Shadows Of The Empire - A Star Wars Retrospective

in 1996 a year before the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy special edition a multi-million dollar Lucasfilm cross-media Star Wars project was released acting as both a marketing dry run for the Phantom Menace and filling the narrative gap between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that project was titled shadows of the Empire and it changed the course of Star Wars forever sorry I mean forever definitively it's not a question [Music] she looks like a walking corpse she's or thought like a mummified body dead a thousand years amazing is still alive much less the most powerful man in the galaxy isn't even that old it's more as if something as slowly eating him the viewer on the other end of the hollow link would see a close-up of the emperor's head and shoulders but would not see she's or though she's or would be able to see him it was a measure of the Emperor's trust that she's or was allowed to be here while the conversation took place what is thy bidding my master if she's or could have hurled a power bolt through time and space to strike Vader dead he would have done it without blinking wishful thinking Vader was too powerful to attack directly there is a great disturbance in the force I have felt it we have a new enemy Luke Skywalker conveyed his name a long time ago who was this person with the same name someone so powerful is to be worth a conversation between the Emperor and his most loathsome creation the force is strong with him the son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi son of Skywalker Vader's son she's or felt a smile though he did not allow it to show any more than he had allowed his anger play if he could be turned he would become a powerful ally Vader wanted Skywalker alive that was what had been in his tone Vader had no intention of killing Skywalker his own son that was obvious - one is skilled in reading voices as wishes or the dark prince smiled he would attend to the business at hand but he would not forget the name of Luke Skywalker shadows was pitched as a Star Wars movie without a movie initially suggested in the early nineties and at one point considered as an interval between a new hope and Empire it was John Knoll whom suggested that the time period be shifted to allow for more dramatic possibilities you see the Empire Strikes Back really threw a sack full of hydro spanners into the universe Luke Skywalker finds out the boys person in the universe was his father right after being given a lesson in how not to not lose a hand Yodas left shaking his head being all ah the galaxy what are we gonna do and Princess Leia adrift with a now mobile rebel army Ponder's the fate of the man she loves as he's doomed to become a frozen ornament of an intergalactic space gangster and slug sure we all know now that it ends up pretty well and then not so well for others turns out but in the 90s that gap between Empire and Jedi that was largely unexplored I mean questions still remained the aim was to tell this story through three different mediums a novel a comic book series and a video game each telling what is essentially the same narrative with additional and exclusive world building from H this project was to be bolstered by action figures plus trading cards and the like because why wouldn't it be by 1990 Star Wars had amassed tens of billions in profits from merch alone vice-president of licensing Howard Rothman and Lucy Wilson director of publishing mapped out the basic outline and assembled a story group not dissimilar from what's used today to map out the modern films and comics and video games and such it was to expand on elements only hinted at in the film's the origin of layers bounty hunter disguise Luke's new lightsaber what the hell a boffin was many of both bring us this information as well as plans to introduce new characters and locations the story promised fans that it would explore the deep underworld of Gun Runners spice traders assassins and crime bosses that are only seen in the periphery of the film's one of these new underworld figures to be introduced was the third most powerful being in the galaxy only to Vader and the Emperor himself she's all headed up the Black Sun organization which had all the appearances of a legitimate business on the surface dealing with things like trade and shipping but underneath you've got this vast spy network plus piracy smuggling assassination dog kicking driving through a puddle and intentionally soaking someone at a bus stop and so forth she's oars narrative aim was to supersede Vader as the Emperor's right-hand man sorry right hand lizard man with plans to eventually rule the galaxy solo his master plan is ultimately to make Vader look foolish in the eyes of the emperor by assassinating Luke Skywalker in a manner that disguises his own involvement his motivations are not strictly power elated his hatred for Vader runs deep as an imperial bioweapon disaster on his homeworld of 4-lane resulted in Vader carpet-bombing a large chunk of the planet killing cheezles family whilst he was offworld as a result she so had this information wiped from all known records as he opted for a more cold and calculated long-term strategy to take down Darth Vader as he could never best him in open combat she's all wealth and power is such that there's a moment in the book where a red jewel is gifted to him worth several million credits which he then casually tosses across his desk whilst thinking to himself if it falls to the floor I'm not going to bother retrieving it and it would just be swept up by the cleaning droid also in a meeting with crime lords above the heart he demands that he speak basic which is the Star Wars version of English which Jabba does because apparently he's capable of doing so but just chooses not to the look of shoes or took half a year to nail down with early designs inspired by concept art from return of the jedis worm head creep teeth before finally settling on the design which remains more or less consistent across multiple platforms also he emits a pheromone that makes him irresistible