Star Wars – High Republic #11: How to Destroy a Jedi

The Jedi of Starlight Beacon, relatively fresh from their victory over the Drengir, find themselves up against the Nihil marauders. Not only that, but they face the assumed Nihil leader Lourna Dee. This series has gone from being almost a side-plot to the “High Republic” novels to involving one of the main villains. This makes sense as Avar Kriss is arguably the main Jedi hero in the series, but has had quite a presence in this limb of the over all larger story. As the multi-media event winds down its first of three phases, it seems it might be time to hit the Jedi hard and direct to give them a huge defeat to come back from for the second phase. This issue holds little back in that respect. Rarely do fans get to see Jedi terrified and powerless, but that is the very theme of this issue. Even Kriss, seems to succumb to this fear. The only one who doesn’t seem to be affected is Master Sskeer, who is slowly losing his grip on The Force.

In the novel “High Republic: Rising Storm, also by Cavan Scott, a prototype for a weapon is introduced. This highly volatile device makes lightsabers ineffective as it has some effect on The Force. In this issue, it looks like the device that followed that prototype is much more effective. It has the ability to separate Force users from The Force itself and basically tortures them. Keeve and Terec not only find themselves useless against it, but it almost kills them. It is likely that the Nihil will certainly be able to cut a path through the Jedi right to Coruscant if they so choose. This is eerily reminiscent of the Yuuzhan Vong from the old EU, or “Legends,” novels of the “New Jedi Order” series of books. The Yuuzhan Vong have the natural ability to be almost nonexistent to The Force and rendered lightsabers useless. With that, they almost took over the entire galaxy in a three year war with a death toll numbering in the trillions. If the Nihil can replicate and spread out this device, it is likely the galaxy of the High Republic is bound to suffer a similar fate.

One of the neat things about this chapter is the fact that despite being essentially up against the wall, the Jedi don’t turn on each other or falter in the face of such terror. Sskeer in fact rushes right in to find his former apprentice, Keeve. As a nice touch to show how much time has elapsed in the series, Sskeer is portrayed with his missing arm that was lost in the very first “High Republic” novel starting to grow back. Once lopped off at the shoulder, the reptilian Jedi now has an arm to his elbow. This is representative of the overall toughness of the Jedi. Despite being faced with insurmountable odds, the Jedi will recover. This obviously eventually happens as this tales place hundreds of years before the prequels, when the Jedi are pretty much everywhere. But its not just Sskeer looking to rescue the duo. All the Jedi involved rush into danger to help their comrades. That is something the Nihil just would never do. This is almost certainly the reason they will ultimately be defeated. However, how much destruction can occur before that happens.