Literature / Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader

"Two there should be; no more no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

— From the writings of Darth Bane

Star Wars: Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader is a 2005 Star Wars Legends novel by James Luceno. It takes place in the immediate aftermath of the events of Revenge of the Sith—Darth Vader struggles to cope with his Emergency Transformation and identity crisis, while a group of rogue Jedi led by Master Roan Shryne deal with the fallout of Order 66.

The novel begins in the "final hours of the Clone Wars," contemporaneous with the latter half of Revenge of the Sith. Roan Shryne, Bol Chatak, and Chatak's Padawan Olee Starstone lead an incursion onto the Separatist world of Murkhana. Order 66 comes down during the battle, but a squad of independent-minded clone commandos, who have history with Shryne, disobey orders and allow the Jedi to escape.

A Time Skip of one month follows. The newly-Emperor Palpatine learns of the commandos' betrayal and decides to give Darth Vader the task of punishing them, in his public debut as Palpatine's enforcer. Vader discovers Chatak hidden among ordinary prisoners and kills her in a duel; Shryne and Starstone are again able to get away.

The rest of the novel juxtaposes Shryne and Starstone's attempts to meet up with other surviving Jedi and escape from under the Empire's thumb against Vader's obsession with completing their extermination, as a way of burying the lingering voice of Anakin Skywalker within him. Along the way, they cross paths with some rising stars in the newly minted Imperial Navy and the incipient Rebellion.

Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader concludes the unofficial "Dark Lord" trilogy begun by Labyrinth of Evil, also by Luceno, and continued with the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matt Stover.

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This novel contains examples of:

• An Arm and a Leg: When Jambe and Nam go against Vader one loses an arm, and the other loses a leg.
• Attack Its Weak Point: By constantly trying to hit the respirator controls on Vader's chest, Shryne forces Vader to adopt a specific defense that allows Shryne to try to defeat him by inflicting numerous minor injuries to Vader's prosthetic arms and legs. Once Vader realizes what's going on, however, he ends the fight by using the Force to barrage Shryne with more objects than he can destroy or deflect.
• Awful Truth: Vader tells a dying Shryne the entire terrible true story about Sidious, the Clone War, Order 66, and his own identity.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Vader, getting used to his armor, is learning which poses are most intimidating. He folds his arms often, and also plants his fists on his hips.
• Badass Bookworm: Starstone is a skilled, athletic combatant who worked in the Jedi Archives before the war demanded more Jedi.
• Bad Boss: Vader suspects that Sidious had his life support and armour constructed with outdated, ill-fitting technology to punish him for needing it in the first place. Sidious, in turn, is annoyed that Vader failed to kill Obi-Wan, and is further annoyed by Vader's constant complaints about his suit. Eventually, Sidious gives him a scathing verbal beatdown.
  Vader: [sulking] I wasn't strong enough to defeat Obi-Wan.
  Sidious: [fed up] No, you weren't. So just imagine what Yoda might have done to you. Obi-Wan triumphed because he went to Mustafar with a single intention in mind: to kill Darth Vader. If the Jedi Order had showed such resolute intention, if it had remained focused on what needed to be done rather than on fears of the dark side, it might have proved more difficult to topple and eradicate. You and I might have lost everything. Do you understand?
  Vader: Then I suppose I should be grateful for what little I have been able to hold on to.
  Sidious: [curtly] Yes. You should.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Vader and Shryne's duel on Kashyyyk continues even as the Empire is bombarding the planet from orbit, blasting huge holes in the forest-city of Kachirho and setting what's left on fire.
• Benevolent Boss: His Bad Boss tendencies aside, Palpatine does everything he can to snap Vader out of his depression. Not because he cares about Vader's mental well being, but because he finds it counterproductive and annoying.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Vader has eliminated the other Jedi from the fight on Kashyyyk and is facing Starstone alone, Shryne pulls off a dramatic rescue, leaping from the Drunk Dancer's dropship, grabbing a fallen lightsaber with the Force, and killing Vader's chief stormtrooper in one motion, while Archyr picks off other troopers next to him, Guns Akimbo.
• Big Fancy Castle: The Royal Palace of Alderaan is a 700-year-old labyrinth of ballrooms, chambers, and turrets. R2-D2 leads Shryne and his team on a merry chase through the hallways while they're trying to find a fugitive Senator they've been hired to smuggle offworld.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Shryne coughs up blood, he realizes that he's ruptured vital organs in a fall and will shortly be dead.