to all humanoid women which gets quite a lot of play in the book but we'll get back to that with him comes GUI a human replica droid the only of her kind in existence considered priceless in value and deadly in punching he uses her to enact any kind of dirty work as no one suspect this regular-looking human woman can do a triple somersault and then yank your heart from your chest and lastly we get the introduction of - render smuggler rogue great pilot bit of a bad boy basically a han Solo type to fill in from the previous Han Solo type Han Solo and he's coupled with a wisecracking repair droid named Li Bo the backbone of this project was the Steve Perry penned novelization he got this gig as a result of his work on the novelization of the mask a project that he took on at the very last minute for very little money editor Tom Dupree returned the favor by putting his name into the ring foreshadows thought the major decisions for this story would have cited upon as a group Perry still had a hand in major elements from the book not all of his ideas however made the final cut due to the stringent rules that ensured that the end result lined up with what Lucasfilm had considered appropriate for the universe Perry for example wanted Luke to be able to understand r2d2 but that was next that's not really what's shown in the films along with the idea that the Falcon would stop at an intergalactic gas station so a phone call could be made Drew Struzan the name associated with timeless movie posters spanning decades who's worked with Star Wars began with a 1978 re-release of the first film was hired to create the book's cover originally Luke was to sport his Return of the Jedi outfit as opposed to his transitional beige puffy vest c-3po and a TIE fighter were in place of Boba Fett and a sweet black rider and the first incarnation of shoes or had him in chainmail before this final design was settled upon probably a good move originally though shoes or wasn't all bad and was shown to be more nuanced in his motivations basically instead of being a wholly terrible drug smuggling slave trading alien psychopath who would have some characteristics that the reader would empathize with but still all the other bad things that I said also a big point of contention between the author and Lucasfilm was a relationship between Leia and she's or the plan outlined originally was to have Leia rendezvous with the Black Sun to make use of their vast spy network in the hope of determining who's the person behind the numerous attempts on Luke Skywalker's life failing to realize into the last minute that it was in fact the head of Black Sun himself all that made the cut but originally when they meet she was they have a natural and instant attraction to she saw this attraction was later changed to the influence of his alien chemistry the story group though wanted to take the deduction further and they ended up sleeping together but Steve Perry insisted that it shouldn't go past the kiss that they share which is then interrupted by Chewbacca the count deployed the cheese or aside from Darth Vader is that of Luke Skywalker the man has his sights set on killing you see whilst she's or has everything the best food the best clothing the most opulent Palace on all of Khorasan and even a machine that stimulates his muscles so he can work out by not moving at all he values none of it Luke Skywalker on the other hand spends months forging an artificial lightsaber dueling Obi Wan's Hut so we can cobble together a new weapon from secondhand scraps but the thing is you say that he values this new weapon plus the friends that he has that he can lean on the book does an excellent job of bringing Luke Skywalker from here to here as he grows in confidence and his abilities in the force continued to build before his inevitable showdown with Vader and the Emperor there's a few things though that author Steve Perry pushed for that did make the final cut one the droids get to fly the Millennium Falcon and to Darth Vader was to be used as a point of view character now I really believe that at some of the best Darth Vader scene in any media and despite getting quite a lot of pages dedicated to him with a narrative revealing some very personal information along with a vengeful and strategic nature of his mind it adds to the character rather than feeling like an unnecessary explanation of his faults and desires as mentioned a large focus of this story is also on Princess Leia's attempt to retrieve Han Solo from Boba Fett and the whole time her wondering if he even feels the same way about her as she does him so what we end up with is for point of view characters in Princess Leia she's or Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader - Brenda also plays a major role but his adventures were more fleshed out in a video game that would be getting back - also despite being a fairly major plot point Boba Fett does not appear at all in the book other than some of the main characters witnessing his ship escape at a distance as you conduct a mad race across the galaxy to collect the bounty on Han Solo which was a large focus of the Dark Horse comic run the chatters of the Empire six-issue miniseries was written by John Wagner known for co-creating Judge Dredd in the late 70s and published by Dark Horse who have since gone on to lose the Star Wars license Wagner was chosen for his ability to craft action and build suspense whilst being able to work within the confines of an established universe demonstrated in his work on judgement on Gotham ucumar artist Killian Plunkett was chosen for the illustrations this writer joy team was chosen by Dark Horse Editor Rider wind ham who was particularly impressed with Plunkett after singing submission for an alien series in 1992 baffled as to why no one as of yet had hired him Plunkett noted that one of the difficulties he came up against was drawing Darth Vader as you got to deal with reflection and clunky shapes as for the world-building well he had reference materials like what had been done on Xi's or plus we got Doug Chang designing spaceships whom you might know as one of