights reserved.
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