Did this have to be so bad?

[@cerealsgames3118]

I love the doggo outro, feels great every time

[@clc-do4jj]

fr

[@n.8413]

@@cerealsgames3118 brings back memories of watching the channel years ago

[@GmodPlusWoW]

I like how the Mario 64 slide music fits the visual so well. Almost fits better than Home - Resonance, if I may be so bold.

[@pkscolax9480]

Such a good song!

[@megalopath]

The Mario 64 music while dealing with a copyright troll is just perfect irony too. xD

[@DisFantasy]

Even Dark Empire's release was controversial. People thought it undermined Vader's sacrifice and redemption...which it did. Even Zahn threw some shade at it in his "Hand of Thrawn" duology, having Mara Jade of all people reject the clone as really being Palpatine.

[@mrzirak792]

Other options for return were Talking and Vader himself, Lucas then told them to do Palpatine. I guess it was more tolerable back then, when prequel trilogy with its chosen one prophecy wasn't around, but Anakin already sealed Emperor's fate

[@DisFantasy]

@@mrzirak792 As a kid, I was discontent that Luke didn't defeat the Emperor. After seeing him get tortured with Force Lighting, and made to plead to Vader for help, it felt wanting. So Luke vs. Palpatine was something I wanted. Palpatine is the embodiment of darkness in Star Wars.

[@uberness77]

@@mrzirak792 It wasn't Lucas, that's a big misconception that's been peddled over the years

[@uberness77]

I think saying it undermined Vader's sacrifice shows a misunderstanding of said sacrifice. You act like the goal was killing Palpatine when in reality it was saving Luke. You could make the arguement Luke falling to the dark side does, and you'd have some credit there, but this just shows a shallow understanding. Anakins redemption was that instead of being motivated by anger he's driven by love, his goal is to save life not end it. It just so happens that yeeting Palpatine was a byproduct of that goal.

[@DisFantasy]

@@uberness77 Vader's redemption is a rejection of the dark side and embracing the light within himself, represented by Palpatine and Luke respectively. On a literary level, Palpatine returning brings back the darkness of Vader.

[@BillSmithBooks]

One thing that I only found out years later, Tom Veitch told me that Dark Empire was originally supposed to be set 3 three years after Endor and then Thrawn later. Somehow that original continuity got changed around, but the concept makes more sense in the original planned time frame. It was a real challenge to tie the two very different storylines together when I was editing the Dark Empire Sourcebook for West End Games (the author, Michael Horn, did a fantastic job of building that bridge, I just kind of massaged things).

[@gokbay3057]

I think the reason it got turned around is that Zahn really disliked Dark Empire so refused to reference it in the Thrawn Trilogy. So to avoid inconsistencies Dark Empire was set after Thrawn. (Though Dark Empire being a relatively immediate response and Thrawn campaign being later would have actually made more sense when I think about it. Shame it became the opposite.)

[@lordfrostwind3151]

There are some methods to bring Palpatine back that would gel with the old lore, but fundamentally the sequel trilogy didn't have the setup so Palpatine's return will always seem like a last minute Hail Mary Pass that failed to land. There had to be some baking in from the beginning and unfortunately the decision to give Kylo a redemption arc instead of being the ascendant villain just makes it impossible.

[@TTRPGSarvis]

From what I've heard, it literally was a last-minute change to bring back Palpatine.

[@TaraCicora]

That's basically the whole of the ST, there were a lot of good/potentially good ideas that could have worked. They just didn't bother trying.

[@TTRPGSarvis]

@@TaraCicora I agree. What's funny is that I would put The Force Awakens in my top 3 Star Wars Movies, and The Rise of Skywalker as the worst of them.

[@helvis7336]

what happens when you dont plan ahead. i mean who the fuck ok'ed Johnson's story with killing off snoke with no background to his origins!

[@TY-km8hj]

​@TTRPGSarvis u seriously rank TFA over at least one of the OT movies or even ROTS? Not hating, genuinely baffled by that

[@lanceyoung9955]

I remember I went straight from the Thrawn trilogy to the Jedi Academy Trilogy and it mentioned the fall of Coruscant and Palpatine coming back. I was like when the hell did all this happen?