the concept artists on the Phantom Menace among his many other roles at Lucasfilm over the years including work on both the force awakens and rogue one Korra son plays a pivotal role in the series a location that yes had been explored in the books but it still had very few visual references its first on-screen appearance wouldn't be until a year later in the 1997 special edition re-release of Return of the Jedi however there did exist concept art of a proto chorus ant then named had a burden created by Ralph McQuarrie rim of which is largely responsible for the look of the original films in a very early draft Return of the Jedi was to have its final confrontation happen in the lower levels of had a burden whilst two death stars orbit of the planet all of this was changed however and what we got was the movie that everyone has seen and I don't really need to get into it do I you know it let's do it okay so the year was 1983 and returned this year I was set just rocket into cinemas initially titled revenge of the youth Fleming took on the challenge of capturing the feel of Drew Struzan to work for the six covers he's been responsible for a number of iconic Star Wars images you may be familiar with and yet somehow his art submission for Star Wars Celebration 2019 was rejected which is outrageous the comic adaptation of shadows of the Empire doesn't deviate from the narrative of the book but elements are flesh air must be getting tiring new scenes such as where Boba Fett has a run-in with ig-88 it's stories like this that were also expanded upon in the likes of tales from Jabba's palace and tales of the bounty hunters I feel it's really the boba fett elements that really set this comic apart as he tears across a galaxy struggling to hold on to his intergalactic drug smuggler frozen in a gray concrete block and along the way we get in bumping heads with a sordid lesser-known bounty hunters some having been introduced in Empire and some new another element added was the character of Jaques an imperial agent working directly with that of Darth Vader sent by Vader to Tatooine where Luke is hiding to ensure that he's not killed jukka's story focuses on him infiltrating Jabba the Hutt swoop gang and sabotaging any attempts that are made on Luke's life the rest of the comic aside from this is really just a retelling of the events from the book and that's where I feel this comic falls down the story really shines when focusing in on Boba Fett and becomes less of interest when it's doing anything else having read the novel and then immediately following it up with this the comic does feel like a watered down interpretation I think this really would have benefited from being a solely Boba Fett tale that's mostly separate from all things Darth Vader she's or and the Rebel Alliance in the same way I guess that the video game has a big focus on showing us things that weren't touched upon in the novel a five-issue sequel series shadows the empire evolution was penned by Steve Perry and was released in early 2000 hinting that she's or did survive the events of the story four years earlier spoiler alert where he exploded it follows Murray on a quest to alter a programming in order to uncover her human side if one even exists clearly rattled by getting a severe kicking from an unarmed Luke Skywalker some core Star Wars characters and others introduced in shadows are referenced and/or seen including one presumed dead - render [Music] [Music] shudders of the Empire on the Nintendo 64 was an absolute pioneer in terms of Star Wars games aiming to take advantage of the power of this newly released system it follows smuggler slash scoundrel slash pilot slash it's just Han Solo again - render as he battles his way across multiple chapters and playstyles weaving in and out of The Adventures of legacy heroes and villains what you actually seeing here is the pc version released a year later running at its optimum potential as by today's standards pretty much every nintendo 64 game looks like a stack of murky triangles tripping over each other in an effort to give the player a seizure Star Wars games had dabbled in 3d environments before this with the likes of TIE fighter but for the most part this was faked like in super Empire Strikes Back and the on-rails rebel assault so this was hailed as the first realtime rendered interactive 3d environment because also I guess dark forces doesn't count because all the bad guys appear as pixelated cardboard cutouts is that the reasoning that seems right Peron Kaplan Nintendo's corporate communications manager said at the time the previous games will be limited to the movements of left to right with a single color range but because the Nintendo 64 was so fast and powerful they could provide different lighting for scenes plus more fluid movements the Nintendo 64 though was not without its limitations for one you need 14 hands to work the abysmal controller a controller I might add the developers weren't allowed to look at so it was kept in a box that they will put their hands into also this was a kart based system when the rest of the world was moving to CDs a CD can hold something like an hour and 20 of recorded dialogue for a video game whilst with cartridges its mere minutes that's why the pre-rendered cutscenes only appear in the PC version so again there were rules for what you can and can't do in the Star Wars universe that still apply to video games John Knowles made mention that the main characters from the movies can never die that remain to revolve video games like a you can't kill Darth Vader and super Empire Strikes Back or Boba Fett and dark forces game developer mark Haig Hutchinson said unlike previous side-scrollers and first-person shooters the players wouldn't be limited to just one style shadows does it all and by all I mean not all but still quite a lot we got third-person first-person aerial combat turret shooting and bike racing because the graphical capabilities were said to take care of themselves on such an advanced system the team could then focus on things like AI things could now be accomplished such as never before such as