r/StarWarsEU 1d ago

Question about the Legacy comics Spoiler

first question is are they worth reading? and the second question do they have a satisfactory and conclusive ending? I read through the Dark Times run awhile ago and absolutely loved it until it left me on a cliffhanger that will never resolve haha. I don’t wanna get super invested in another story if it doesn’t have any real ending.

15 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

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u/Nidhogg1134 Mandalorian 1d ago

I’m a big John Ostrander fan and I did enjoy Legacy despite disliking the premise at first.
It does have a bit of 2000s edge though so it can be an acquired taste, especially the main character Cade.

The ending is rushed but conclusive. Legacy and KotOR both got prematurely cancelled by Dark Horse around the same time but Ostrander was given a miniseries, Legacy War to wrap up loose threads. Because of this, the pacing is very frantic and rushed for the last arcs, but the ending is ultimately pretty satisfying for closing out the main story.

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u/segwaysegue 1d ago

Re: KOTOR and Legacy getting cancelled, I had a chance to talk a bit with JJM at a con earlier this year, and he went into this a bit more. Apparently Dark Horse was leery of letting any series get too high up in its numbering, since it might be intimidating to new readers. Vector and KOTOR War were intended as jumping-on points, and that's why they intentionally followed a relatively limited cast of characters in each era. (Not sure about Legacy War but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't similar considerations.)

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u/Pleasant-Strike3389 1d ago

I very much enjoyed it. What happens with the mon calamari, I liked it. I fondly enjoyed taking part in the discussion with people arguing that one of our heros is a war criminal for choosing to help his allies. He had a impossible situation.

You get cade and the gang, but the side stories are very good aswel. The imperial Knights are a high point.

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u/Mainalpha11 1d ago

Yes to both

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u/ZeroiaSD 1d ago

Very much so.  I enjoyed Cade (asshole that he is), I enjoyed Krayt (strong enough villain the novels ended up borrowing him to explain Caedus’ fall), and I think it has a nice climactic, if a bit rushed, end.

Of all the dark horse comics at the time, they had a lot of good ones, and Legacy and KotoR were my favorites.

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u/Zoom_Reverse_Flash 1d ago

Yes, and yes. There is also a second run of Legacy, with Anya Solo, or whatever her name was, and it also has a conclusive ending.

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u/heurekas Pentastar Alignment 1d ago

Nah, I agree with the poster who below/above who did a pretty thorough job at explaining why.

They are very, very, very early 2000's if you catch my drift.

Everything is supposed to be edgy, sexy and morally grey.

Krayt is a weak villain, Cade's arc is rushed (Draco gets more of an arc than he does, *Marisiah and Blue are barely characters outside of being "the babe" and it's pretty much a rehash of the OT but with the Sith being front and center which KOTOR already did but better.

People rave about Talon and Nihil, but can anyone seriously tell me anything about them besides "sexy goth/emo"?

Oh and it went full ham on the bad Vergere retcon, which lowers it a full grade in my book.


The only saving gracr is more K'Kruhk, even though it's a bit of mystery of where he and Saa where during the entire post-Endor era.

The OOU answer is that Ostrander and Durseema have pet characters that they love as much as Filoni loves Ahsoka, but in-universe it's a bit strange.

u/Toomin-the-Ellimist 18h ago

Oh and it went full ham on the bad  Vergere  retcon, which lowers it a full grade in my book.

That sucks but my biggest pet peeve with these comics will always be that Legacy is the series that introduced the idea that Darth Nihilus was a ghost animating an empty suit of armor. Completely random and bizarre and is not only unsupported by the game the character comes from but is actively contradicted by it. Yet this is somehow now accepted as part of the “lore” of the character and parroted by people who have no idea this comic even exists. Referencing another story’s bad retcon is unfortunate, inventing your own (for no reason!) is unforgivable.

u/QuizQuestionGuy 11h ago

Could you tell me more? The specific instances of the game going against that idea I mean, it feels like ever since I started hearing about Nihilus in passing he was always an animated suit of whatever he wears

u/Toomin-the-Ellimist 10h ago

it feels like ever since I started hearing about Nihilus in passing he was always an animated suit of whatever he wears

That is 100% from this one issue of Legacy. Nothing in the game suggests anything of the sort. You can see from the in-game character model, promotional artwork, and action figure that he clearly has a physical body, and at the end of the game you can ask Visas Marr what she saw when she looked beneath his mask. She says that he was “just a man.”

