Literature / Shadow of the Sith

And, in the end, you cannot touch the shadow.
In the end, you do not even want to.
In the end, the shadow is all you have left.
Because the shadow understands you.
The shadow forgives you.
The shadow gathers you unto itself.
And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame.

— A warning from a darker time

Shadow of the Sith is a 2022 Star Wars Expanded Universe novel by Adam Christopher. It is set between the Original and Sequel Trilogies — specifically seventeen years after Return of the Jedi — extensively covering the backstory described in The Rise of Skywalker.

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker has received a vision of Exegol, a planet strong in the Dark Side hidden within the Unknown Regions. Determined to investigate and stop this potential threat to his new Jedi, Luke enlists the assistance of his friend Lando Calrissian, who is searching for answers about the whereabouts of his daughter, who was kidnapped by the remnants of the Empire. Lando has found a lead in the form of Ochi of Bestoon, an assassin part of a cult calling themselves the Sith Eternal, leading the two on a journey to discover and defeat the followers of the seemingly-extinct Sith.

Elsewhere, a family of three make a daring escape from the planet of Jakku, determined to run from their own pasts as Ochi, tasked with taking their daughter to the Sith Eternal, gives chase alongside other agents. In the meantime, a Sith acolyte named Kiza becomes involved with the conflict with an agenda of her own.