[@senorchucke.cheese2028]

Yo i did the exact same thing lmao

[@gridlock7425]

I just didn't get why Palpatine would announce his return BEFORE launching his fleet. He would have won if he didn't. It's so stupid.

[@dannybeane2069]

Needed the Epic sponsorship as he was strapped for cash.

[@Commander_Bern]

This is a guy who funded a rebellion against his own empire.

[@ianmckee4726]

I think the terror the message instilled was like half the point of the final order in general. Palps is a man who loves nothing more than to see his enemies tear their hair out sobbing at tge mention of his name.

[@cw3229]

Because the writers were tards that hate Star Wars, and the movie had to be reshot. So it was a big turd stuck on the boots of Kuntleen Kennedy.

[@bluemutt9964]

​@@Commander_Bern "I'm playing both sides, that way I always come out on top" (proceeds to get betrayed)

[@thelunaist2014]

Great now Nintendo will copyright strike you with the slider song outro

[@dovahfett5919]

They're the last one you want sending that too

[@Andyliberty0923]

The absolute mad lad

[@sambridgers9543]

Which Mario Kart music?

[@ians7184]

Nah they'll patent intro/outro music and then sue him for that

[@treinenliefde]

​@@sambridgers9543it's Super Mario 64:)

[@reginaldshort8486]

Heir to the Empire was so good it made Dark Empire and Palpatine’s return less impressive. I mean the possibility of Thrawn’s return threw the NR into chaos.

[@davidstinger1134]

Somehow, Palpatine's return has returned.

[@DogsRNice]

I can't wait for the return of somehow returning to somehow return

[@wilhufftarkin8543]

There is one small little Schrödinger's retcon in the Essential Guide to the Force which I really like. In the book, Tionne Solusar says that the possibility remains that Palpatine's clones could have been mere clones who only believed to be the real Palpatine. This is a great way of making Dark Empire more acceptable for people who don't like the idea of Palpatine's return while people who like it can still take it at face value. I like this kind of ambiguity in Star Wars in general. Like we will never know who the Sith'ari actually was or whether there ever was one in the first place.

[@TaraCicora]

It appears that Palpatine's return was a mistake. Lucas didn't ok it, Veitch thought he had but actually, it was oked by Lucy Autrey Wilson. He wasn't supposed to return. But, Dark Empire is such a strange little blip, that I can't even hate it. It wanted to do some edgy when there was nothing else. Which is more than what the watered-down version we got decades later.

[@LegendsLiterature]

At least Dark Empire brought Palpatine back with style. TROS can’t even hope to claim that

[@TaraCicora]

@@LegendsLiterature Exactly

[@udhavbhatia6424]

Palpatine needed to stay dead as his return undermines everything from the previous trilogies. Darth Pleaguis on the other hand was perfectly set up in both ROTS and the Pleaguis novel(a must read) to be the antagonist of the new trilogy.

[@jeremyfields9009]

Darth Pleaguis has no history with any of the main characters he would’ve just been a random villain trying to copy Palpatine goals. We got three films about the Sith ruling the galaxy, and we got three films about the Sith scheming for power. WTF is Pleagus gonna do different ? Nothing. mind as well bring The Emperor back and bring the saga full circle.

[@cloudmaster182]

​@jeremyfields9009 nah I don't think plagueis was a good option, but reviving palpatine was an even worse choice. They should have just committed to Kylo Ren going full dark side

[@jeremyfields9009]

@@cloudmaster182 well adam driver said the original idea for Kylo was for him to become more evil as the trilogy progress. There was no him being conflicted. of course TLJ changed all that. I think they should’ve loosely based the ST on the shadow academy story. Ex student of Luke forms a terrorist group in an attempt to destroy the Republic and revive the galactic empire.

[@cloudmaster182]

@jeremyfields9009 I don't even think tlj presented any doubt on his part. Just Rey thought it was there and he played on that to manipulate her. Maybe at the VERY end? It just seems very sudden in TROS. as do most of the things that happen in that movie.

[@jeremyfields9009]

@ Snoke told Kylo he was conflicted after killing Solo during the scolding scene. Kylo also couldn’t kill Leia. I thought he was tricking Rey so Snoke can capture her but nope Kylo killed all the bad guys. Then they do the reveal that Kylo is still evil which doesn’t make any sense. Honestly nothing in the ST makes any sense. The obvious route for Kylo for the TLJ was for him to become stronger after Snoke completed his training and for him to be obsessed with killing Rey after TFA defeat.

