Darth Vader (2017) 20: Fortress Vader: Part 2
What is it ? : The Grand Inquisitor cries out demanding to know if this is some sort of test, but as Vader slashes down at the Thirteenth Sister, Tualon Yaluna parries his attack. Vader finds this interesting, thinking he had taught them attachment was a weakness, but seeing these two believe it is a strength. They flee, with Tualon Yaluna telling her this is proof of his feelings for her, and they fly off across the cityscape of Coruscant.
Vader follows aboard a speeder, telling the Stormtroopers that they seek two Jedi who will use unorthodox techniques against them, only for the spinning lightsabers to strike the speeder causing it to explode, Vader jumps aboard another, and once again their thrown strike it causing it to plummet down, crashing onto a picnicking Gran and her lover.
The fleeing inquisitors wonder if Vader is dead, but of course he is not and the Thirteenth Sister slashes down at him, but he holds her arm in place with the force so she cannot complete her attack. As the two of them are held by the force, Tualon Yaluna tells the Thirteenth Sister that this death is no surprise as they never expected to die in bed, but at least now they will be free, as Vader puppets them with the force causing them to stab and kill each other.
Later, Vader kneels before Palpatine who asks for proof that the Inquisitors were traitors, Vader tells him of the Thirteenth Sisters actions in letting Eeth Koth's wife flee until she was discovered, and that she was building a coalition against them having caused a second Inquisitor to betray them.
Palpatine explains that the Gran who was killed by the falling speeder was vital for one of his plans, and the chaos Vader caused across the city might lead to whispers that if Palpatine cannot maintain order on Coruscant, then he might not be able to maintain it elsewhere. So he orders the Inquisition to be moved off Coruscant, that chaos will not be allowed on his planet.
Palpatine asks about Eeth Koth, finding it amusing that he chose to become a priest, the closest thing he could find to being a Jedi, he takes Vader to a hangar to give him a reward for his efficiency in hunting down the Jedi, and gives him Padme Amidala's starship from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, which is being patched up by droids, Vader crushes the droid, and Palpatine realises that Vader would rather have the ship as it is.
Palpatine orders Vader to go to Alderaan, as Bail Organa believes his world is sacrosanct and immune to his will, but Vader refuses, demanding a world. Palpatine agrees as a place for Vader to meditate and grow more powerful, he offers Naboo, saying that his respect for Vader is so much he offers his own homeworld. He offers Tatooine, saying Vader could blast the planet and turn all the sand into glass to repay his suffering there. But Vader refuses, and asks for Mustafar. . . .
High Points : The chase across Coruscant is done extremely well, reminding me of the chases in the prequel movies across that world, it's exciting and fast paced, and the crash onto the Gran Senator is amusing at the time, as it's obvious she's meeting a lover, but her gross alien physique making a parody of this moment, even before the speeder crushes her and her lover and then explodes.
It's also interesting to see the way Palpatine treats Vader, even when Vader refuses to do his bidding, and makes a demand for an entire planet. Palpatine doesn't lash out in anger, he sees that this most loyal of servants deserves a reward, and tries to offer Vader things he think's he'll value. Naboo the world of his beloved Amidala, his own world Tatooine to punish for having sand. But of course, Vader chooses Mustafar, the world where he suffered the most, where he thinks he killed Amidala, where Obi-Wan crippled him, a place that means only suffering to him.
I also really liked that Palpatine gave Vader Amidala's starship, it seems like a gift, something that belonged to someone he loved, but Palpatine knows it's just a reminder to Vader of how he failed to save her, and it's just an additional layer of psychological torture to keep his sith apprentice suffering.
Low Points : While Vader makes the accusation that the Thirteenth Sister was betraying them, which I suspected last issue, it seems that his accusation is made more to justify the carnage he wrought over Coruscant. So we're left not actually knowing what was going on last issue, we know that Tualon Yaluna had feelings for her, but that wasn't part of what was going on then anyway. It might be an attempt to cloud the situation, as Vader uses it to justify his actions, but we never know the truth. But it would be interesting to know for sure whether Vader was detecting betrayal from the Inquisitors, which seems completely logical, they are after all former Jedi. Or whether he's just learning to justify his need for destruction, finding traitors in every corner so he can get to destroy them.
So what do you really think ? : Well, we're coming closer to this story arc justifying it's name, as Vader now is demanding Mustafar where he will eventually build Fortress Vader, and the issue itself an interesting little to and fro between Vader and the Inquisitors, and then verbally between Vader and Palpatine. But it feels as if the story is trying to be too clever, in clouding the Thirteenth Sisters actions last issue, to make Vaders actions this issue a little more mysterious, and not actually telling us a story but trying to make us make it up from clues instead.
Final Words : So 5 more issues to go of this series, and all of them contained in this story arc, Fortress Vader, so it looks like we're going to get some fleshing out of this period for Vader, and maybe some exploration of the mental torture Vader puts himself through which keeps him on the Dark Side.
Score : 7.5/10
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