| Title | : | Star Wars: The Old Republic, Vol. 1: Blood of the Empire |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1595826467 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781595826466 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 96 |
| Publication | : | First published February 2, 2011 |
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Vol. 1: Blood of the Empire Reviews
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Special thanks to my goodreads friend
Mogsy for making me aware of the SWTOR tie-in comic series' existence.
The funny thing is, I never knew these comics existed until Mogsy mentioned
The Lost Suns in her review of Drew Karpyshyn's Old Republic Tie in Novel,
Annihilation. Did some research to see what it was, and I found that there were actually three tie-in comics done for The Old Republic, bioware's epic Star Wars MMORPG.
I think SWTOR is an extremely underrated video game, or just that the immense vitriol it seems to get is almost completely unwarranted. I find there to be three big complaints with it: 1) that it seemingly ruined the characters of Revan and the Exile; 2) SWTOR isn't KOTOR 3; and 3) it is just a rip-off of World of Warcraft, and it wasn't Star Wars' WoW answer that many MMO players were hoping it would be at launch. So in less than a year the player base crashed, the game was forced to go to a Free-To-Play model (which another group of haters see this as making the game inferior), and now it seems to be the target of every KOTOR fan's hatred. Despite that, SWTOR is still going reasonably strong, with a new expansion pending called Knights of the Eternal Throne.
Here's my take on the game: while it doesn't reach the greatness of either of the KotOR RPGs, I still really love it, and have had countless hours of fun playing the game with my girlfriend. While I can understand why people don't like the idea of the characters they defined and played as in the KotOR games being added to the MMO as NPCs, I don't think their story arcs as a whole were ruined by the MMO (or the book
Revan for that matter) and even so they don't play so big of a role that their inclusion completely destroys the game.
And when you take out the inclusion of Revan and the Exile, the world of SWTOR still has such a lush treasure trove of other great storylines and characters to offer. Even without the video game,
Deceived does a decent job fleshing out the character of Malgus (as well as providing some good new ones) and
Annihilation to me is the most underrated Star Wars novel out there.
Also, it is completely ridiculous to call SWTOR a terrible game just because there is no KOTOR 3. While I don't think it works as a KotOR 3 replacement, it is a great MMO on its own that provides memorable new characters, worlds, and lore.
I will admit the weakest aspect of the game is the gameplay, for the gameplay, especially combat, is clunky. But the story elements and being able to roleplay our characters with my girlfriend more than make up for it. I have taken a hiatus from the game but I have been really wanting to get back into it.
So where does this comic fall into all this? Well, it's part of the comic book trilogy that ties into the SWTOR video game. I was excited to pick this up because I love SWTOR and the Old Republic era, but it ended up being a really big let down.
THE STORY: The goal of this comic was to flesh out the backstory of a character that plays an important role in the Sith Inquisitor class story. It follows Teneb Kel, a young sith who was formerly a slave. He goes through some revelations, battles a female sith who turns out to be a traitor, and talks to the dark council about it.
There's probably more, but I really can't remember. It is that boring.
THE BAD: This is one of the most boring Star Wars stories I have ever come across.
The characters are incredibly bland. If you asked me what made Teneb Kel different from the sith lady he has to fight, or any of the other characters in this for that matter, it is only because the plot demands it or its because I recognize them from the game.
The plot is nothing to write home about either, in that it is just a straightforward rise through the ranks story. Yet, it focuses very little on those elements, basically just spitting out backstory and plot dialogue until the next action scene occurs.
Speaking of which, you know there is a problem when your character dialogue is more exposition heavy than your narration. I thought Tom Veitch's comic book writing was bad. At least he acknowledged how boring all that text was by stuffing it into a narration box. This feels like Shymalan's The Last Airbender! Nearly every single line of dialogue is used for exposition, plot, or backstory. No character development, no emotional connections, nothing!
Oh and did I mention the narration?
THE GOOD: Even though I rated it lower, at least this comic is better than
Dark Empire I. And even though it was incredibly boring, I found nothing so bad that it offended me.
I will give a touch of credit that Alexander Freed at least tried to cut back on his use of narration... oh screw it I'm scraping for straws here.