opponents could now react to the player and have some environmental awareness in the opening level the Battle of Hoth this intelligence was actually faked with the 88 es as they always know where the player is but are only programmed to react when you move within a certain range Hague Hutchinson was quoted as saying at the end of the day people don't care too much about what goes on under the hood it's really a question of is it a fun game and in answer to that yeah sort of some of the time we'll get into that but first a bit on - Brenda initial designs of this character had him a little less suave and more like a human rat let's say grubby bit of a paunch but then it was thought well yeah you know what if you looked more like Han Solo but with like big old shoulder pads and like Han Solo he comes equipped with his very own Millennium Falcon sorry I mean Karelian freighter in the form of the outrider this design by Doug Chiang certainly invokes the spirit of the Falcon but it can also do this and that's great and I probably sound like I'm being sarcastic but I'm not I really think this is a great design - also comes equipped with his own tragic backstory he was from a prominent family that was ruined by the Emperor due to his brothers involvement in a piloting accident meaning that you know he's got no love for those in charge but he's allegiance only extends as far as his money lasts until of course he steps up to become the hero he was born to be like a certain other Han Solo type by the name of Han Solo most though remember shadows of the empire for its most iconic level a recreation of the Battle of Hoth a spectacular fully rendered 3d environment the likes of which had never been seen before the music the sound effects chatter between pilots the way you can loop around an 8080 and bring it down this whole section is really standout and was a major selling point for the game we can even fly through their legs the other levels don't quite reach the pinnacle of the first so after the Empire destroys their rebellion by crack yet inside the rebel base to take on snow troopers and a barrage of wampas that take a million years to bring down [Music] guiding you through this early stage is your co-pilot libo whom I can only assume is some kind of reprogrammed form a game show host then power has been restored find your way to the ship and look the controls are not great and - himself feels floaty and imprecise but it's not completely broken the boss battles are certainly memorable including an 80 st a giant Deo guna you know the creature with the iron in the trash compactor but a big one a frightening encounter with ig-88 on a junk planet that feels very reminiscent of something out of the first Terminator and then we get Boba Fett himself this encounter ends with him comically tumbling inside slave 1 before you finish him off and by that I mean he escapes to tumble into a different thing in a follow up story there's also a showdown with one of she's oars gladiator droids which has you Whittle him down till he's just ahead interspersed throughout the game are levels with a handful of differently styled stages such as a wonky speeder bike chase through my cisely and then beggars Canyon up the Sarlacc lookout plus I'm on railed turret sections that despite being limited in movement feel chaotic and large in scale the final battle in particular feels this way with what feels like dozens of ships attacking all at once as you mount your escape from shoes or horses and the Empire the way the programmers accomplished this was by having two fighters sharing the same programmed decisions so they really only need the processing power of one or you have say a group of five ships and have four following one who makes all the decisions it's a really clever workaround for the limitations of the day overall I enjoyed my recent playthrough of this game though it is still very much of its time I did encounter a few glitches such as stairs or floating magically and having the floor sometimes being devoid of all friction and I just slide off the edge of a cliff but also you get a jetpack at one point and that's pretty great the ending however narrative Lee really sets the game apart from both the comic and novel in every other medium - render is seen to be killed in the final space battle the idea originally was to have Luke take over for him in the final mission that didn't feel right sings as players spent the entire time becoming acquainted with Dash's big old shoulder pads so he plays - in the final level and are killed but a secret ending was added showing that both Henle bow escaped and chose to lay low for the rest of the Star Wars because you know Star Wars already had a han Solo type in Han Solo I mean not more maybe this is a good time for dash Rendar to return cast Jeff Bridges I mean no actually gonna get shutters of the Empire the game is at times a good representation of the Star Wars universe John Knowles in hindsight feels that the game tried to do a little too much and that they should have attempted two things instead of say five especially considering that the n64 was still in its infancy but still the good work on this did make its way into follow up Star Wars nintendo 64 games funny story though Shigeru Miyamoto who has been pivotal in some of the best games across Nintendo's various platforms was working on Mario 64 around the same time and he wasn't super impressed with the work being done on shadows so he made some suggestions such as to have dashes feet always visible so you can get a better sense of his movement in the environment and to place the camera behind him in such a way that it's as if a balloon is attached to envira string and it would just kind of follow him around he was also quoted as saying that this was through a translator do you not take pride in your animation that apparently bummed everyone out on the day but hey I'll say this if you only play one Star Wars PC game released in 1997 make sure that it's dark forces to Jedi Knight but if you play to play Star Wars x-wing vs. TIE fighter but if you play three play Star Wars masters of terrorists