• Break the Cutie: Starstone
• Broad Strokes: As part of Legends, the novel is technically no longer in continuity in the Disney era. However, as with his other Prequel-era novels, Luceno re-canonized the broad strokes of Dark Lord (ex. Vader's visit and actions on Murkhana) in Star Wars: Tarkin.
• Broken Ace: Shryne. He was a leading commander and powerful Jedi in the early days of the Clone Wars, but he lost two apprentices in battle, and by the time of the novel is bitter and sick of fighting, with his emotional state also causing him to have difficulty using the Force.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Shryne flat-out tells Starstone that Bol Chatak's decision to try to take on Vader alone was little more than a Stupid Sacrifice.
    Shryne: Your Master reacted in anger and in vengeance. She would have been more use to us alive.
    Starstone: That's a heartless remark.
    Shryne: Don't confuse emotion with truth.
  • Likewise, Sidious is just as brutally honest with Vader when pointing out that Padmé's death is entirely Vader's fault.
• Call-Back: This novel contains several to Labyrinth of Evil and Revenge of the Sith, to the point where they were eventually marketed as a trilogy despite the latter being written by a different author (Matt Stover).
• Call-Forward: Acting as a sort of epilogue for Revenge of the Sith, this novel sets up many of the Original Trilogy's plot points.
  • In his introductory scene, Roan Shryne has a Force vision of a battle on a forest world, with a lone figure tearing down darkness and an enormous explosion in the sky—foreshadowing the Battle of Kashyyyk at the climax of the book, and also an apt summary of the end of Return of the Jedi. As he lies dying, the vision returns to Shryne and he perceives that Vader will be at the center of it all—and that the Force will never fall to darkness forever.
  • Mon Mothma appears as a young Senator and ally of Bail Organa. In Return of the Jedi and subsequent Legends works, she is a leader of the Rebellion. Garm Bel Iblis is another such Senator; in The Thrawn Trilogy he returns to the Rebellion after forming a splinter group.
  • Bail Organa himself is a supporting character, reluctant to openly defy Palpatine along with Mon Mothma because of his duty to safeguard his adopted daughter Leia—still an infant, but carrying the hope of the galaxy.
  • Darth Sidious, goading Vader, points out that if they were to come to blows, Sidious could easily short out Vader's suit with Force Lightning—exactly how Vader will eventually die.
  • Palpatine assures everyone he will not disband the Senate. He keeps his word... until A New Hope when he disbands the Senate off screen.
  • Palpatine reflects to himself that if he discovers Darth Plagueis's secret, he and Vader could rule the galaxy forever... if they don't kill each other first.
  • Vader forms a Villainous Friendship with one Wilhuff Tarkin, newly promoted to Moff and already in charge of portions of the secret construction project that will become the Death Star.
  • Chewbacca happens to be one of the Wookiees that Starstone's group of Jedi meet with on Kashyyyk. When the planet falls under attack, he winds up piloting their shuttle and escaping with them, explaining how he got into the smuggling business before meeting Han Solo.
  • As Vader looks down at the dying Shryne, he anticipates looking down on a defeated Sidious the same way—he certainly will, but not for the reasons he thinks. He also plans to take on an apprentice with a "rebellious spirit" to aid him in that quest.
  • The Emperor gives Moff Tarkin a bit of advice that informs his worldview and makes him the sort of person who, in A New Hope, will blow up a peaceful, heavily populated core planet as an intimidation tactic.
    Palpatine: What is one world, more or less, when the galaxy is being reordered?
    Tarkin: ...I will bear that in mind, my lord.
  • Following Vader's victory on Kashyyyk, Palpatine is satisfied that Vader will make for a good enforcer... until a more suitable apprentice can be found.
  • In the final chapter, we see Obi-Wan Kenobi learn of Vader's survival in his vigil on Tatooine. His Spirit Advisor, Qui-Gon Jinn, advises him not to tell Luke the truth about his father before the boy is ready.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Vader's stated reason for not immediately trying to overthrow Palpatine. In a way, it's also Palpatine's reason for not simply disposing of Vader.
  Palpatine: Why not strike me down?
  Vader: Because you are my path to power, Master. Because I need you.
  Palpatine: Just like I needed my Master—for a time.
  Vader: Yes, Master. For a time.