The one positive thing I can say about this comic is with the artwork, and that it does look nice. When we do get to the obligatory action sequences they have some pretty unique and cool visuals. Overall the action was as fun as it could possibly have been, especially taking into account how little the artists had to work with. However, the art is not spectacular in any way and does not save the comic.
THE CONCLUSION: Final rating is 1 star.
Blood of the Empire is definitely quite bad, but it is not offensively horrible. I gave it a 1 star because I couldn't pick anything out that was good enough to give it two stars. In comparison, even though
Dark Empire I was a dated piece of garbage that was more painful to read than this was, at least it had a good portrayal of Han Solo. Also, at least that one had the advantage of being memorably atrocious. This was quite the borefest, but it wasn't as offensively horrendous as
Star Wars: Princess Leia and it was much mercifully shorter than
Fatal Alliance.
Regardless, the point I'm trying to make is that this comic is dull, forgettable, an not visually interesting enough to stand out at all. Even if you just wanted to see some pretty looking comic visuals, I'd flip through
Obi-Wan and Anakin instead. Even if you are attached to the Sith Inquisitor storyline in SWTOR, I still think Blood of the Empire is a waste of time. -
Well, it was ok.
Basically the origin of Darth Thanaton. Which was ok. A fine story with nice artwork that wasn't any surprise that a bad guy would even kill those he "cared" about or pretty much anyone who he weren't gonna take anything to gain from.
Maybe if this series was longer as to have some characters grow on you, then it would be better I guess. But other than what I said, you're not missing on anything crucial and important unless you want to expand your knowledge while playing the Old Republic. -
This was a disjointed mess written by someone who clearly doesn't understand comic book storytelling. Oddly enough, that's understandable--this book was written as an online promo comic for Star Wars: The Old Republic video game. (Dark Horse, publishers of the print volume, had nothing to do with the production, as far as I know.) But when you add in the fact that the premise wasn't that good to begin with and you get a book I would recommend people skip. Or read for free at swtor.com.
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First thing’s first, let’s just get one thing straight: as a Revan fan the shelving of a third and concluding part to Revan’s trilogy was immensely disappointing, and the substitution instead of an MMO set a couple of hundred years into the future in no way made up for that disappointment. Yes, Revan appears in it, but it was a cop out – a passing of the buck to a new set of characters centuries down the line, not the conclusion to Revan’s story told in Revan’s time that we all wanted. As a result of this ill-judged decision, several things happened. First the disastrous book named after Revan. It felt sparse, it felt gamified (e.g. go here and get the macguffins), and the revelation at the end that
That’s all even before I’ve begun talking about The Old Republic. Already it’s not looking great because it badly warped and ruined an existing amazing story. When you actually come to the story itself, the first thing that strikes is the bad premise. Throughout Revan’s story we were told that they initially turned to the dark side because they discovered something that was such a dark threat that they believed the only way was to fight fire with fire, become grand strategists and seize control of the Republic to mould it into a force capable of fighting that threat. The Old Republic reveals that that threat is… This is what you’re going with as the third part epic conclusion to Revan’s story?!
So for this graphic novel which sets the scene leading up into all this, we sit on the shoulder of Teneb Kel, a disgraced young Sith who is trying to earn back a position by going after the Emperor’s apprentice who has gone rogue, and we don’t care about him at all. You might be thinking it’s pretty difficult to write a sympathetic Sith, but that’s not it. I empathised with Revan, who despite everything held to a belief in doing the right thing and was swept up on a tide of destiny and a domino effect of bad events. I sympathised with Darth Bane, battered and abused and basically pushed into a corner. I didn’t sympathise with Teneb Kel. He’s just a sullen, arrogant youth with no personality and certainly no likability. I couldn’t sympathise with the Jedi either – they’re just not in this story enough, heck I don’t even remember their names. The Emperor’s apprentice had a chance to become the character that won my empathy, but she doesn’t seem to have thought things through properly and events in the story proceed seemingly without rhyme or reason. Yawn. I hope it picks up in the next instalment, because at this point I am very disinterested.
4 out of 10. -
What the hell did I just read?
I spent the whole comic trying to understand the motives of the characters but ended up with so many questions in the end. Everything looks so rushed and not planed at all.