Kasai because it's hilariously bad but honestly it's not that bad it's a bit of a laugh but if you play for okay make your fourth one shutters the Empire okay so leading up to the launch of all things shadows of the Empire Lucasfilm released a trailer of sorts incorporating original trilogy footage to emphasize the cinematic nature of this project after the Empire Strikes Back and before Return of the Jedi there was a time when heroes and villains alike [Music] apparently though this was pulled because it was thought it might confuse people into thinking that this was going to be a movie and not all of the things except for a movie and buy all of the things I mean there was a hell of a lot of time merch to accompany shadows an official soundtrack was made available by Emmy award-winning composer Joel McNeely whose work includes the young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the Avengers not that one originally an album was supposed to accompany the Thrawn Trilogy but when word of shadows of the Empire's release began the focus shifted to that apparently McNeely found a freedom in composing this album like no other because it didn't have to be synched up with any movie recorded in early 1996 by the 90 piece Royal Scottish National Orchestra plus a 15 person choir McNelly aimed not to try and replicate John Williams's famous score but rather use what has come before as its pillars pieces were developed for chorus and the beggars Canyon chase as well as cheese or theme McNeely asked a legendary sound designer ben burtt to write a Germanic sounding poem which ended up being da ha were de ver de pronounced differently from that probably that would be sung on the track released on CD and cassette tape the score was also weaved into the abridged audio book and video game within the CD is also a look behind the scenes including biographies on prominent shadows of the Empire creators Plus looking on the recording session for the life of me I could not get this to work but it's probably their Psalm toll tops released a set of 100 trading cards with color illustrations from brothers Greg and Tim Hildebrandt they span the length of the tale with narrative explanation on the back and are broken up into story characters starships and vehicles interpretations of the comic and also the video game the Hildebrandt's went about underlining sections of the book they thought would make good images and using live models to capture positions and lighting they were also careful not to use too much detail in their artwork as when these things are shrunken down they can appear muddy and lose their impact there was also this terrifying cheese or latex mask I just want to add on a personal note the human responsible for this should go to jail forever so we got a West End role-playing game it expands on the environments introduces new bounty hunters aliens and technology however it was strictly stated that the Clone Wars was off-limits as George Lucas himself planned to cover them in his movies and by that I mean the very start of the Clone Wars and then the very end and then do all the stuff in the middle in an animated series that ran for a bit but then it was canceled and then it was picked up again in 2019 just as always intended no doubt Star Wars though is in Star Wars without its toys in the late 70s onwards recreating the movies from home was sometimes the only option for revisiting them tauntaun comes with an open belly rescue feature as such the toy line has accounted for a massive amount of Lucas Films profits over the years with Kenner selling 40 million units alone in 1978 Kenna again would create the line for shadows which would launch alongside the popular power of the four series consisting of five core action figures Chewbacca in bounty hunter disguise - render Leia in Bossier disguise Luke Skywalker in Imperial Guard disguise and print she's or multipacks were also released that paired up Boba Fett and ig-88 Plus prints cheese or and Darth Vader plus we've got three of the vehicles seen in the narrative Boba Fett's slave one a swoop bike and - renders out rider there's also this sculpture which I refuse to buy as when that mask arrived at my house I thought you know what I think of I think I'm gonna do fire on this also we've got ten inch action figures for both she's or and - render glad I bought that for that couple of seconds of screen time Micro Machines also got in on the action with a set of figures and vehicles and there was also of course the accompanying toy commercials crime lord she's or directs the Carbonite capture of Han Solo in his imprisonment aboard bounty hunter Boba Fett's battle ready slave 1 Luke Skywalker undercover with soldier of fortune - render as he rips through space in his battle transforming outright and if that voice sounds familiar well that's because it's none other than Luke Skywalker himself Mark Hamill shadows of the Empire is no longer canon with Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm came a new continuity that removed almost all the books telling movies TV shows comics video games and immensely popular holiday specials but that's not to say that echoes of this hugely successful launch weren't felt and still are to this day as mentioned earlier a big part of this project was conceived as a dry run for the juggernaut which would be the marketing for the Phantom Menace with its dozens of new action figures multiple time books some being the same book but with different covers a spoiler heavy soundtrack and a jar jar binks lollipop that forces you to put his tongue in your mouth a similar albeit smaller campaign also launched the game the Force Unleashed in 2008 and the Star Wars Disney park galaxies edge also began generating interest with its own John Williams music marvel tie-in comic books and novels because again it's something with all the hype of the Star Wars movie release without a movie and although these stories are no longer canon its influences snuck its way into multiple Star Wars projects that are now officially in universe the four length species has shown up in a number of stories including as