• Chekhov's Skill: Filli hacks into an abandoned Separatist base to use its communication suite, accidentally reactivating all of the base's defenses and battle droids. In the final battle over Kashyyyk, he uses that experience to reactivate an entire Separatist warship and send it at the Imperial ship keeping the escapees from getting away. The warship had been arming its Self-Destruct Mechanism when it shut down, but fortunately, Ramming Always Works.
• The Chessmaster: Palpatine had accounted for just about every variable when it came to Anakin's corruption, even predicting Vader would betray him the moment he returned from Mustafar and planning to have Padmé assassinated if Vader hadn't done it himself. The one thing he forgot to consider was the possibility of Vader's horrific loss against Obi-Wan.
• Clones Are People, Too: The clone troopers have unique personalities and disagree about how best to interpret orders. When Ion Team hears about Order 66 secondhand, they refuse to kill the Jedi they've worked under and allow Shryne, Chatak, and Starstone to escape. Shryne and Starstone experience strongly mixed feelings when they find themselves forced to kill other clone troopers to survive. Some clones even allow for a bit of levity; when Climber meets up with Shryne again, they share a common joke about how the clones are hard to tell apart.
  Shryne: The voice is familiar...
  Climber: The face even more so.
• Colon Cancer: The novel avoids double colons (common in Star Wars works) by stylizing the title as Star Wars: Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader on the copyright page.
• Consummate Liar: Palpatine has the audacity to tell the truth about the Clone Wars—they were an enormous scheme to play the Republic and the Separatists off against each other by Running Both Sides, in order to amass greater power. But he plausibly accuses the Jedi of doing this (Wasn't Count Dooku a former Jedi? And wasn't the clone army commissioned by a Jedi?) when in fact he did it himself.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Roan Shryne was part of the Jedi strike force during the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones.
  • The member of the Jedi "Old Guard" mentioned include Sifo-Dyas, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, and Dooku.
  • Several of Palpatine's advisors have names that come up again in works set after Return of the Jedi, including Armand Isard and Sate Pestage.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: On Kashyyyk, several of the Jedi in Shryne's group try to tag-team against Vader. It ends with two of them dead and another four severely injured. Only Shryne himself provides Vader with an even match.
• Dance Battler: In the opening of Chatak and Vader's fight, she comes across like this: Shryne notes that she is "all grace and speed" and that "her lightsaber seemed an extension of her." In contrast, Vader, who is still getting used to his new prosthetic limbs, is deemed by Shryne "clumsy, and his strikes were mostly vertical. He was, however, a full head taller than Chatak and incredibly powerful."
• Don't Call Me "Sir":
  • Played with concerning Vader—one of the Imperial captains calls him "Admiral Vader" instead of "Lord Vader", but he thinks to himself that it's not worth bothering to correct the man as long as he takes orders.
  • After Starstone's master is killed by Vader, she takes to calling Shryne "Master". He tells her to knock it off as he doesn't want anybody figuring out that they're Jedi—and possibly also because he hasn't gotten over losing two Padawans. Starstone still insists on calling him "Master".
• The Dragon: The Kashyyyk operation firmly establishes Vader as Palpatine's Number Two. When one captain questions his orders, Vader merely asks if the man would like to speak to Palpatine, causing him to quickly back down. Palpatine even tells Tarkin that his only concern is that the fleet commanders "obey Lord Vader as they would me."
• The Dreaded: Intentionally and justifiably subverted with Vader at the beginning of the novel. Anakin's only been in the suit for about a month at this point. So the Imperials, fugitive Jedi, and civilians alike either haven't heard of Vader yet or they aren't quite sure what to make of him at first (or both). It then gradually gets played straight over the remainder of the novel as Vader's early deeds and kills lay the groundwork for his familiar reputation as Palpatine's lethal enforcer (and a reputation that will only grow more frightening and notorious over the next 19 years).
• Dressing as the Enemy:
  • Shryne, Starstone, and Bol Chatak survive a month on Murkhana by dressing as Separatist mercenaries and hiding among ordinary prisoners.
  • Before meeting up with Shryne and Starstone, one of the fugitive Jedi (either Klossi Anno or Iwo Kulka) escaped by dressing in the armor of a fallen clone.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even though they're enemies, Vader disapproves of Shryne turning to smuggling. He outright tells him that it's unbecoming of a Jedi.