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The novel contains the following tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite himself, Pryde can't help feeling amused by Ochi's antics and behavior during their interactions in the Corporate Sector.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
  • The catalyst for the tip that Lando mentions in Rise that led to him and Luke seeking out Ochi. Basically, Ochi gets drunk and accidentally boasts of his new gig (and without being aware Lando, by sheer chance, is in the same watering hole on an unrelated matter and in hearing range).
  • This is part of why Ochi fails to capture Rey during the climax. Ochi's propensity for drink leaves him hung over late in the novel when he finally catches up to Rey's parents. It leads to him impulsively executing them instead of interrogating them (though it's worth noting Ochi was also being influenced by his Sith Blade). This also unwittingly helps sell Rey's parents' Batman Gambit (see below).
  • Part of what ultimately does Ochi in. Just after setting down on Parsaana, he indulges in a self-made Gargle Blaster, which might explain why his next move is to take a busted speeder out to a place the locals call "the Forbidden Valley". He almost immediately hits some sinking sands and sinks.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Kiza. In spite of all her crimes, you can't help feeling a scrap of pity as her soul is consumed and added to the damned trapped within the Mask of Exim Panshard.
• Arc Welding: Christopher ties together threads from the Sequel Trilogy (The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker especially), Greg Pak's Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020), and Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy.
• Artifact of Doom:
  • The old kyber crystals from Exegol, which an old Sith had tried to use as a makeshift Wayfinder. Merely being near a fragment drives a resentful archaeologist evil and insane. He's pretty horrified when it's taken off him.
  • The mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard, an ancient and insanely evil Sith Lord, which still has his mind in it, and those of the many, many people he killed.
• Ascended Extra: Rey's parents, who are fully developed and fleshed out beyond their brief appearance in Rise's flashbacks.
• Assassin Outclassin': A flashback has Ochi hunting down a young Billaba, but as he tries to take the shot, he's attacked by her master, a very unhappy Mace Windu.
• Author Appeal: In the Afterword, Christopher cites Michael Stackpole and Matt Stover as among his favorite Star Wars novelists. As a result, Christopher sprinkles in nods to the X-Wing Series (thereby re-canonizing those elements) and opens the novel with an excerpt from Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization.
• Bar Brawl: One breaks out in Lando's first scene, partly caused by some gamblers who are very insistent Lando play them again. He uses the chaos to sneak away.
• Batman Gambit: Miramir grabs a bunch of Aki-Aki beads, figuring when Ochi sees them he'll figure Rey is on Pasaana and not bother giving Jakku, which he's right next to, a cursory glance. She turns out to be right. This partly explains in-story why Ochi Failed a Spot Check and didn't consider that Miramir's claim about Rey not being on Jakku might be a Suspiciously Specific Denial. The other reason it works is because Ochi was hung over and being influenced by his Sith Blade. Ironically, his own crew suggests searching Jakku, but he blows them off as he's now fixated on Pasaana.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ochi fails to deliver Rey to Exegol, depriving Palpatine of a host body that could sustain his corrupted essence. But it's not much of a win for Rey, as her parents are dead and she's now the property of Unkar Plutt. Luke and Lando likewise stop Kiza and Exim Panshard, but are unable to save and redeem Kiza — and likewise remain unaware of the true, growing threat of the Sith Eternal in the Unknown Regions.
• The Bus Came Back: Kiza appears for the first time since Empire's End.
• Call-Back:
  • Dathan was actually present when Darth Vader and Ochi made their journey to Exegol in Vader's comic, and it's how he managed to get off it, getting smuggled inside their ship while they were busy.
  • Cerensco mentions he's wanted by the New Republic in more than ten systems, mirroring Cornelius Evazan's mention of a death sentence on 12 systems in A New Hope.
  • Kiza kneels before a hooded figure and asks, "What is thy bidding, my Master?", in a similar fashion to Vader/Anakin to Palpatine.
    • Lando mentions to Dathan he knew how it felt to betray a group of people he thought he was helping, harkening to the time in Cloud City.
  • During the fight with the Sith spirits, Luke chants "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me".
    • Miramir tells Ochi before her death that he'll never win, similar to what Lyra Erso said to Orson Krennic. ^note  Unlike Krennic, Ochi died on Pasaana due to his drinking right after he murdered Rey's parents
  • Luke visits the Seeing Stone on Tython to seek knowledge through the Force about Exegol. Grogu had used the very same Seeing Stone years before to reach out to Luke in The Mandalorian.
• Call-Forward: A younger Beaumont Kin appears early on, doing some archaeological research and showing an interest in studying the Sith (For Science!).
  • Miramir telling Dathan that his bloodline does not define him is what Luke himself would say to Rey 14 years later.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • After a throwaway mention in Star Wars Insider back in 2014, the Jedi world of Ossus is formally reintroduced into the Disney canon as the site of Luke's New Jedi Temple (while retroactively confirming it was Ossus we saw in The Book of Boba Fett and the flashback sequences of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi).