I wanted to like Tenel Keb but his actions contradict themselves all the time, and his past is not explored enough for us to be able to feel any type of sympathy for him, much like it happened to me and Xesh (also a sith hound) - who at least had some type of character development in the short dawn of the jedi series.
Exal Kressh seemed soooo interesting, but much like Tenel, her actions don't have a lot of back story to make the readers the least interested in rooting for her. Such potential thrown out the window.
Not a terrible story but it's just not gonna stick with me like the DOTJ and the KOTOR series did.
Hopefully the next old republic instalments will be better. -
Star Wars Legends Project #23
Background: The Old Republic: Blood of the Empire was originally released as a series of webcomics every other Friday on the official "The Old Republic" game site. The series was collected into three acts published from April to August 2010, and the whole story was published together in 2011. It was written by
Alexander Freed and pencilled by
David Ross. Freed wrote another comic arc for the "The Old Republic" and did some writing for the game, as well as an arc for the Star Wars comic series Purge. Ross also drew an issue for Legacy and several issues for Dark Times. He has drawn for Marvel for a long time, including several dozen issues of "Avengers," and done some work for DC.
The story takes place 3,678 years before the Battle of Yavin. All of the "characters" in this story are brand-new, and I don't recall any references to characters from other stories, besides the Sith Emperor. Most of the characters are non-recurring, partially because most of them are throw-away characters with no memorable qualities, and partially because the rest are dead by the end. Characters visit Ord Mantell, the ancient Sith planet of Korriban, and the Sith capital on Dromund Kaas. There are, doubtless, various connections with the "Old Republic" game which I am unaware of, as I have not played it.
Summary: The Sith Empire and the Old Republic are at war, and the galaxy is engulfed in conflict. Facing devastating losses on all fronts, the Jedi and the Republic fleet will jump at any chance of victory. But when the Sith Emperor's own apprentice approaches them with an offer to sell out her people, the Jedi smell a trap. A master and his apprentice are dispatched to verify her information. Meanwhile, Tenel Kab, disgraced apprentice of a traitorous Sith Lord, is dispatched by the Emperor's council to find the Emperor's apprentice before the Republic can launch an attack, kill her, and prove himself worthy of their favor.
Review: Maybe I screwed up by reading this comic in chronological rather than publication order. There are three additional volumes of the "Old Republic" comic series that came out before this, but they're set a few decades later. I can only assume that that comic set the stage for this phase of the Star Wars timeline. I just got through complaining that
Revan (review
here) seemed to dodge around all the interesting major events in its immediate vicinity. Too much "In-Between Star Wars" and not enough actual "Star Wars." By that I did not mean I wanted a story that just dropped me into the middle of an ongoing war with no context.
Revan provided some deep background and foreshadowed a galaxy-wide conflict that was destined to one day begin. Fast-forward 272 years, and we're randomly 3 years into the war. What finally sparked the conflict? What's been going on in the interim? What are the overall strategies being pursued by both sides? What's the big picture here? I have no idea. Your story can't raise the stakes when you haven't told us what the stakes are to begin with. Color me underwhelmed.
And it's not like we always have a clear idea of what's going on in the background in Star Wars anyway. That doesn't matter so much when there's meaningful character work being done. I can't remember another story where the characters were this undeveloped. I can't remember the name of a single character from this story, except the protagonist. I'm not even sure the two Jedi characters had names, and even the appearance of the apprentice is melting from my memory. He may have been the blandest character ever. And his master is only distinguishable because he wears a blindfold the whole time. I assume he's a Miraluka, but they never referred to it, so I have no idea. The cast is utterly devoid of life and interest.
The protagonist isn't much better. There are some pretty vague attempts to give him a dramatic arc, but the weird hints we get about his backstory don't accomplish that goal at all. It seems like he might be heading towards some major moral decision, but that moment never really arrives in a way that we can see. The character clearly has an internal life of some kind, but the reader doesn't get to glimpse it. As a result, it's hard to care much about him, either.
So, basically, this is a story about people talking about some stuff that doesn't make any sense without context, punctuated by the occasional perfunctory lightsaber battle. I'm not giving it an F because, first of all, the art was decent, and because the whole thing was such a giant yawn, I can't even really get up the energy to hate it. A big, fat "meh."