• Failed a Spot Check: Bail's actually very worried he did this when he rescued Yoda from below the Senate Rotunda during Revenge of the Sith. Bail fears that in his haste to get to the Grand Master, he may have missed security holo-cams which would've caught him and his speeder at the scene. So, Bail's naturally worried that if such footage exists, Palpatine will see it and correctly deduce the Senator knows Yoda's whereabouts.
• Failure Hero: Vader sees himself as such at the beginning, and sinks into a depression that Palpatine finds irritating and counterproductive. He turned to The Dark Side to save Padmé, and what does he have to show for it? Padmé is dead by his own hand, as are most of his former colleagues, he himself has undergone an Emergency Transformation into a Cyborg trapped in a walking iron lung, and his Master is also disfigured. The Emperor spends most of the book telling Vader to get over himself—the galaxy is theirs, they won.
• Fate Worse than Death: An entire chapter is dedicated to describing how Vader believes death would have been preferable to his imprisonment in his suit, incapable of walking, talking, eating, or seeing on his own. As he grows stronger in The Dark Side and overcomes his depression, however, he comes to see the suit as merely an outfit, no longer limiting him.
  Above all, he thought: This is not living. This was solitary confinement. Prison of the worst sort. Continual torture. He was nothing more than wreckage. Power without clear purpose...
• Friendly Enemy: Shryne and Vader have quite a few exchanges that are dangerously close to a friendly conversation, if you ignore the fact that they're trying to kill each other.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Jambe and Nam spend a while believing that Palpatine couldn't have possibly killed every Jedi, even the younglings, and feel that surely some must have only been arrested.
• The Hermit: Obi-Wan is settling into his new life, watching over Luke from afar. As he told Anakin in Labyrinth of Evil, there are far worse places to live than Tatooine, and solitude suits him.
• Home Field Advantage: What the Wookiees have when the Empire assaults Kashyyyk. While they do have major spaceports, if real trouble comes around, they can quickly duck into the planet's deep forest, where they have a significant advantage over their attackers—unless said attackers burn down the forest itself.
• Hope Spot: Not three paragraphs after the Wookiees offer the Jedi safe haven on Kashyyyk, the Empire comes calling for them.
• Immortality Seeker: Darth Sidious's ultimate goal is to unlock the secrets of cheating death supposedly discovered by the ancient Sith. Now that he has the galaxy, he intends to rule it forever.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: A more Played for Drama variation. Darth Vader isn't really Darth Vader yet; he's still the same Anakin from the prequels, just evil and in the aftermath of hideously disabling wounds and a mess of trauma. Much of the early portion of the book deals with how Vader has suffered a massive decline in terms of his power and effectiveness, such as his fight with Bol Chatak, where he, once one of the best duelists in the Jedi Order, takes considerable damage and is genuinely put on the ropes by a random Jedi Master we've never even heard of before. In one scene, he even throws a very Anakin-esque temper tantrum when a medical droid makes a mistake. Naturally, he does get much better over the course of the book.
• The Insomniac:
  • The novelization of Revenge of the Sith reveals that after he had his fateful vision of Padmé's death, Anakin swore off sleep to avoid any more prophetic dreams. A month after his Emergency Transformation into Darth Vader, he would like to sleep again, but still mostly cannot—what sleep he is able to get is full of indistinct nightmares and provides no rest.
  • Ever since killing his own master in his sleep, Darth Sidious no longer allows himself to sleep at all, apparently relying entirely on The Dark Side to sustain himself.
• Insane Troll Logic: Upon returning to the Jedi temple on an errand for Palpatine, Vader remembers everything from Order 66 up to his defeat at Mustafar and, in his mind, justifies all the atrocities he committed to such an extent that he even thinks he could’ve somehow convinced Padme to stand with him against the Jedi if Obi-Wan hadn’t shown up. This despite her disgust with him upon the revelation that he slaughtered children, which he erroneously blames on the Jedi council for “not listening to him”. This shows that despite his overwhelming guilt and grief, he simply cannot accept full responsibility for his actions.
• Internal Reveal:
  • As Roan dies, Vader reveals to him that he is Anakin Skywalker, that Palpatine is Darth Sidious, and the true purpose of the Clone Wars.
  • In the final chapter, Obi-Wan finds out that Vader survived their duel on Mustafar after he hears a HoloNet report on Vader’s attack on Kashyyyk.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Utilized by Chatak and Starstone in order to hold onto their Jedi equipment while disguised as ordinary prisoners. Shryne, seeing the diminishing of the light side of the Force as a personal failure, isn't sure he can pull off the mind trick at all, but successfully uses it on a guard in order to escape when the prisoners are set to be transported offworld.