part of the Black Sun crime syndicate in the Clone Wars fridge cheese or himself even appears in The Phantom Menace as a crowd member present during Anakin's pod race the miniature used was actually from the Micro Machines toy line but that does mean that he does exist in some form in the universe sweet bikes have also been made canon they were thrust into live-action with the release of solo a Star Wars story in that movie we also get mention of and see Terris Kasai the ancient martial art invented by Steve Perry for the novel and the basis of a wonderful video game of course it's also official things in Star Wars Canon that now directly contradict the events of shadows of the Empire including that Princess Leia now receives that bounty hunter costume by shriveled walnut' person Maz Kanata in the animated series Star Wars forces of destiny - brenda was also made cannon in a solo spin-off story tales from Vandal other than a brief mention of his friendly rivalry with Han Solo nothing else about that character has been made canon the outrider or that exact ship has made a number of in Canon appearances including but not exclusively Star Wars issue 61 the episode iron squadron of Star Wars rebels as well as the fact that it's seen leaving moss eisely in the 1997 re-release of Star Wars a new hope the chances that the full story of shadows of the Empire will make its way into official Canon I feel are fairly unlikely even though the time between Empire and Jedi is still largely unexplored I don't feel it makes sense financially for Lucasfilm just to make an existing story canon again as opposed to creating a new and ongoing comic series similar to the stories of God set between a new hope and Empire plus new novels TV shows and of course movies which is kind of a shame because of all the expanded universe material that's now legends shadows of the Empire I feel is one of the best no doubt due to the care and attention put in from Lucasfilm that brought all sorts of creatives together to make this happen what though does the creator George Lucas himself have to say about shadows of the Empire well not much his involvement appears to have extended as far as making sure the emphasis was on exploring the underworld but I would hazard a guess that if he's read the book he'd love it which he almost certainly hasn't Vader waved his hand over the motion sensitive controls in his chamber the spherical chamber opened and the lid lifted with a hydraulic hiss and escape of pressurized air he sat exposed to the surrounding room unprotected by the super medicated and oxygenated field inside the chamber he concentrated on the injustice of his condition on his hatred of obi-wan who had made him so with the anger and hatred the dark side of the force permeated Vader for a moment his ruined tissues altered his scarred lungs and dead alveoli and constricted passages smoothed out and became whole for a moment he could breathe as normal beings breathed his sense of relief his triumph his joy at being able to do so drove the dark side from him as surely as a light chases away shadow the dark side eagerly consumed Vader but it was poisoned by happiness it left him and when it did he could breathe no longer Vader waved his hand and the half dome lowered and sealed him into the chamber once again he had achieved it briefly as he had done several times before the trick was to maintain it he must not allow himself to feel relief but must somehow cling to his rage even as he healed it was difficult he had not purged all of Anakin Skywalker that blemished and frail man from whom he had been born until he did he could never give himself over totally to the dark side it was his greatest weakness his most terrible flaw a single spot of light amid the dark that he had been unable to eradicate over all the years no matter how hard he tried Vader sighed he would have to try harder he could not afford any weaknesses given his enemies and more especially given his friends this project was a huge undertaking easily the most complicated and expensive thing I've ever done and I didn't really want to run the sponsorship on it because it kind of broke the flow but I do love making these long form videos and would like to do more of that hopefully with a bit of a quicker turnaround so what I'm saying is if you would like to support any future projects along these lines where you can do that at patreon.com slash mr. Sunday movies also I'm sure this is fairly evident I was not alone in putting this together the 3d recreations were expertly rendered by Matt Grenier over many painstaking months he specializes in 3d work with a focus on rendering and storytelling that's his website right there he's a delight to work with and I highly recommend him along with cel Crivelli he provided the narration for said animations you can find him over at the excellent YouTube channel comic pop on my favorite shows from over there is back issues if you like this video you'll almost certainly like that the comic book animations were brought to life by Eric Chen Luger once at least started the Kratt ones thank you so much Eric for squeezing me into the last minute I know how busy your schedule is and also the action figures and vehicles the bulk of them were provided by my brother the one Mason doesn't like and I appreciate him having those so I didn't have to buy them here is a list of additional things used including references videos images and the like but probably the largest chunk of research from this from the book secrets of the shadows of the Empire by Mark Kotter vaz and of course links to where you can find all of those things and people are below in the description please check them all out if you can I really encourage you to keep an eye on all their work or maybe tee up a collaboration also be sure to subscribe to this channel if you like those videos here every Sunday Tuesday and Thursday and also I do a podcast every Monday morning or the weekly planet where we talk movies and comics and TV shows but honestly I just appreciate you checking this video out even if it is a one-off so thanks for the support take care