D -
no problems or anything. Just hard for me to give five stars to cause it was so dark/disturbing and that made it hard for me to enjoy fully. personal taste thing
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Star Wars The Old Republic Volume One: Blood of the Empire is a graphic novel prequel to the Bioware/LucasArts video game. It's meant as a tie in but without the need to have played the game beforehand. Unfortunately, weak scripting and editing as well as poor characterization create a muddled, disaffecting mess that leaves the reader either bewildered or bored.
The story follows Sith apprentice Teneb Kel and his loyal companion maggot. Kel's master has betrayed the empire and the Sith - leaving Kel in a tenuous position. He is given the task of hunting down another Sith traitor (guess that was pretty common?) in order to avoid execution for his master's lack of vision. Wanton destruction and deaths ensue.
I am guessing that the point of the story is that Kel is not yet fully corrupted but his blind obedience to the Sith ideals take him down his eventual path of evilness. One one hand, he is protective of and saves his loyal companion. But then, he's quite happy to kill padawans or bystanders in order to protect the Sith goals. So the whole book is him calmly being evil or calmly being good - whiplash confusing to a reader since this happens within panels of each other. I get that the author wanted to pursue this duality of Kel's nature - but it's just so random without actually giving us any insight into Kel in the first place.
All of the characters were poorly defined, Kel especially, so we had no basis for understanding who he is, where he is right now with his idealism/fanaticism, or why he's always so calm and honest, and kind of boring in a resigned way. I just wasn't interested in him - I found the person he was hunting FAR more interesting, though she was sprouting mumbo jumbo just the same as every other character. It's one of those times I really hoped the main character would get axed (or sabred, in this case).
The action scenes were incredibly confusing and I had a hard time following the story. Eventually, I just gave up and kind of went with the flow. The artwork itself isn't bad - it is crisp and clean. But there is a lot of lost potential in the action scenes and I had no idea what was going on. Several times I thought I was missing something important but couldn't find anything significant in the previous panels to tell me what I missed.
As with all Star Wars novels, there is quality here. But I think without an editor providing coherence and guidance, even the most quality of artists and writers can get lost. Which appears to have happened with this book. -
Here we are, once again, at the end of yet another disastrous excuse for a Star Wars comic series. This marks the 3rd in a row and I’m beginning to think maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a break from all things Star Wars related...especially in this format...
The thing is that Blood of the Empire had potential, considering its supposed to be setting up events for Paul S. Kemp’s Deceived and, it is, after all, based on the overlooked (in New Republic storylines at least) Sith empire and it’s constant fights against the Jedi rule of the Core planets and galactic senate. It seems like the recipe for a compelling, addicting, and hard-to-put down plot.
As you can see by my one-star rating. It’s none of those things. Instead, what Blood of the Empire ends up being is a disjointed, hard-to-follow, weak, and wholly unnecessary mess of a story. Even after reading it, I’m still not even 100% sure of what Freed was trying to write or explain. Panels jump around between scenes with such frequency that there’s no concise content or discernible plot. The things that are clear are laughably bad and have absolutely no bearing on anything that happens throughout the entirety of this volume. And the characters are stupid, one dimensional tropes of what all “bad guys” should be. There’s no motivation, no clear motivations and nothing there to even make the readers want to continue to read and finish.
Even if this volume (and the other 2 with it) were supposed to be a roll-out for the KOTOR video games, and that readers probably should have either played the game before or directly after, it doesn’t mean it had to be so horribly awful. Tie-ins and promotional materials are nothing new, but c’mon. Half-assing material that should be full of depth and lore, phoning it in just to make a quick buck, is a sad disservice to fans of the franchise and now makes me wonder if Disney did make the right choice by jettisoning all the Old Republic stuff to the Legends line and distancing themselves from shit like this. -
About once a year I pick up a SW novel or graphic novel. Sometimes I'm surprised and find something really good, but most times they are just ok. This one was just ok. The basic concept is fun----a young Sith trainee Teneb Kel is sitting in disgrace after his master betrays the will of the Emperor. He's given a chance to redeem himself and carve a new path for his life, but the trick is he has to hunt down the former apprentice of the Emperor, a powerful and crafty Sith Lord named.