  • After a mention in the Episode IX Visual Dictionary, Revan is formally re-canonized during one of the Exegol flashbacks.
  • Lando at one point mentions the Errant Venture, implying Booster Terrik and his stolen Star Destroyer-turned-casino also exist in the Disney-era canon.
  • After direct and indirect mentions in Before the Awakening and Star Wars: Catalyst, the Corporate Sector Authority is also finally re-canonized during Pryde's subplot.
  • Luke's sweet tooth for Hot Chocolate is re-introduced (although the beverage's existence in-universe had already been previously re-canonized during Servants of the Empire and, to a lesser extent, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge).
• The Cameo: Palpatine 'appears' briefly during Ochi's reenlistment sequence.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The novel begins with a passage quoted from Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith, framing it as a "warning from a darker time".
  • Thinking of Komat and her relationship with her droid, Lando thinks from personal experience that there's no such thing as "Just a Machine".
• Contrived Coincidence: Lando being in Boxer Point Station's bar at the exact same time that a drunken Ochi walks in and accidentally spills the details on his current hunt. Lando even lampshades it in-story, wondering if the Force was at work (or if it's just his longtime luck).
• Convection, Schmonvection: Luke's fight with Kiza ends up with him being around a lot of molten metal. While he does try to avoid it, he's still able to be pretty near the molten metal with the problem of bursting into flames, provided of course he avoids touching it.
• Death of Personality: Prolonged exposure to the mask of Exim Panshard has utterly destroyed pretty much any trace of Kiza. Luke tries offering her a last second chance to save herself, but it's far too late.
• Deus Exit Machina: Anakin appears as a Force Spirit on Exegol to help defend a Force-Projecting Luke from malevolent Sith spirits. However, the process exhausts him and he has to fade back into the Force when he is finished helping his son, although he does not fully Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence since he is able to manifest years later.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Kiza, who's using the Sith Eternal for her own ends. A Sith Cultist even warns Kiza of this trope.
  Sith Cultist: Be careful of which Master you serve...
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Lando is a bit annoyed that being the guy who blew up the second Death Star does not make any headway with New Republic bureaucracy. It also becomes something of a minor Running Gag.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played for Black Comedy with Ochi's personal opinion of Darth Vader (who, frankly, he thought was a weirdo).
• Evil-Detecting Baby: A rare older variation. Rey tells her father she doesn't like Anaximander (the guy the New Republic officer sent her and her parents to). He turns out to be evil after all.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Kiza finally realizes over a decade too late that accepting and wearing an ancient Sith relic like the Mask of Exim Panshard back in Aftermath was not a good idea.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Luke and Lando realize they're indirectly responsible for Exim Panshard's resurgence thanks to the Battle of Endor. With the deaths of Vader and Sidious 17 years earlier, Parshand's spirit inside the Mask sees this an opportunity to claim the seemingly-vacant Sith Grand Poobah role.
• Evil Weapon: The Sith dagger, which is slightly alive and wants to feed on blood.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who has watched The Rise of Skywalker will be able to tell you that the trail will go cold on Pasaana, that Rey will be left on Jakku, Ochi will kill Rey's parents and then die, and that Lando still won't have answers about where his daughter is.
• Freudian Excuse: While Lando does genuinely want to help Luke and Rey's parents, it's also made clear part of his investment in the plight of Dathan and Miramir and their daughter is due to his own grief and uncertainty over the fate of the missing Kadara Calrissian.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The secretly-living Darth Sidious is the main driver of the events of the story, but he doesn't play an active role in it aside from a brief appearance talking to Ochi. Luke, Lando, and Anakin don't even know that he's alive.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: During his attempted assassination of Depa Bilaba, Ochi doesn't even think of making a move against her until after Mace Windu has left the area. While he's confident in his abilities and skill at killing Jedi, even Ochi's not crazy or suicidal enough to take on one of the deadliest members of the Jedi Council. When he finally makes his move, however, Ochi finds out too late Mace hadn't left the area after all. Mace knew Ochi was there the entire time and had been hunting the hunter.
• I Choose to Stay: Lando's decision to remain on Parsaana is given a little extra development at the end of the book, in that he's staying in case Ochi resurfaces (which he won't), but also to use it as a sort of base while he keeps searching for his daughter.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Pryde carries a flask of cognac with him to help cope with the soul crushing work while detached to negotiations in the Corporate Sector. Ochi steals the flask because he also wants a freaking drink.
• Interquel: Serve as one between the Original and Sequel Trilogies. It also serves as a bridge novel for Luke and Lando's OT/ST characterizations much in the same way Claudia Gray's Star Wars: Bloodline served as one for Leia.
