Dark Times Has Nothing on This

With the series coming to a close (again), this week’s choice is Star Wars Legacy. Set over 130 years after the first Star Wars movie, the series mainly focuses on Luke Skywalker’s great-grandson and the Sith who have taken over the Empire and the galaxy.
Cade Skywalker is a unique protagonist not only in the fact that he is a Skywalker that refuses to acknowledge his Jedi heritage, but that he utilizes both the light and dark side for his purposes. I enjoyed seeing a hero who would sudden have his eyes turn gold as he went to the dark side, then watching him lash out at friend and foe alike, which is understandable seeing as the Jedi are all but gone, and the Empire is soon to follow as of the beginning of the story. But Cade is not the only anti-hero character, as others succumb to their anger, and use it to destroy their enemies in a most unorthodox fashion. I admit at the end of the series, when Darth Krayt comes back to life stronger than ever and sends a call out to all the Sith, only one of the good guys was unable to hear the call.
Probably the greatest downfall of Legacy is that there are multiple stories occurring at once. There’s Cade and his crew’s story, his Imperial Moff mother and her secret identity as a spy, his sister who is ignorant of her relation to Cade and her desire to kill him, the Sith and Krayt’s desire to fully turn Cade, the resistance under Admiral Stazi, and the Empire under the Fel Leadership as it tries to hold out and retake the throne. Sound like a lot? I agree.
But this is tedious but necessary. For most of the series it is annoying that the characters I want to read about don’t appear for months at a time, but these other stories flesh out the setting and slowly weave together as the story concludes. And I have to say, it made it stronger as a result.
On a personal note, my biggest disappointment was the delivery of Darth Krayt. He first appeared as a Jedi survivor of purge that occurred in the movies who rejoined the Tusken Raiders and was eventually defeated and lost an arm by Kenobi when he attempted to attack Luke’s home. Krayt then met the Yuuzhan Vong, who replaced his missing limb with organic material that slowly consumes his body and requires him to need Cade to heal him. Thus, despite a strong first appearance as a Sith Lord and main antagonist in the series, Krayt soon becomes whiney and weak over his constant complaining over the Vong implants. Luckily this changes after he returns from the dead, making his appearance in the conclusion series, Legacy – War, extremely epic.
Overall, I liked seeing a Star Wars series where the lines between good and evil are blurred. While everyone knows what side they’re on (except maybe for the Skywalker family), their methods are always in question. Only a few characters seem completely in control of their emotions, and those are often the ones unable to fight.
While there has been a long series of upstanding Jedi characters in the Skywalker family (Ben, Leia, Jaina, Anakin (Solo), Kol, Nat, Mara, Sai, ect.) and many who have fallen (Jacen, Vader, Luke, ect.), this is the first time I’ve seen someone walk the line of good and evil since Quinlan Vos.