What began as an impulse buy on May the Fourth (be with you), transformed into the inspiration for the 727th Jump Brigade Lego set and probably re-awakened my love of Star Wars more than the Force Awakens trailer. It’s always a shame that Lucas would never hand over the storytelling reins to people like Drew who are obviously better at making a coherent plot. I give this author a huge round of applause by making the stupid, arbitrary Rule of Two functional, feasible and really a good idea. In short, the Rule is why the Sith operate in the shadows instead of fighting the Jedi and Republic in the open. Bane’s strategy also gives credibility to the Separatist deceptions Sidious carried out. They actually began 1000 years ago, by The Phantom Crap, open demonstrations of force against the Republic by disaffected citizens or organizations were beginning to be a huge, ongoing crisis.
In the first book, you’ll see how Bane’s life (nee Des and I’ll call him that for a bit) is parallel to Luke Skywalker’s. He grew up on the Fringe and begins his Sith training at a late age (early twenties). There are other details in between of course. Sometime before Des joined the Sith a new order formed as the Brotherhood of Darkness. What made this organization (or empire) different was the abolishment of the Darth title, thus all Sith Lords were equal. The change in attitude appeared to work because the Brotherhood of Darkness initially kicks the Republic’s ass instead of each other’s. By the time Des signs up, the war is transforming into a stalemate thanks to the Republic putting Jedi Master Hoth in command.
During his training, Des discovers the original teachings of Darth Revan and others from centuries ago. Through their holocrons he learns how the Brotherhood has weakened the Sith by trying to achieve parity with the Jedi. This isn’t the Sith way. Power is to be craved, hoarded and taken only by the strong. After taking his new name of Darth Bane, he sets out to destroy the Brotherhood.
I’m not spoiling anything when I state the ending of Book One since the movies implied how rare the Sith were.
By faking a reconciliation with the Brotherhood’s leadership, Bane tricks the other Sith into killing themselves through a ritual he claimed would destroy all the Jedi. It works but Bane didn’t completely lie, General Hoth and many Jedi volunteers die in the attempt to stop the ritual’s fallout from snuffing out all Force-sensitive life forms on the battlefield.
Since everyone thinks the Sith are extinct in Book Two, Bane begins executing phase two, rebuilding the Sith through his Rule of Two. An abandoned Jedi padawan named Zannah becomes Bane’s apprentice and proves she’s an apt pupil; ruthless, merciless and very full of anger.
Ten years pass. Zannah is an adult and has become Bane’s go-between for “setting fires” around the Republic to keep the Jedi too busy to discover that two Sith remain. Bane’s body also got covered with symbiotic creatures which protect him from blasters and lightsabers but cause him pain in return. When it comes to the Dark Side, pain and rage are guaranteed to get stronger results from the Force too. Besides, Bane knows this would make him memorable and anonymity is the key to his plans.
Inevitably Bane and Zannah are hunted down by a few Jedi war vets who never stopped believing the rumors. There’s a major confrontation at the end of Book Two leaving Bane mortally wounded as his symbiotes are killed by a Jedi master’s dying actions. Zannah flees with the dying Bane, gets him the needed medical attention and throws off any Jedi investigating the fates of their missing comrades. Rescuing Bane seemed uncharacteristic of Zannah yet she did for she knows Bane has more to teach her.
Book Three jumps ahead another ten years. Bane realizes the Dark Side is starting to take its toll on his body and Zannah has made no progress in proving her worthiness to take the mantle of Master away from him. Bane has two choices. Find a new apprentice soon or pursue a way to extend his life until a suitable heir does kill him. In the finale, many of the loose ends both of them left alive in the previous books converge by coincidence and may succeed in destroying the Sith. Obviously, they don’t or there’d be no Darth Vader 1000 years later.
Overall, it was a fine piece of retrofitting. I’m not sure if Disney has chosen to obliterate all the Old Republic material as they’ve done with anything set around and after the films. I’m glad Bane got a decent treatment given what a letdown the Clone Wars panned out to be. My only gripe though is how Bane is drawn. He often looks like Vin Diesel with bad clown makeup. Is it to get the Jedi to underestimate him in combat or to break their connection to the Force via giggling?