Shadows of the Empire vs. The Crimson Dawn trilogy

[ChrisIII]

Both kind of are a similar story-In-Between the trilogies, A criminal syndicate causes trouble for the Empire while Luke and co. try to recover Han Solo. The revelation of the Death Star II's existence also happens, although SOTE has the whole Bothan thing play out, while the SW comics I think have yet to have their version. The CD trilogy is of course, now canon while SOTE isn't.


SOTE of course was a multimedia event designed in part, to build interest in the upcoming special editions and prequel trilogy. It had a comic series, novel, a video game etc. all of which had a slightly different POV of the story. For example, the comic focused on Boba Fett's POV, the video game on Dash Rendar's, the novel on Luke's etc.

The Crimson Dawn trilogy re-introduced Qi'ra, who had taken control of Crimson Dawn after Maul getting stuck on Malachor and his eventual death; she first shows up in WOTBH although that, like the old Shadows comic, is largely a Fett story. The next two miniseries deal with her taking on the Empire more directly, and feature characters such as an earlier incarnation of the Knights of Ren. Black Sun shows up but Prince Xizor is only given one mention in dialogue and never appears. Disney saving him for something else?

Also CD was confined to comics and mainly Charles Soule's saga, although it crossed over to the monthly SW titles (SW, Vader, Bounty Hunters and Aphra).

[thwhtGuardian]

Both kind of are a similar story-In-Between the trilogies, A criminal syndicate causes trouble for the Empire while Luke and co. try to recover Han Solo. The revelation of the Death Star II's existence also happens, although SOTE has the whole Bothan thing play out, while the SW comics I think have yet to have their version. The CD trilogy is of course, now canon while SOTE isn't.


SOTE of course was a multimedia event designed in part, to build interest in the upcoming special editions and prequel trilogy. It had a comic series, novel, a video game etc. all of which had a slightly different POV of the story. For example, the comic focused on Boba Fett's POV, the video game on Dash Rendar's, the novel on Luke's etc.

The Crimson Dawn trilogy re-introduced Qi'ra, who had taken control of Crimson Dawn after Maul getting stuck on Malachor and his eventual death; she first shows up in WOTBH although that, like the old Shadows comic, is largely a Fett story. The next two miniseries deal with her taking on the Empire more directly, and feature characters such as an earlier incarnation of the Knights of Ren. Black Sun shows up but Prince Xizor is only given one mention in dialogue and never appears. Disney saving him for something else?

Also CD was confined to comics and mainly Charles Soule's saga, although it crossed over to the monthly SW titles (SW, Vader, Bounty Hunters and Aphra).

Shadows of the Empire by a country mile. Soule has completely forgotten how to properly pace a story.

[ChrisIII]

I should note that SOTE largely tells most of the ESB/ROTJ in-between story for the Legends continuity, although there are some older Marvel comics, the Ewoks media and a few video games that are usually placed there, but the main narrative/important stuff was left to SOTE.

SW comics however are still telling the tale of the 'gap year' and I'm still kind of curious what their plan is beyond that. Be kind of tricky continuing Vader, for example, although there's still plenty of room for stand-alone stuff like Dark Legends or the black and white mini.

Also there is still a bit of an opening to use Qi'ra in the sequel trilogy era. Maybe the Disney+ Lando series is it deals with that time.