• Jumped at the Call: Siadem Forte seems the most taken with Starstone's ideas, even questioning whether they should go after Vader themselves.
• Just Between You and Me: Vader is agreeable to answering his Worthy Opponent's questions, but at least waits until Shryne is already dying before he reveals his and Sidious's true identities, as well as the truth of the war and Order 66.
• La Résistance: The Wookiees of Kashyyyk are well aware of the nature of The Empire, and equally aware that they will be targeted sooner or later. When the Empire does appear (using Starstone's group of Jedi as a scapegoat), the Wookiees immediately flee into the dense forests, ready to organize into guerrilla groups and outlast the Empire on their own turf.
• Late to the Tragedy: Agricultural Corps Jedi Jambe Lu and Nam Proof were on a freighter in space during Order 66 and were fired upon once they reached a Republic Space Station.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Shryne and Starstone fall in with a crew of smugglers. Their captain Jula just happens to be Shryne's mother—his father had given him up to the Jedi over her objections. Jula is Force-sensitive herself and claims to have guided her ship to them on purpose.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: How Vader initially sees the events of Revenge of the Sith. He and Sidious won, but Vader lost everything he ever cared about: Padmé, Obi-Wan's friendship, not to mention his limbs and ability to breathe on his own. Sidious has to persuade him that power and victory are all that matter.
  Vader: [gestures at his and Sidious's deformed faces] Look at us! Are these the faces of victory?! [...] What good is power without joy?
  Sidious: Eventually you will come to see that power is joy. [...] It matters not how we appear, in any case, or who is sacrificed along the way. We have won, and the galaxy is ours.
• Mercy Lead: Climber and his commandos disable their fellow clones' equipment long enough for the Jedi to flee "for old times' sake," but warn them that they won't hesitate to engage if they catch up.
• Mighty Glacier: Vader's prostheses grant him immense strength, but initially slow him down. By the novel's end, however, he's learned to compensate for them and graduated to Lightning Bruiser.
• Mirror Character: Vader sees his past self in Shryne, which is why killing him serves as an act of closure and lets him fully embrace The Dark Side.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Starstone's reaction when she realizes her unwitting role in the Imperial invasion of Kashyyyk.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Palpatine considers Vader to be this. He'd spent years moulding Anakin into the perfect Sith, only to have it all go to waste on Mustafar. He even considers just killing Vader, but decides against it since even in his crippled state Anakin is still obscenely powerful and there's no telling how long he'd have to wait until another strong Force user came along.
  • Qui-Gon also cites this to Obi-Wan as the reason why it's safe to keep Luke hidden on Tatooine despite Vader surviving. Qui-Gon rightly surmises that Vader will stay away from Tatooine at any cost because of Shmi Skywalker's death (along with all the accompanying trauma from growing up as a slave). Revisiting the source of all of Anakin's pain will also risk re-awakening the Jedi buried beneath the Dark Side.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: It's made clear that this is how Vader sees Palpatine by this point. With everything he's lost, he has nothing left but the relationship with Palpatine, and his sole motivation by the end of the novel is eventually killing him.
• Never My Fault: Vader at one point contemplates who is to blame for his miserable existence. First he blames the medical droids for being incompetent, then he blames Palpatine, and finally he settles on blaming Padmé and Obi-Wan for not having faith in him. It fails to even occur to him that maybe he is to blame for choosing to turn to The Dark Side and go on a murderous rampage.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By going to Kashyyyk, the fugitive Jedi give the Empire an excuse to invade the planet and enslave the population.
• Once More, with Clarity: A variation with Bail. At one point, he reflects back on his public and private political clashes with Palpatine during the Clone Wars. Thanks to Obi-Wan and Yoda's revelations, Bail realizes now that what he'd thought at the time was mere political maneuvering (or other wartime actions of Palpatine's which likewise were confusing or bizarre) now play differently knowing what was really going on.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Bail's reaction when he walks past a black-clad figure and hears the Stormtroopers address him as "Lord Vader".
    Bail felt as if someone had left the air out of him.
    His legs began to shake and he grabbed hold of the platform railing for support, somehow managing to keep apprehension from his voice when he said to Mon Mothma: "You're right. Some Jedi did survive."