[@breaden4381]

I really like the idea of Darth Tenebrous seeking immortality through Bith science, Plagueis through midichlorian manipulation, and Sidious through cloning and essence transfer. His return via a clone makes character sense and could be really well done, but doesn’t work thematically with Anakin’s sacrifice and role as the chosen one. Maybe an accelerated growth madness might work since it wouldn’t really be Sidious and his plan doesn’t work. We got that with old Joruus though.

[@caravaggio2012]

I'd have taken either of these stories over the sequels.

[@n.8413]

Real

[@sulljoh1]

We'll have something like a Thrawn arc coming up

[@kuunt6065]

yeah the plots may not be great but they're a lot better than what we got

[@jamesw3413]

Makes you think how successful Disney Star Wars would be if they literally just copied over the storylines from the old expanded universe

[@akl2k7]

​@jamesw3413 No kidding. If they kept the good stuff and dropped the universally reviled stuff (The Crystal Star, the worse parts of the later books from NJO onwards, the cringy parts of the Jedi Academy and Jedi Prince series), it would probably be a far more solid franchise. But, no, JJ apparently didn't want to use previous canon.

[@Toerinator]

I wished/hoped they wouldn't have the emperor return physically. I could imagine him pulling the leaches as a dead darkside ghost-thing. Having him return *somehow* physically was just silly. It's also endless: what keeps him from returning again?

[@DogsRNice]

I love antagonists that don't really physically exist and just manipulate events like sauron after loosing the ring and to a more limited extent calamity ganon Or like XANA from code lyoko

[@kuunt6065]

sith acolytes on exegol summoning his spirit and then being influenced by him could have worked

[@akl2k7]

Or, leaning into the science and technology angle, his mind was uploaded into a computer but no clone could handle him, so he was directing the Final Order from the grave that way.

[@xtremephylyp]

​@@kuunt6065 Or maybe the knights of Ren summon him, to tie them into the story finally (in a meaningful way)

[@georgestarkey5448]

Dark empire was cheesy, but it wasnt pretending to be serious or an ending to a billion dollar project. It wasnt great, but it was at least fun

[@kuunt6065]

yeah quasi-canon somewhat obscure book series, never meant to be taken as seriously as the movies were. plenty of legends material outright ignored dark empire and palpatines return as a whole, some only addressing it if absolutely necessary

[@yarnickgoovaerts]

#AskEck What is your opinion on the more fantasy side of Star Wars? Everyone always says Star Wars is sci-fi, but in my opinion it’s just as much fantasy.

[@Kurlija]

It's Eck, only correcting ya because I'd like to see this answered :)

[@347Jimmy]

I always thought "space opera" was a good name for the SW genre, though the epitome of space opera is Babylon 5 (even using traditional operatic storytelling devices and structure)

[@JohnMasterCheif]

Personally, I think Bad Batch ironically tried the best to set up an explanation, but even then, it was more closer to the Dark Empire method than Rise of Skywalker

[@cloudmaster182]

Rise of Skywalker method is literally the same as Dark Empire. Clone bodies, and using the force to place his consciousness in them (essence transfer). The only difference is one showed/explained it and the other one assumed people would understand. Both are terrible stories tho as a whole

[@CybershamanX]

I was a kid in the 70s. I can NOT even begin to convey what it was like to see Star Wars. I even remember my first twinge of "canon" when I saw some kids rush up to a placard that had a picture of the rebel base and one of them shouted to the others that the ships were TIE fighters.I rolled my 7-year old eyes and proceeded to walk into my umpteenth viewing of the first Star Wars film. How I was able to convince my parents to take me so many times, I will never know. It was such a magical time. It shaped my life and made me the person I am today. 🙂☮️❤️

[@Duskcosmog]

#askeck how exactly do force powers work. Let's use a choke for an example. If you were powerful enough in the force, and knew where someone was in the galaxy. Could you choke them even though you are separated by light years, or do you have to be able to see them (including screens)? Do you have to squeeze your hand, or do you just have to think about squeezing your hand? And can you block a choke, or can someone just choke you to death meanwhile your helpess? If you can block force powers, how would you do that. Would blocking with a lightsaber block the choke, or would you have to use a force-countermeasure of some sort?