Unfortunately the action's a bit clunky----it looks a lot like a comic from the 80's-----and the characters just aren't that interesting. Not sorry I read it, but I definitely won't bother reading any other volumes in this Old Republic line unless I hear there's a big change in quality. -
WTF. This book is so disjointed and ridiculous I don't even know what I just read or what it is supposed to have to do with SWTOR.
The artwork is great but the story is so godawful and stupid I don't really know how to review it. This might be the shortest review I've ever left but this is s##t. GARBAGE. -
Solid Old Republic tale
Extremely fast paced and interesting, the characters were simple without being one dimensional. Very quick read, which is both awesome and my only complaint. -
Improves upon the previous one, being more narrowed and focused, but considering how the first one was a complete narrative mess, it’s not saying a lot. Completely set in a different time period and with brand new characters, this book has the chance to start off with a whole new concept. That being said, this opportunity seems wasted, as well, with an uninteresting and messy story line that never seems to fully flow. Here we’re dealing with a potential new character with the opportunity to generate a certain interest, Teneb Kel, who has being chosen by the Emperor of the Sith as a mercenary to craft their goals against the Republic, as well as to find a potential Sith traitor that is, apparently, having deals and business with the Jedi. To be perfectly honest, I am not remembering these comic books stories after reading, and especially considering how poor the art is; again, Alexander Freed, once again, writes the story and Dave Ross provides the pencils, and the combo seems rather uninteresting and dry, and that’s the last thing anyone would like to hear regarding a Star Wars comic book, specially an Old Republic story! Nevertheless, and although the book itself has good-average moments, we leave with a bittersweet sensation of never going anywhere either interesting or important, and that’s an unforgivable sin, speaking about this franchise. This is one of the few SW titles I’d dare saying not even true fans would enjoy, although I’m not able to hate it whatsoever, for me it just seems as an uninteresting lecture, and while we’re talking about a “Legends” series, is not to harmful, nevertheless, it could only mean a genuine step down for the late Expanded Universe, proving the actual effort Marvel Comics is providing into filling this stories within themselves in the new canon. In the end, this Old Republic series is looking quite forgettable and perfectly disposable. Maybe not a complete waste of time, considering how short it is and how quick of a reading it represents, but overall, there is far more interesting subjects to explore in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…
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This certainly isn't my favorite comic in the world but compared to Threat of Peace it feels like a marvel of basic competency. It's the straightforward backstory of a major character in the Sith Inquisitor storyline of TOR, as well as introducing some plotlines for the Jedi Consular storyline. It has a coherent theme mirrored in two plotlines, distinct characters, and a clear plotline. I'm still not a fan of most of these Sith designs, but at least this art is a faithful depiction of what's in the game (though unlike some of the Clone Wars art, it doesn't bring more gravity to their originally flawed designs). I liked Maggot and his whole deal does the most to make Kel an interesting character.
On the other hand. . . Kel is a very hard protagonist to like, though he does act in some surprising ways (sort of prefiguring the light side Sith Warrior at times?). And though it's thematically coherent, the "Emperor's Children" plan it introduces is dumb as hell. I'm not sure how TOR constantly manages to scavenge ideas from Palpatine and earlier Sith but always stretch and caricature and layer them on in ways that saps any trace of imagination or potency they once had (not that this idea was a great one in the first place). -
This is one of those Star Wars comics that's set in an era that's so far divorced from the mainstream Star Wars movies that it's almost impenetrable to newcomers. And it's mostly concerned with the "bad guys," so it's hard to sympathize with any of the characters. Aside from that, it was a fun, quick, read.
I liked the artwork. There aren't any movie characters in this, so there's no need to worry about getting anyone's likeness correct.
Overall, it's not interesting enough to get me to pick up any more of it, but I don't regret reading it. -
Definitely one of the more unique tales in this series as we had a young sith hunting down a defecting sith. He was unfortunately (or perhaps as we was sith fortunately) rather unlikable. It was interesting to do the story from his point of view. But it would have been cooler from the sith who was leaving. Not because she was no longer evil but disillusioned with not getting any power of her own...
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Very disjointed. The only majorly fearured character who seemed to have their act together and logical was Maggot. He and Exal, whose design I liked, are the only reasons why I gave this two stars rather than one. The artstyle is good but I think there's too much blood showed with the lightsaber deaths - the wounds should probably be cauterized and not freely bleeding.