  • When Obi-Wan realizes Vader is still alive, he panics until Qui-Gon's ghost tells him that Vader will never return to Tatooine.
• Only Sane Man: Of the group of Jedi in the story, Shryne is the only one who doesn't want to find more surviving Jedi to try to take on Palpatine. From the very start, he realizes that the Order is finished, and that gathering the remaining Jedi in one place will simply allow the Empire to wipe them all out in a single strike.
• Orbital Bombardment: Vader orders his fleet to pound all of Kashyyyk's cities with turbolaser fire from orbit after the Wookiees prove less willing to be taken captive than initially anticipated.
• Parrying Bullets: Four crack commandos refuse to accept execution from Vader. Two of them are dead within seconds when Vader deflects their own blaster bolts into their helmets.
• Permission to Speak Freely: Tarkin to Palpatine, on the subject of the fleet commanders' opinion of Vader (it's negative). The Emperor tells him to make it a habit.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Vader is surprisingly lenient with Bail Organa for harboring Fang Zar. When Zar nearly escapes, Vader accepts Bail's word that he wasn't involved. Of course, he was actually with Organa at the time, and knows that he didn't have anything to do with it.
  • Vader also expresses mild sorrow when Shryne kills Commander Appo, outright stating that he was fond of him.
• Playful Hacker: Fili, the Drunk Dancer's slicer.
• Powered Armor: Deconstructed Trope. The novel describes in loving detail exactly how uncomfortable Vader's armor and prostheses are. The author even consulted an employee of LucasArts who has worn the suit.
• Prophecy Twist: So far as Darth Sidious is concerned, the prophecy of the Chosen One is fulfilled—Anakin brought balance to the Force by facilitating The Dark Side's ascent to the top. Of course, the prophecy will twist back on Sidious come Return of the Jedi.
• Quit Your Whining: Sidious has to tell Vader this more than once when the newly minted Sith Lord continually bemoans everything that he's lost.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Shryne and several of the Jedi fugitives are dead, Kashyyyk has fallen to the Empire with tens of thousands of Wookiees pressed into slavery, and Darth Vader has overcome his crippling depression and is ready to take his place as a full Dark Lord of the Sith. But Starstone and the remaining Jedi plan to continue working against the Empire, and Bail Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi are watching over the twin infants in which the galaxy's hope rests.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Palpatine delivers one to Vader over his complaints about the flaws in his armor.
• Reforged into a Minion: The main focus of the book is Palpatine's attempt to restore Vader's confidence in himself and fully indoctrinate him into the Dark Side.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: After Shryne, Starstone, and Chatak escape Order 66, they receive a signal recalling them to the Jedi Temple. Starstone correctly speculates that all of the clones have turned on the Jedi, but thinks it's because they're in league with Count Dooku and the Separatists. They aren't, but their boss is.
• Scary Impractical Armor: Interestingly Vader's iconic suit is depicted as this. It leaves him in constant irritation, he can only walk at a slow pace due to his awkwardly constructed prosthetics, he can never sleep because of his own iconic breathing, and he's constantly reminded of his limitations compared to his old capabilities. Vader even suspects that Palpatine deliberately used outdated tech in his armor and made it nightmarishly uncomfortable as a punishment for his failure on Mustafar. However, by the end of the novel, he's fully adjusted to it and becomes as dangerous as ever.
• Scenery Porn:
  • Alderaan is a jewel of a Core World. The Royal Palace is a Big Fancy Castle in the center of the capital city Aldera, which in turn is in the center of a mountain lake surrounded by picturesque peaks.
  • Kashyyyk is described in lush detail. The capital city Kachirho's central tree is a multilevel edifice, with balconies, bridges, and walkways both inside the trunk and out, all carved from the living wood with intentional imperfections that draw the eye.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Captain Climber and Ion Team refuse to kill Roan Shryne, Olee Starstone and Bol Chatak.
• Slow Walk: Due to the awkward construction of his leg prostheses, this is initially all Vader can manage without tripping. After becoming more accustomed, however, he keeps this up purely for the intimidation factor.