[@cloudmaster182]

If u read any book about force users it will probably explain this. Trained force users are taught to create a barrier around themselves w the force. Some people are weaker than others, so it's easier or harder to break thru different peoples barriers. But it protects them from force pushes, force chokes etc. As far as needing to see someone. It's only been done thru screens, but yes with plenty of distance. We've also seen force users use gestures and not using gesture. For example lifting rocks. We've seen characters stick their hands out and move the rocks like that, almost.manually. and we've seen characters just focus and move the rocks wile standing still. So I think again it depends on how strong/skilled someone is w the force. Reading a few legends novels rhat center around jedi or Sith characters should explain quite a bit about the force that the movies never really seem to think about

[@Duskcosmog]

@cloudmaster182 Ok, so it is based on your power in the force. Some force users can break other force user's barriers if they're weak enough. Some don't have to move a limb to use a force power. But you can't force choke someone on coruscant from Kamino if you can't see them, meaning that you need a target within your sight to use a force power.

[@cloudmaster182]

@Duskcosmog sidious and Vader have choked people thru a screen. Vader just did it to someone on the next ship. But sidious did it to count dooku, a very powerful force user who was on serenno, all the way from Coruscant

[@Duskcosmog]

@cloudmaster182 yes, so it is based on whether or not the target is in your sight, regardless of distance.

[@senorelroboto2]

I've definitely missed the dog

[@TailyonDaath]

8:25 miss that doggie love!

[@dragonclaw4159]

#askeck so if you were in star wars in some alternate time-line and you could create a ship to command a fleet or be a personal vessel, what type of ship would you create and what would its armaments be? Edit: recommended for it to be a ship that suits either your combat style or personality.

[@didomonglo2653]

crazy title

[@Avrenac]

I love the title!

[@Brwigames]

Omg master chief

[@demi-femme4821]

He changed it. We must riot

[@YxngLukes]

@@demi-femme4821what was it before ??

[@Fohacidal]

Something about the shevious mcdevious outro ​@@YxngLukes

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

Dark Empire was stupid too, didn't like that years ago either. Palpatine needed to stay dead.

[@SephirothRyu]

Lets be honest, the reason we liked it was because of the cool ships.

[@xtron1234]

@@SephirothRyu Yeah in hindsight Dark Empire was carried by sheer aesthetic alone. Which to be fair is kinda the only way you can make that “work” imo.

[@loganwendigo937]

It was a comic book that was never as important as the movies. The first DE is mostly inoffensive and tbf has the best visuals out of most other SW Comics

[@LegendsLiterature]

@@loganwendigo937exactly. People can complain all they want about Dark Empire but at the end of the day, it’s a cheesy comic from the 90s that was released at a time when the Expanded Universe wasn’t even connected between the books and comics, and hadn’t even gotten off the ground. Rise of Skywalker is a multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbuster, the conclusion to a trilogy, and the most iconic film saga in the history of cinema. A bit of a difference between the two.

[@tylercochell2253]

#askeck How do starfighters from various eras (Old Republic, Clone Wars, New Republic) compare? Would an Old Republic starfighter stand any chance against an E-Wing? Why or why not?

[@generaljimmies3429]

I feel it comes more down to pilot skill than quality starfighters.

[@tonysladky8925]

I'm a massive Dark Empire apologost, but thinking more about it, Palpatine's return not in a corporeal sense would have probably been better than either version of the "Palpatine's got a bunch of clone slugs he can possess" story we got. Like, that scene in Legacy where the three Sith Holocrons reach out through the Force to hack Darth Krayt's armor or the Sith ghosts you encounter in the KOTOR games (I forget if they were ghosts or Holocrons or some of both), there's great potential in a big bad being incorporeal but still powerful, probably way more than just Palpatine's genes again and again and again. Plus, if you were really committed, you could really have him fuck with the heroes. Imagine a cunning, powerful spectral bad guy possessing Ben and seemingly undoing that redemption arc.

[@Hello-bi1pm]

It's kinda baked into the lore that Sith ghosts have to possess objects unlike Jedi ghosts. What better object than a clone body?