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I'll start with the usual "I haven't played any of the games" disclaimer. I found this to be a pretty decent if unremarkable tale that offered no real surprises, because it features Sith being...well, Sith. Teneb Kel is the standard copy-and-paste Sith. I was happy to see him succeed, however.
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I wrote a review for the whole story arc on the last volume. Read it there
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I enjoyed the cohesive story, but the images are highly disconnected with little to no indication of the action between.
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a setting we're not familiar with, with characters we've never heard of doing things unimportant to anyone else. all that said, a decent read.
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Can't believe there is so much hate. Darth Thornton is a mother fucker
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Laugh out loud. I finished this in less than an hour. So slay. This was so good, i need more of it.
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Kinda boring with bland characters but still a fun star warsy time.
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This is a pretty dark book and almost doesn't feel like Star Wars. We haven't had too many stories told from the Sith point of view and that takes a little getting used to. The Dark Side story can be a fun viewpoint, but we've grown so accustomed to the "Heroic" viewpoint, that it was initially difficult for me to see through the main character's eyes.
I wasn't nearly as interested in Teneb Kel early on in this story as I was with the origins of Darth Bane in that series of novels. Kel is a confused young apprentice caught between his teachings and his Master's failure. The confusion plays well early in the book, but when Kel is asked to step up by the Dark Council, he follows the Sith doctrine and steps up. Kel is given a sensitive assignment by the Council to prove himself and set his future as a Sith. By the end of the story, I was much more vested in the character and his journey and would like to see more of his future.
Like the anti-hero, the "villain" of the piece is Exal Kressh, the Emperor's own apprentice. She is rebelling against the Emperor's control and feeding information to the Republic. Her motivations are a bit twisted, like her psyche, but she makes for an interesting foil. The final scenes of the story with Kel are great and you're just not sure how it's gonna turn out!
My biggest gripe about the story is we get several charcters who are not identified by name throughout the story, and they impact what's happening! Even if he is just a common Padawan, it would be nice to give him a name! And again, I feel that for most of the story it didn't particularly FEEL like Star Wars, but by the end it was feeling better and the themes became more evident.
Overall, this was an interesting story, but I did feel it lacked a little something. I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could, but I'll round up to 3 full stars. -
So, so disappointed with this. The Old Republic is my favourite time line so I love to find anything related to it, especially since I now don't have a proper computer and so cannot play the mmorpg :( I've read a few of the books (which are okay), and so when I found this I thought great! it's all of my favourite things in one.... Except it wasn't.
I literally had no idea what was really going on, and I'm glad to discover that I'm not the only one (I thought maybe I was just being a bit dumb but apparently not). The storyline is hard to follow, parts of the dialogue and action scenes don't really make a lot of sense. Because of this, the story seems to carry on really rapidly but without making any real progress.
I had little understanding of most the characters, and was completely confused at the three/four main factions aims. All of the characters were boring and flat, even the one I liked the most and even then I didn't understand most of what she was doing. And then low and behold, the mundane white boy strolls out as one of the only survivors at the end even though it's not believable at all.
tl:Dr boring boring boring, and disappointing.
I was really hoping for a great comic series about my favourite part of the universe, but guess now... I really can't see how it could improve and such sites poor set up for the rest of the series (as well as the game, which I didn't even realise it was really related to, apart from the name).. -
Onward with the Humble Bundle Star Wars deal. This time we jump 300 years forward, now 3,600 years before the Battle of Yavin. In this story we are seeing things from the Sith side. I enjoyed this more than the previous two.
The plot centers on a Sith apprentice, Teneb Kel, hunting down the Emperor's apprentice Exal Kressh. First off the artwork in this story was good. Very clean and clear for the action going on. Even though we see other characters, it becomes focused on Kel, Kressh, and Kel's slave Maggot.
Because the focus shifts to the three characters, you become more familiar with them. They are given strong development in the story. They story does come down a notch because there is a vision sequence that threw me off.
As with the previous volumes, this one ends with the story to be continued. However, this volume can work as a stand a lone as well. A good read for any Star Wars fan.
