The Sequel Trilogy VS Dark Empire

„And now, my young apprentice... Your father is dead. Have you come to join me? Will you take the place that rightfully belongs to you – at my side." – Palpatine



Dark Empire is a series of comic books set after ROTJ.

STAR WARS
DARK EMPIRE​

Following the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance formed a New Republic over much of the galaxy. Long years of struggle have ensued.

Remnants of the Empire have regained strength and reclaimed the majority of worlds, including the city-world of Coruscant. Now a civil war within the resurgent Empire has erupted, and the New Republic has seized the opportunity to increase confusion.

A recent raid over Coruscant has left Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian stranded on the war-torn planet, but help is on the way....

Publisher Summary:

"Six years after the Battle of Endor, the fight for freedom rages on. Darth Vader is dead, but a reborn Empire - under a mysterious new leader - strikes back at the struggling Rebel Alliance. Massive World Devastators, more powerful and unstoppable than the Death Star, ravage entire planets, while the ruthless heirs of Jabba the Hutt place a monumental price on the heads of Princess Leia and her husband, Han Solo. Along with Lando, Chewbacca, Artoo, Threepio and other old allies, Han and Leia struggle to protect the future for their unborn child. But their greatest foe may be their closest friend: Luke Skywalker…“​

This story from the year 1991 shares a lot of similarities to the ongoing Sequel Trilogy, some of them are way too eery to ignore.


Let’s get started with the obvious:

- "[...] a reborn Empire - under a mysterious new leader - strikes back at the struggling Rebel Alliance."
=> The First Order is reborn from the ashes oft he Empire under their mysterious new Leader Snoke/Kylo Ren.

- "Massive World Deveastators, more powerful and unstoppable than the Death Star."
=> The First Order has a weapon even more powerful than the DS, Starkiller Base.​

Spoiler: MSW The Rise Of Skywalker

The parallels are even more blatand when it comes to the Sith Fleet (Star Destroyers with DS technology).

In other words, the main conflict and the story beats of Dark Empire is pretty much the same what we’ll get with the ST:

• Empire’s restored in form of the First Order
• The FO is ruled by the Dark Side
• The Republic is rebelling again in form of the Resistance
• Luke’s character changed drastically

Visual Similarities:

Kylo vs Luke:



Both costumes look pretty much the same. Take the sleeves for example.


Battle of Crait vs Battle of New Alderaan:




Maz vs Vima Da Boda:



Two old and wise beings, handing out the hero a lightsaber.


The Supremacy vs The Eclipse:



Both get destroyed in a unique way.


Similar Storybeats:

1) Snoke seduced Ben from the start (even before he was born). In Dark Empire the same happens with Leia and her unborn child:


(Palpatine is talking to Leia)

2) Lukes uses Force Projection to talk with Leia:




3) In both the DE and in TLJ, we have Luke encountering the Dark Side within himself. Him getting overwhelmed and shaken by it, and then finally having his family have to face the repercussions.

4) In the DE a Skywalker takes the place of Vader. Luke falls to the Dark Side before eventually being redeemed. He’s manipulated by Sidious. Likewise Kylo Ren is manipulated by Snoke to take Vader’s place.


So what does that mean for The Rise Of Skywalker? Well…

Dark Empire focused on the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine. This story brings back the Emperor to life and tempts Luke Skywalker to turn evil in the process.

My guess is that Kylo Ren will also be tempted by Palpatine and just like Luke before him, Kylo will serve Palpatine until eventually he‘s redeeming himself.


DE Luke is quite similar to Kylo Ren. The twist in Dark Empire- Luke believes, the only way to truly understand his father‘s legacy, is to turn to the Dark Side and serve Palpatine.

Luke is initially confident about his plan, but then gets lost in it. This leads to him getting busted by Imperial Officers who know he’s lying.

Maybe this plot point is important for TROS too.

Kylo Ren knows he can’t beat Palpatine. So the only way to defeat him is to serve him. But as DE Luke Kylo will lose himself in the process. Furthermore Hux probably knows that Kylo was lying about Snoke’s death.



Kylo Ren thinks the only way to fix the universe is to work from the inside of the Dark Side. Very similar to Luke in Dark Empire but it also means, that there’s no way Kylo Ren will be content about the return of Palpatine.


The only way Luke can be pulled away from the grip of the Emperor is with help from outside, which, in the climax of Dark Empire comes in the form of a fully-realized Jedi Knight version of Leia Organa.

=> enter Rey for Kylo’s redemption arc


„Good. Good. Now kill this scavenger and become the man you always wanted to be. My apprentice. My new and better Vader!“ – Palpatine

„Never. I will never be your apprentice. You failed your highness. I’m a Skywalker like my grandfather before me.“ – Ben Solo

„So be it, Skywalker.“ – Palpatine




*OP created by @RockyRoadHux and @NinjaRen


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The YouTuber "EckhartsLadder" made a video for this topic quite recently:

 

You're definitely right about that. They pick and choose from various sources, but "Dark Empire" is their main source. This isn't meant to be hate towards the ST. Every story has inspirations, but they should honor the source material by making it public. It almost feels like Disney is doing the same as they did with "The Lion King" and "Kimba".

 

You're right. But one of the characters implied cloning. Furthermore Snoke was probably cloned.

Interesting detail from 'Dark Empire'-
"The last clone body [Palpatine] not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body."

Sounds pretty similar to the decaying Palps in TROS.

 

If you replace Luke with Rey, then you pretty much have the ending of TROS.

 

@RockyRoadHux and I are currently listening to thhe Thrawn audio play and yes, there are also similarities. To add to your list: Leia training as Jedi.

 

So, Palpatine was a "clone" in TROS. We literally watched Dark Empire 2.0.