[@TheTbenvick]

Myself, I don't count Dark Empire as part of my head cannon, I never really like the story and really didn't like the art style. I guess because reading Heir to the Empire first I had a vision in my head. It might be the same with the Sequel Trilogy for me.

[@VirginiaRican]

No, they could have literally just adapted the Thrawn books or Dark Empire and it would have been awesome.

[@Malone_brown_]

Sheevious McHenious 😭😭

[@Clump666]

I love the dog outro

[@jogalen856]

Legends had a trashy explanation, but I think it was somewhat charming. Canon basically went silent and expected people to go with it, but tbh I would have rather they skip Dark Empire plot line since lore was so weak and ambiguous back then. Just look at canon Palpatine yelling "I'm all the sith..!", it's embarrassing. Despite being such a great villain, there's no charisma like the prequels. Even the bad batch did a better work selling him. If you ask me, only way to make Palpatine's return interesting is change SW lore about the force, the nature of the dark side. Get into the skin of the villain, the drama, the madness underneath. It might be edgy, but if they only wanted to make a quick buck they should have gone with Yuuzhang vong war.

[@meatbyproducts]

Zhan was sent the West End games RPG books and was told to start there and was told by Lucas Arts that the RPG was the world Bible.

[@DarkestKnightshade]

Eckhartsladder Sheevious McHeinous outro fix - original title lol

[@jackleith3502]

Me, walking into the video and looking around whilst smiling wistfully: “Chewie, it’s Home.”

[@sulljoh1]

The copyright BS reminds me of an early South Park episode where a record company overtly steals Chef's music, then sues Chef for infringement (and wins)

[@uzumaki7535]

Talk about small Force groups that don't get enough credit. Here is a small list: Wardens of the Sky The Blazing Chain - the "original" Knights of Ren in Legends. And my personal favorite the Blackguard.

[@MikeAndLkeJr]

#Askeck I recently finished the courtship of princess leia and I was wondering what was favorite thing or moment about the book I certainly loved it.

[@ninjalectualx]

Luke toggling the Falcon's shields

[@Arashmickey]

I love the idea of alt music versions of end doggo. Even if it's just this once, I'll take it!

[@ZeKermet]

That outro is cursed now 💀

[@lordcarnorjax8599]

When LucasFilm moved the EU to Legends and if you'd told me that the conclusion to the ST was a even worse version of Dark Empire, I'd have said nobodies that stupid to do that. Yet here we are. And some people actually think TROS is good. Laughable really.

[@LauraTons]

Thank you for responding to my question! Love the content!

[@pbh9195]

I just wished they stuck to Colin treverows original script

[@genericgamer2836]

#askeck Do you think Thrawn is handled well in the current canon? What are your expectations for him and the New Republic era in general?

[@zarrg5611]

I thik it could be a very good plotline if asctually foreshadowed correctly, like what if his presence was hinted at for the entirety of the sequil trilogy, a shadowy figure in the background. By the second film we would have stong suspicions of who he is. The weakness of Snoke as a villein is a key issue with the sequels, since he is ultimately a less charismatic version of Palpatine.

[@advena996]

Yes! The corgi outro!

[@Molfra]

Love the vid #AskEck Why do you think the pirates kept grogu, there was quite obviously a bounty on him considering all the hunters with tracking fobes and I doubt they wouldn't have known about it, so we're actually protecting him. My theory is that after he was saved after the purge, so senator or rebel group hired these pirates to protect him, but was eventually captured by the empire or forgot about grogu, (why he was never given to the new republic after the war), and the pirates not knowing he was a jedi just kept and raised him till mando showed up, killed them and stole their kid.

[@joshuamitchell5018]

#AskEck There's backstory invented for damn near literally everything on-screen in those original movies. Not so much a question but a request...I ask...what are some ridiculous bits of lore? Give us a short forray into some 'excess' characterization for those things and characters that really shouldn't have been given backstory. Stuff like how the one guard standing on the left of the door in the scene where vader force chokes the guy was slightly force sensitive and at the destruction of Alderaan he feels the disturbance in the force and vows to defect but unfortunately was still onboard as the death star blew up or how that astromech that frazzled when being bought by owen did so as an act of self-sacrifice for the rebellion.

