Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.
Usually, Dark Empire is the point at which "Luke's really a Sith!" begins.
For those unhappy with Palpatine returning after his climactic death in Return of the Jedi, the Hand of Thrawn duology tosses out the idea that the Emperor featured here isn't the real deal. It's pretty easy to read this "Palpatine" as being an insane clone (or clones) with delusions of grandeur.
"Wankatine" for the overpowered Palpatine featured in this series.
"Bowie-peror" for young clone Palpatine's resemblence to David Bowie.
Hilarious in Hindsight/Harsher in Hindsight: As noted in What Could Have Been below, the planned storyline for Dark Empire was someone wearing Vader's suit to keep fear in the galaxy at the Empire's behest. That sounds very similar to Kylo Ren...
Intentional Engrish for Funny: Bizarre lines like "Aren't I the master of all the Jedi?" and "Unngh, the Corellian has killed me." become even worse when you consider the book is written in English!
Narm: The series is pretty much made of it. Special credit has to go the Galaxy Gun and its... design.
Popularity Polynomial: When this series first came out, it was wildly regarded as the greatest Star Wars comic ever, with even George Lucas being fond of it. A decade later, admitting to liking it would get you tarred and quartered.
So Okay It's Average: Then again, considering the weirdness of some later EU works, this has been getting a warmer reception.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Line Art: Dark Empire and Dark Empire II had some great line art by Cam Kennedy, but some of the coloring choices were... unusual to say the least. Inverted by Empire's End where Jim Baikie replaced Kennedy; the coloring scheme was much better-thought out, but Baikie's line art was pretty mediocre and forgettable.
What Could Have Been: It was originally intended that, instead of reviving Palpatine as a clone, the storyline would have involved the Empire hiring someone to wear a replica of Vader's suit to keep fear in the galaxy, but Lucas vetoed that option.
YMMV • 
Radar • 
Quotes • (
Funny • 
Heartwarming • 
Awesome) • 
Fridge • 
Characters • 
Fanfic Recs • 
Nightmare Fuel • 
Shout Out • 
Plot • 
Tear Jerker • 
Headscratchers • 
Trivia • WMG • 
Recap • 
Ho Yay • 
Image Links • 
Memes • 
Haiku • Laconic • 
Source • Setting