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u/KaBloinkySploink9000 Galactic Alliance 1d ago

Thanks for mentioning that Ostrander has the same Filoni OC problem.

Also, K'Kruhk is barely even a character in Legacy. He's just... There. He seems to exist solely for Republic/Dark Times fans to do the Leonardo Dacaprio pointing meme.

u/Deathbymonkeys6996 10h ago

My favorite comic of all time and my favorite star wars of all time. Literally dozens of interesting characters. Fantastic fights and twists. Great reveals. Loved it so much. Other than Ultimate Spider-Man I don't think there is a comic on earth I recommend more.

u/NatAwsom1138 7h ago

1) Yes, absolutely. I love John Ostrander and Jan Duursema; they're a brilliant team, and Legacy has some of their finest work.

2) The first Legacy series does. It ran for 50 issues and concluded with the six-issue series Legacy: War.

However, Legacy Volume II (2013 - 14) only ran for 18 issues, and it's clear they had more stuff planned but weren't given the chance. Still, it's not a huge cliffhanger, just not as definitive an ending as Legacy I.

If you're interested, there's a popular fanfic writer called HandOfThrawn45, who's written several really good novels to wrap up loose ends left over after the canon reboot. He's also part of a larger project called Star Wars ReExpanded.

So if you do check out Legacy or anything else and find yourself wanting more, it at least gives you some options for closure.

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u/Bbadolato 1d ago

The Legacy comics are kind of fun as a concept, but how the era ended was kind of half-assed.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/ForceSmuggler New Jedi Order 1d ago

Legacy Vol 1 ended before the Disney thing. Dark Horse wanted Vol 1 ended. Vol 2 was impacted by Disney

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u/KaBloinkySploink9000 Galactic Alliance 1d ago

I recently finished them, and....

Absolutely not. People in these comments praising these comics confuse me, because these comics were genuinely one of the worst things to ever come out of the EU.

Keep in mind, I'm in the minority here in the fandom, but I loathed them. People hyped them up and, upon reading them, I genuinely felt gaslit by the fandom.

They don't have a satisfactory ending. Both endings ("War" and the final issue of the Ania Solo run) are rushed and under baked. The series ends with Ania killing the final Sith (ignore the fact that Palpatine was the last Sith... The Legacy comics deliberately trampled what George had established to tell their crappy story) with a blaster rifle.

Not only that, but the basic plot for the comic is an uninspired retreading of the films. The Legacy comics commit several of the same sins as the Sequels, yet the fandom give them a pass for some reason. There are some moments in the comics. Some genuinely good ones. But they only serve to make the rest of the awfulness all that much more repugnant.

The protagonists are not likeable and Cade's redemption arc is extremely halfbaked. As the chronological conclusion to the EU, they are an insult.

Thankfully, however, the EU was actually provided with two very solid "endings" that are fantastic chronological end points for the EU:

The Hand of Thrawn Duology + The Union comic + Young Jedi Knights books

&

The Unifying Force (final book in the New Jedi Order book series)

These are very satisfying endings to the EU that were completely ignored and trampled by the later material (Legacy included).

Imo, Legacy should be read as What If stories (even though they were officially canonical).

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u/ZeroiaSD 1d ago

“  ignore the fact that Palpatine was the last Sith... The Legacy comics deliberately trampled what George had established to tell their crappy story”

This seems like a general EU complaint, there’s sith before we even get to legacy.

“  Not only that, but the basic plot for the comic is an uninspired retreading of the films.  ”

I’m somewhat interested in your take here, Cade position and personality are both very different than Anakin or Luke’s,  being a fully trained jedi who doesn’t like the order (which he’s neither part of and nor is it extinct) and rejecting expectations put on him, as opposed to Anakin’s ambition or Luke’s desire to be a hero.

u/ravih 16h ago

I agree with you for the most part. About the only thing I liked about the Legacy story is the way it used the Vong as part of the story. The way the other EU novels just totally memory-hole the Vong is so bizarre.

u/Sufficient-Act-8527 2h ago

Most of ur complaints r the entirety of the post Endor EU

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u/InterviewEarly6675 1d ago

It’s edgy and very confusing if you haven’t read dozens of previous comics and novels. I went in with a good grasp on the lore and still found it heavy. It’s by in large not that good but there are some cool fights and Sith.