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I really enjoyed this series. I am starting to get into the KOTOR era thanks to the games, and I really like how the comic connects into them. I thought the first arc in the series with the emergence of the Sith Empire was interesting, but the story seemed a bit childish and the artwork, while good, wasn’t spectacular.
But with the Arc covering Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma’s fall to the dark side, the story seemed to mature, and the artwork seemed to as well. Intentional or not, this all seemed to show the loss of innocence the Jedi went through.
I think the most interesting part of the series was Ulic Qel-Droma. I like how he fell to the dark side while trying to do good, and ultimately, how he overcame it.
Another interesting part of the series was that unlike episodes 1-3, a Jedi’s training did not take 20 years to complete, but rather seemed to depend on the individual, and even an older person could learn the ways of the force.
I liked these stories better, also. Ulic was a very compelling character. I loved the artwork in Redemption. Whoever the artist was knew how to do faces. From the weariness in Uilc and Nomi, to the bright-eyed optimism in Nomi’s daughter to the rage in the Cathar woman. Plus Exar Kun’s and Ulic Qel-Droma’s respective falls made sense to me. One fell because his ambition forced him to bite off more than he could chew. The other fell because his quest for good turned him into Ahab (in a way). Hell, this should be a podcast arc.
You know what the funny thing is. The Ulic/Exar saga came before The Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire series.
But I agree, this series is awesome. The Dark Lords of the Sith and The Sith war minis is how I wish the prequels turned out. I mean Ulic’s journey is so much more compelling than Anakin in the Prequels. Frak when he kills his brother at the end… Man how do you live after that?
Now you’ve got me diving for the shelf. I have a couple of these, but hadn’t gotten to them yet. I’ll jump in with both feet tomorrow – they sound awesome!
Trust me, If you think the KOTOR series is great, you’ll love this series.
Off the top of my head here are the trades in chronological order.
Tales of the Jedi:
Golden Age of the Sith
Fall of the Sith Empire
Knights of the Old Republic
The Freedon Nadd Uprising
Dark Lords of the Sith
The Sith War
Redemption
The other cool thing is if you’ve been reading the Dark Empire series there are a lot of call backs to what happened in TOTJ.
Get the Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi Omnibus 1 and 2. It covers the whole thing. Again, the artwork in Redemption is excellent.