[@Hello-bi1pm]

Not everything has a backstory tho, there are some prequel characters who only have names 😢

[@darthsyphilis6008]

I feel like the best actual foreshadowing to Palpatines legends return was Force Unleashed II, where Kamino is mostly trying to Clone Force Users

[@TheHumbleWordsmith]

The Star Trek novelists weren't allowed to draw on each other at all until the 2000's if memory serves. Authors would approach the publisher and say things like, "Hey, so-and-so says in their novel Vulcan has 3 moons. Am I good keeping that lore?" And the publishers would say, "No, make it a different number of moons than the previous author."

[@reidatherton7743]

That's some interesting behind the scenes about Dark Empire and Heir. The Hand of Thrawn books (which are personal favorites, so fun) meanwhile go to the effort to suggest that Luke's Force understanding went off track during Dark Empire events 🤨

[@Ghostboy_Nate]

I’d love to see a video about the Crimson Empire comics. I loved those books growing up and never see anyone talk about it. Seeing Kir Kanos in that group shot at the beginning of this video sent me back down the rabbit hole lmao

[@rasplez9889]

At least in legends it made more sense to be cloned on Byss than disney saying "dunno, hes just back somehow". The more i repeat that, the more bizarre it sounds. "Somehow"; what do you mean SOMEHOW?!

[@DarthRevanSkywalker]

#AskEck Can you please share your thoughts on who was stronger, Revan or Vitiate? I know Vitiate best Revan twice but Revan was either just a teenager or severely weakened during those fights, Revan also has better feats and statements like being called the strongest Sith along with Palpatine and Caedus in a statement published by WOTC and confirmed by the story board, he's also confirmed to be far stronger than Nihilus who's drained several planets and was literally unkillable by a normal person, vitiate on the other hand only drained two planets and required long rituals to do so on both occasions

[@blackc1479]

It feels like there could have been a better path other than just "bam, he's back". Both for Canon and maybe for the dark empire stuff. For Canon, there's a pretty strong predicate for dark side ghost attachments to "whatever" . And you could even crank that up a bit, given palps and plageous's interest in immortality. Maybe let him mostly go, but let his legacy live on in the dark artifacts and knowledge he left behind. (I had more, but it triggered a potentially decent fiction idea, so I'll keep that under the hat.)

[@helvis7336]

if only they had gone with collin's script. one scene i think that could have really made it better is if lukes force ghost had visited palpatine in his lair and taunted him.

[@connor_phillipz5689]

It didnt have to be. But once they got to the third movie in a trilogy and still had no plan whatsoever there was no chance that could be good. TLJ was when the sequels died (TFA was also bad, but if they at least had a plan it couldve looked better in context), but RoS was the final nail in the coffin.

[@TugiFox]

Chuck Wendig has said in interviews he never knew what was going to happen in the Sequal Trilogy. he wasnt even told the events of Force Awakens. He was literally making up his series from leaks. Pretty sad tbh, I think it's a fantastic series

[@DarkLorde]

I've been re-reading the old expanded universe novels for Star Wars (which I got before Disney bought out LucasFilm) and in some of the novels near where Dark Empire happened chronologically they do talk about the events of Dark Empire, like the return of Palpatine and the attack on Mon Calamari. I will admit that they don't do more than mention it but it was in there.

[@Beaker709]

I discovered the Dark Empire comics via their audiobooks, and the campy line reading took away any chance of me taking them seriously. I did enjoy them, but not in the same way as I enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy.

[@Holdenss13]

The past couple years I’ve been inching into the legends book material and it’s because of you! Thank you for putting such fun legends material on a screen because it inspired me to dive deeper into all the Star Wars that’s been missing from my life. Currently reading Allegiance by Timothy Zahn. Love it so far!

[@yammt3148]

YES. Yes it did. And JJ already told us why. He and Kathy never had a plan, no narrative arc, no story, NOTHING. There was literally no other way for this to end.

[@violentneon2999]

World Devastators were my favorite thing to come out of Dark Empire.

[@cellianexurianity5021]

Lmao the mario 64 slider dog outro, i love that so much

[@althenakora]

Ok I enjoyed that outro music, nicely done 😆

[@silverjohn6037]

All they had to do was make him a Sith red force ghost like the Jedi blue force ghosts. He'd still be a threat because of his influence on the Empire remnants and it would have allowed a showdown with Luke in his projected form.