• Spirit Advisor: At the climax of the Revenge of the Sith novelization, the Force ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn came to Yoda, offering to train both Yoda and Obi-Wan to follow in his footsteps. Here, his voice speaks to Obi-Wan himself, calming him when Obi-Wan finds out that Vader survived Mustafar, and reassuring him that Luke is safe—Vader will never return to Tatooine, the planet that caused him so much pain.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Palpatine feels the need to spell out that the Imperial leadership is entirely human while claiming that he has no Fantastic Racism against non-humans, honestly! Whether or not he harbors any speciesism himself, he is perfectly willing to foster it among his human subjects to increase the Empire's power and reach.
  Palpatine: When have I ever shown myself to be intolerant of species differences? Yes, our army is human, I am human, and most of my advisers and military officers are human. But that is merely the result of circumstance.
• Taught by Experience: Vader's lava bath has forced him to rein in his temper and learn to affect a veneer of callousness.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Not being able to use Force Lightning, Vader hurls his lightsaber like a boomerang and uses the Force to turn it into a spinning plasma saw.
• Took a Level in Badass: Vader, as he becomes accustomed to his cyborg body, becomes increasingly competent and dangerous.
• Unwitting Pawn: Rather than capture the fugitive Jedi quietly, Moff Tarkin allows them to slip past an Imperial checkpoint in their disguised stolen shuttle, so that when they land on Kashyyyk he can accuse the Wookiees of harboring fugitives as a pretext to invade the planet and round up thousands of Wookiee captives to use for construction of the Death Star.
• Vader Breath: Vader himself hates it. His artificial lung is controlled by a computer that monitors his heart rate, so he has no voluntary control over his respiration, and the sounds and harsh sensations interfere with his attempts to sleep.
• Villainous Friendship: Vader forms an alliance with one Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. Tarkin proposes a plan that both completes Vader's Jedi hunt in a way that demonstrates his skills to the Imperial fleet command, enhancing his reputation, and provides skilled slaves for Tarkin's secret Death Star construction project.
• Villainous Valor: When Sidious threatens to fry Vader's suit, Vader tells him flat out that he's not afraid to die.
• Villain Protagonist: The novel focuses on the nascent Dark Lord's transformation from the shattered remnants of Anakin Skywalker to the confident, callous Sith Lord seen in the original films.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Bail and Mon Mothma, which foreshadows some of the initial ideological struggles and friction of the eventual Rebel Alliance. Mothma wants the building resistance against Palpatine to act now and to be more aggressive and open (such as rallying elements of the military who know the 'Jedi Betrayal' was a lie). Bail, by contrast, feels Padmé had the right idea before her death: much as it sucks, they have to play the Long Game to ensure they don't risk everything now before they're even out of the gate. Bail's stance is also being influenced by information Mothma doesn't know—the truth about Palpatine/Sidious and Bail's duty to protect one of the Skywalker twins until they're old enough to join the fight.
• Worthy Opponent: Shryne and Vader come to see each other as this. On Vader's side, this seems to be because Shryne reminds him of the Jedi he used to be, and he considers killing Shryne to have brought him closer to the dark side. When they finally duel, they are evenly matched in swordsmanship, and Vader only wins by withdrawing and using telekinesis to throw a storm of planks and splinters at Shryne.
  Shryne: I owe you a debt. It took you to bring me back to the Force.
  Vader: And you to firm my faith in the power of the Dark Side, Master Shryne.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Shryne assumes that Vader is the Sith Lord who manipulated Palpatine into turning against the Jedi. Vader is quick to inform him just how wrong his assumptions are.
  Vader: It's thinking like that that blinded the Jedi to their fate.
• Xanatos Gambit: Palpatine regards the hunt for the MIA Obi-Wan and Yoda as this. If the Empire can hunt down and kill the surviving members of the Jedi Council, it'll remove powerful threats and be a massive PR victory for the New Order. If they can't, that's still an acceptable outcome — at least for Palpatine (as Vader understandably feels very differently about Obi-Wan remaining on the lam indefinitely). As Palpatine sees it, Obi-Wan and Yoda took their best shot at the Sith and failed; they won't get another one. They have no allies or resources, and will now have to spend the rest of their lives in hiding and meditating on their utter failure. Papatine's mistake is that he never considers that the Jedi Masters might be taking a page from the Sith's playbook and are playing their own long game in exile...
• You Have Failed Me: Vader rightly suspects that Palpatine deliberately used outdated tech in his armour and made it nightmarishly uncomfortable to wear as punishment for his loss against Obi-Wan on Mustafar. Palpatine also threatens to fry Vader's circuits with Force Lightning when his griping gets on the Emperor's nerves.

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