• I See Dead People: After murdering Dathan and Miramir, Ochi starts seeing Miramir on Parsaana. It's not clear if it's because of the Sith knife, or Ochi's own rapidly dwindling mental state or just because of what he drank before setting down.
• Large Ham Title: Gleefully subverted and mocked by Pryde during his first meeting with Ochi of Bestoon. The future Final Order General naturally lampshades what or who the hell a 'Bestoon' even is.
• Last Disrespects: After murdering Dathan and Miramir, Ochi dumps their corpses out into space. Lando finds them, and he and Luke give them a proper burial.
• Laughably Evil: Ochi at times, though it veers heavily into Black Comedy, and less and less so as he goes increasingly Ax-Crazy.
• Made a Slave: It's revealed that Rey ending up as the de facto property of Unkar Plutt wasn't what Dathan and Miramir intended. Having lived on Jakku for years, they had developed an uneasy business relationship with the Crolute. They thus struck a bargain and his custodianship of Rey was supposed to be temporary. The plan was for them to flee Jakku, throw Ochi and his allies off the scent, and then swing back around to get Rey when the coast was clear. Unfortunately, the plan goes to hell (and Rey's fate is sealed) because Ochi catches up to them just as they're preparing to leave the Jakku system.
• Mugged for Disguise: Dathan and Miramir knock out a pair of CSA guards to steal their outfits so they can steal the Bestoon Legacy.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The novel begins with an epitaph quoting part of Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith adaptation, specifically the final "this is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker" section.
  • Anakin's spirit flashes between his older and younger appearances, a nod to his changing depiction between different releases of Return of the Jedi's final scene.
• Named by the Adaptation: The novel finally gives names to Rey's father (Dathan) and mother (Miramir).
• No One Could Survive That!: Komat says as much about Kiza, but admits she never believed it.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Luke and Lando try to talk to Xarah Blacwood at Adelphi's New Republic's staging outpost about the Sith's return and what was in Dina Dipurl's report, though her adjunct, Jashei Zigler, insists the Sith are extinct and ends the meeting.
• Once More, with Clarity: Flashbacks from The Force Awakens (Rey's abandonment on Jakku) and The Rise of Skywalker (Ochi executing Rey's parents) are revisited — but now with new context thanks to the events and revelations of this novel.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Dathan does everything he can to protect Rey and keep her safe.
  • Lando pretty much tears down the whole galaxy looking for his daughter. He also wants to look for Rey after he finds her parents' dead bodies.
  • Even Anakin Skywalker has a moment as a Force Ghost, protecting Luke from a Sith spirit attack.
• P.O.V. Sequel: Vader and Ochi's arrival on Exegol during Greg Pak's Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020) gets retold from a young Dathan Palpatine's perspective.
• The Quiet One: Rey doesn't say a lot, but in fairness she's a six year old at the time and her family is on the run.
• Refuge in Audacity: As part of their scheme to stop Ochi chasing them, Dathan and Miramir steal his ship out from under him. On seeing what they're doing, Lando's impressed.
  • Their theft of the Bestoon Legacy also neatly fills in the plot hole of how young Rey could've ended up on Jakku and saw Ochi's ship flying off if he had killed her parents. Dathan and Miramir were piloting the stolen ship when it leaves Jakku and Ochi caught up in another ship (thanks to a homing device Pryde had surreptitiously planted while Ochi was in the Corporate Sector). Ochi then reclaims the Bestoon Legacy after killing them and heads for Pasaana, where it will be left abandoned after his death and for Rey and company to find it 14 years later.
• Saved by Canon: Depa Bilaba and Mace Windu during the flashback to Ochi's attempted assassination of Depa (as both Jedi won't ultimately die until the end of the Clone Wars, one by Palpatine, the other by Grey and his Clones via Order 66).
• Sanity Slippage: Ochi over the course of the novel due to the malign, arcane influence of the Sith Blade 'gifted' to him by his Sith Eternal handlers.
• Shout-Out: One of Beaumont Kin's colleagues thinks the archeologist is short and funny looking.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The Simeong named Dathan, who smuggles Palpatine's son off Exegol and setting the events of the sequel trilogy in motion. Said son adopts his name in honor of him.
• Taught by Experience: Ochi destroys Ought-Six after he tried to kill the Sith Assassin, having learned his lesson from the last time he employed the Droid Crush Pirates.
  Ochi: Never trust a droid.
• Tempting Fate: During the flashback to his assassination attempt on Depa Bilaba, Ochi is relieved that Mace Windu saw off his former apprentice a few days earlier and isn't there to save her. A minute later, who should reappear...
• Third-Person Person: As his sanity goes increasingly south, Ochi of Bestoon starts doing this more and more.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Luke's love of hot chocolate, carried over from Legends.
• Villain Decay: Zigzagged with Ochi. During the Clone Wars, the Jedi Purge, and the Galactic Civil War, he was one of the galaxy's most skilled Jedi Hunters. In the Present Day, between his alcoholism and sanity slippage-by-Sith Blade, he's not in his prime. That said, he is still dangerous.
• Wham Shot: Luke sees a Force Spirit on his vision of Exegol, initially presuming that it's Obi-Wan. But when the figure removes his hood, he realizes that it's Anakin.

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