Channel: Mr Sunday Movies

Views: 702,365

Keywords: shadows of the empire, star wars, dash rendar, star wars: shadows of the empire, star wars shadows of the empire, shadows of the empire review, star wars review, xizors palace, shadows of the empire ig 88, shadows of the empire n64, shadows of the empire cutscenes, the outrider, star wars shadows of the empie, shadows of the empire playthrough, shadows of the empire comic, star wars: shadows of the empire (video game), george lucas, george lucas reaction, star wars soundtrack

Id: vO5_Br-Oonc

Length: 34min 3sec (2043 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 01 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/black6211]

HIS MAGNUM OPUS HAS FINALLY ARRIVED

[u/neomarz]

Check out the link in the description for a picture of James' brother (the one Maso doesn't like)

[u/lilfresh28]

HEIR TO THE EMPIRE!!!!!!

[u/[deleted]]

It's finally here everyone, get your big sandwichs and Uber Eats waffles out; put on your different pants; James has finally released the video of him yelling out every Expanded Universe Star Wars content in order.

[u/L8rG8rM8]

He did it! The crazy son of a bitch, he did it!

[u/kewlbdude]

I don't know if James reads Reddit comments. But this was really well done and I would really love to see more of it. This was an interesting deep dive and it blew my mind that the 3D renders and narration weren't official products of Lucas film. Proud of you, you big sandwich man, you!

[u/lburwell99]

I had myself convinced his opus was going to be a deep dive on a list of what's canon. That being said I did enjoy this video.

[u/j_redd]

he didn't even yell out any of the names of anything