Darth Vader (2017) 8: The Dying Light: Part 2
What is it ? : Vader is force choking an Imperial Officer and is ordered to stop by Palpatine, who understands Vaders frustrations with the lesser beings they are surrounded by, but questions that Vader would like to kill every living being in the galaxy, explaining he does not want to rule over an Empire of the dead.
Meanwhile Jocasta Nu is sneaking through the Jedi Temple, when she is contacted by her droid, Beetoo, who has been located by the Empire, so he detonates the engines of her starfighter destroying the starfighter, himself, and any evidence that they were on Coruscant along with the inspection team.
She passes through the library, and sees The Grand Inquisitor reading through volumes, but she focuses on her mission, leaving him alone.
The Imperial Security Bureau responds to the explosion at Nu's starfighter and finds a piece of wreckage bearing the Jedi symbol, are realises they have been ordered to inform someone new with a strange name, Darth Vader, who is informed by one of his assistants (who I thought was Vanee, but there's no way of telling whether it's him or some other random Sith assistant).
Nu opens a secret door, and enters a chamber guarded by a battle droid who identifies her. It has been guarding various relics, and she locates a data chip which she identifies as containing the location of all Force Sensitive children the Jedi Order knew of, a seed to grow into a new Jedi Order.
Vader responds to the ISB summons, which they inform him was done merely as a formality and he has no power here, but using the Force he levitates the parts revealing that it was a Jedi Starfighter and Astromech droid, ordering forces to secure the perimeter of the Jedi Temple.
Nu emerges from the chamber, and sees The Grand Inquisitor hurling books he deems drivel, and she leaps onto the desk in front of him, wielding her lightsaber and commanding him to keep his filthy hands off her books. . . .
High Points : The differences between Vader and Palpatine continue to be shown, putting divisions between them even this early in their relationship. Vader has the anger of the Dark Side, wanting to slaughter people for almost any reason, but Palpatine wants to control and manipulate them, wanting to actually have an Empire to rule. It'll be interesting to see if they continue to build these divisions through the series, while it's too early in the timeline to have Vader become rebellious, it is interesting to see Palpatine teaching him, actually taking the mentor role over the Sith he has just created.
Low Points : So once again the core plot of this arc is about a list containing the location of Force Sensitive children, we've seen this in Jedi Fallen Order (a couple of years later), and in Star Wars Rebels (a few years before), so while this isn't the first time, it isn't the last either. But really, the Jedi, who said that Anakin was too old to be taught, had multiple lists of kids to be recruited, and left them with their parents? If age is an element in recruitment, shouldn't these lists have been acted on immediately. Or were they actually drawn up by Jedi Seers looking into the future.
Beetoo destroying the Jedi Starfighter to destroy evidence that Nu is on Coruscant is an interesting idea, but does mean that Nu who is only here to gather information now doesn't have a way off world, which does seem a bit shortsighted, although I suppose there must be hangars of Jedi Starfighters and Interceptors in the Jedi Temple, unless they've all been dragged off for scrap already.
So what do you really think ? : The story really seems to be crawling along, and the only conflict catching my attention is Jocasta Nu and the Grand Inquisitor, his casual way of hurling the books he deems drivel over his shoulder. Treating this place with none of the reverence that Nu believes it should be treated with, being enough to cause her to abandon her mission to deal with him, is pretty interesting. Although I can't imagine it going particularly well for her, as he's an Inquisitor, trained to kill Jedi, and she's a librarian.
Final Words : So Nu is wasting her time fighting the Grand Inquisitor, which doesn't look good for her, and Vader is on the way, which really doesn't look good for her. Except we need to remember last issue, where Palpatine ordered Vader to keep her alive, putting him and the Grand Inquisitor against one another once again, perhaps building another piece of division between the Inquisitors and Vader, that he receives instructions and orders they are not privy to and they will be punished for not following.
Score : 7.5/10
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