[@jacobrowan6724]

I recently reread Spectre of the past and vision of the future by Timothy Zahn and I was struck this time by how much that duology feels like Timothy Zahn commenting on all the Star Wars content created after his Thrawn trilogy. Mara basically helps Luke realize all the things he’s done wrong since Dark Empire, which I read as his critique of the direction future authors took the characters.

[@EckhartsLadder]

Yes you're right, that's a major major aspect of those two novels, including why Luke stops using the force as much

[@winters-ghost89]

First time finding this channel I like it alot I reckon u should say somthing at the start for new people instead of staying you know the deal again new fan!

[@DarkVaati13]

#AskEck What are your thoughts on the Tapani Sector? I think it's interesting how they have this whole deep culture, but the only planet that gets any focus is Fondor. They have historic ties to the Jedi and Sith so they have bootleg lightsabers and they have their own gaudy (and questionably useful) capital ships.

[@thesharpercoder]

The opening crawl to Ep.9 describes Palpatine broadcasting a message to the galaxy. If they ever release director’s cuts of the sequels, then include that broadcast at the end of Ep.8 and fade to ending credits. #askeck

[@Arashmickey]

Not everyone liked the "I am your father" scene, but it seems most have come to at least respect it in time. I think many sequel and prequel trilogy criticisms (jar jar, angry luke, emp's back) will not enjoy a similar reevaluation no matter how much time passes, but in some cases if they had been built towards with ample time (6:30) then yeah I can see that.

[@arbhall7572]

Nope. It never had to be this bad. Someone should have stepped in and stopped the madness.

[@jpmrwiggles121]

honestly they could have had a minor legends character who doesn't care about minor details but hate authority warn the republic of his return and left it as somehow he returned rather than him just announce hes back. nym the pirate settling a grudge against a ex-imperial and stumbling onto information that palpitine is alive and hiding out building his armada would have been the perfect candidate for this. he also could have been the plot device to navigate his way to the planet rather than some random sith artifact.

[@Traven158]

#AskEck Asking for my brother (I tried as best as I could, but I think you could do a better job): What was the general policy of the Old Republic and New Republic towards non-Sith/non-Imperial aligned factions? What did the average relationship between these "neutral" factions and the Old/New Republics look like?

[@Sashman1234]

I love the Dark Empire Trilogy. George Lucas himself once said, that his sequels would have looked like this. I love the art of Cam Kennedy, who drew some Boba Fett comics, too. Go check it out!

[@Sondreign]

This may have been covered in a previous video, but I have always wondered how the Kaminoans managed to keep so secret? Sure they can be removed from maps. But what about the raw materials, bacta, cannons, etc? How do you build and outfit an army in total secrecy? #askeck

[@boogerparty]

Just have it like the dude who got turned into a newt in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "...I got better."

[@demi-femme4821]

The whole thing with people claiming a song as their remix of it is painful. It happens a lot with Undertale music.

[@genericgamer2836]

#askeck what are your opinions about how the New Republic has been handled in the current canon? I know many people prefer the more heroic version from Legends, but I like it as a different take on the heroes overcorrecting the faults of the Empire, as well as its real-world comparisons to the Weimar Republic and the political gridlock that is all too common in our world (sometimes politicians just suck, and don't know/care about what they're doing).

[@TheChristianPsychopath]

It is a pity we never got the Dark Empire novelization. I think it could have been a good bridge to clean up the disconnect. It has major impact on Luke which felt out of nowhere if you just read the novels. I do think DE does a much better job including the Emperor's return... It was the premise of Dark Empire, not a "somehow" crammed into the third act of a trilogy that already had another main villain. Also DE immediately explains the "how" once Luke meets the Emperor instead of "something, something, darkside". All that said it was one of the plot lines that kind of justified a reboot, so the sequel trilogy hinging on the two worst, most contrived plots from the EU and doing them worse, brings up the question of why bother with a reboot at all.

[@loganwendigo937]

I think Dark Empire 1 is a whole lot of fun. I think going in considering it a real sequel to the films is a bad idea but even so the story is so simple that it’s inoffensive. The art and designs carry it but it’s a comic so it works for the medium TROS is bad for somehow doing a worse Dark Empire in every way but on the big screen

[@MrAzkhare]

Uh oh, better prepare for Nintendo to object to that outro Eck. Also, a question: we know that an army marches on its stomach, so I'll ask the boring question, how did the Rebellion supply their troops? Rations, medicine, ammunition? Is there any info or writing on that?

[@DavidVincent-f5l]

I take it that the dog acts the same way when drying after a bath.

[@DarthRadawn]

#AskEck what if thrawn got hold of the black fleet during his campaign in 9ABY in legends.

[@Vidiocity92]

Would it have been (any) better if George approved the original idea of having Vader come back instead of the Emperor?

[@Hello-bi1pm]

No, it would have been a worse mess like Glove of Darth Vader

[@dshock85]

They could have built up the whole sequel trilogy around the idea of Palpatine returning. Like the Avengers infinity war saga. Thrawn is Loki, Snoke is like Ultron and young cloned Palpatine is Thanos. But thats is they had a plan....all the new and old heros working together to solve the mystery of what the first order is doing only to find out they are trying to resurrect a younger more powerful cloned palpatine which would be worse than any death star or star killer base. Turns out Lukes DNA from his hand is part of the puzzle. Hunting down force users and killing them in cloning experiments..etc....Ben Solo being corrupted to be used as a vessel. Kylo Ren finds out he is basically being used like how Orochimaru used Saske and then turns back to the light.....all the things Lucas Film could have done if they had an actual plan. At this point where does star wars even go now? It can play with the years between return and tfa for only so long

[@4shadow100]

#askeck what are your thoughts on the choice of vehicles and ships used and not used in the 2008 clone wars series? It always felt weird that stuff like the tx-130, spha, homing spider droid, and the technounion ships never made an appearance while it also included brand new vehicles not seen in prior material like the separatist supply ship that doesn't seem that much better than the lukerhulk. I personally like the vehicles and ships in the clone wars prior to the 2008 series. I really like to hear your take on the matter.

[@samtheweebo]

#askeck I have an interesting lore thought for Star Wars. The star wars space travel physics has always been like they were travelling through a medium like eather or something. I had a thought about the seeming friction in star wars space. What if the star wars space does work exactly like ours, maybe it's technology in star wars that causes the friction. Like the shields. What if star wars shields make flying through space feel like there's friction. The shields interact with the space time fabric in a way that matter doesn't. It slows ships down in most situations, but no one would be willing to fly without the protection. Also I'm sure shields are important for hyperspace travel. Maybe shield tech is responsible for the space physics being a bit strange. What do you think of the idea? Is there any cannon or non cannon lore that supports or refutes the idea?

[@Elkay_J]

Doggo outro with Mario just.... Felt right

[@justinhammer3196]

I'm not even convinced Disney originally meant to bring Palpatine back.

[@mokeish]

I'd never been so unhappy to see sith lightning.

[@dylilazare]

I don’t really understand was the acclamator better then the venator or not if yes which facters

[@phoule76]

somehow, the closing dog returned

[@TheSmokeyDawn]

#AskEck Perhaps you've talked about it before, can't remember, but what were your thoughts on Visions? I feel like I never hear anyone talk about it. Along with Rouge One, Mando s1 and 2, and Andor, I feel like it's some of the best we've gotten since the acquisition. Just curious on your opinion. Take care.

[@TheMadTube]

Loved the weird outro

[@jimmygee3219]

They seem to be building the clone Palpatine backstory in Mando

[@TheNewNumberTw0]

I always felt like the Thrawn Trilogy better captured the “feeling” of the original trilogy. Dark Empire really didn’t ever give me that feeling for some reason.

[@wargeneralbonez]

Can't believed I missed this

[@praeamble]

Plot twist: guy who asked for the dog outro is the copyright claimer.

[@GrainOnTheGo]

I’ve always been on the side of preferring how fantastical Dark Empire was. I preferred it much to Thrawn Trilogy as a kid. Dark Empire’s treatment of Palpatine was far better than what we got in the sequels. This all being said I think Palpatine’s return should’ve been relegated to an offshoot comic. I still think Snoke being a Palp failed clone is the biggest fumble ever.