Aftermath: Life Debt was just released, so it’s time to review it and then tear it
apart for new information!
This video will start spoiler free, but then I’m going to get into my top ten moments
from the novel, which will be full of spoilers.
I’ll make sure to give you plenty of warning there.
Let me preface this review by saying I was one of the seemingly few that enjoyed the
first Aftermath.
But I thought Life Debt was far superior.
The main story is more expansive, involving trips to planets new and old.
The fun Interludes from the first book return, and in many cases build off each other.
With Empire’s End out in January, I expect some of the Interludes could be tiny trilogies.
Most of the characters from the first book return, and we get more from Han, Leia, Chewie,
Wedge, Mon Mothma, and more classic characters.
Chuck Wendig also does a really great job of pulling in other canon material like the
comics, and hints at stories we will probably see in the future.
All in all I thought it was a lot of fun, and I tore through it in about three days.
And I’m not the fastest reader in the world.
It just feels like a proper Star Wars book to me.
More epic.
Galaxy spanning.
It reminded me a lot of the way Legends books used to be.
Okay now onto spoilers!
If you haven’t read the book and you plan to, stop now.
If you just want to know the big takeaways, I’m going to go into my top ten moments
from the book, which will include major plot points, easter eggs, connections, and more!
Basically the most important, galaxy-affecting pieces of the book.
First up I’m going to talk about the prologue and epilogue.
They both take place thirty years prior to the main story, which would set them before
the Clone Wars, but after Palpatine has been named chancellor.
We learn the story of Gallius Rax, who will be revealed as the mysterious Fleet Admiral
from the first Aftermath.
As a child, he stowed away on an Imperial ship to escape his homeworld of Jakku, but
not before witnessing some droids setting up some sort of excavation.
The ship takes him directly to the Emperor on his ship, the Imperialis, which you might
remember from the Lando comic.
Palpatine senses greatness in the boy, and commands him a bright future if he guards
the excavation on Jakku.
Palpatine also says that spot is and has been precious to the galaxy.
The droids will excavate and then build something underground.
Piecing together bits from the first Aftermath, Yupe Tashu mentions that Palpatine place beacons
on the edges of the Outer Rim seeking the origin of the dark side, and Yupe actually
appears at the construction site.
I imagine the droids are building one of the beacons.
But why is Jakku precious?
There are hints that the planet wasn’t always a wasteland.
I expect we’ll learn more in Empire’s End, which will detail the Battle of Jakku.
I’m already seeing videos and blog posts claiming Rax is Snoke.
I don’t think that’s true at all.
While some things, like his age, line up, I didn’t get the impression that he was
overtly Force-sensitive.
And yes, he was old enough to watch the Empire rise and fall, but I get the impression Snoke
is much older than 60 or 70.
I think Rax was a willing servant used by Palpatine on his search for the origin of
the dark side.
Rax might be involved with Snoke in some way, but I don’t believe that he himself is Snoke.
I think he is the main antagonist of the Aftermath Trilogy and will be dead by the end of the
next book.
Second, let’s talk about Rae Sloane.
She’s awesome.
I’ve likened her to Admiral Pellaeon from Legends before, and that comparison still
holds up.
She’s a mostly honorable Imperial officer that truly believes in the stability the Empire
brings.
Throughout the new canon we’ve seen almost her entire life from childhood present.
Her motivations are clear, and she’s basically a protagonist of this book.
Through her we see the Empire changing for the worse under Rax’s influence.
She admits that the Empire wasn’t perfect, but I believe Sloane is witnessing the transition
of the Empire into the First Order, and what she sees scares her.
Speaking of the First Order my third talking point is Rax’s Shadow Council.
He brings together a number of military minds to form new leadership for the remaining Empire.
They are his puppets.
In fact, it appears that Rax has been pulling strings for quite some time.
It’s hinted that he was manipulating Count Vidian from A New Dawn.
Sloane is among the Shadow Council, but more importantly so is Brendol Hux.
We already know about his philosophies from Servants of the Empire, and his wish to indoctrinate
children.
That is touched upon quite a bit.
Systems still under Imperial control are commanded to reproduce, seemingly for the purpose of
creating children that can be trained from birth, just like we see in The Force Awakens.
We also learn that General Hux from the film is a bastard, and that his first name is Armitage.
Staying on the Imperial side of things, the fourth thing I want to talk about is Mas Amedda!
He gets more screen time than he’s ever had before, which is kind of frustrating considering
I just did a video about the guy.
We learn that he is nothing more than a figurehead of the Empire.
A recognizable face with no real power.
He attempts to surrender to the New Republic and they won’t even take him.
So he remains basically in house arrest on Coruscant, which is in the midst of civil
war.
In fact, the Empire’s military has straight up abandoned their capital, and the only defenses
in place are set up by the Imperial Security Bureau.
Amedda considers suicide, but gets a visit from Sloane, and they decide to team up against
Rax.
Fifth, Sloane does some digging into the Empire’s forces.
We learn that there were at one point thirteen Super Star Destroyers, and she confirms that
the Ravager is the only one left.
Or is it??
She finds some inconsistencies with records involving the Emperor’s personal Super Star
Destroyer.
And what’s it called?
The Eclipse.
That’s right, the Eclipse is now at least canon in name at least.
We have yet to actually see it, but I can’t imagine it won’t pop up in Empire’s End.
Sixth, we get another interlude about the Acolytes of the Beyond from the first Aftermath.
Again, I think it’s likely that they are the precursors to the Knights of Ren.
This story takes place in a police station that shares a lockup with a neighboring museum.
The Acolytes infiltrate the prison lockup and steal a red lightsaber.
I have a feeling the lightsaber is from the museum, and is probably very old.
The organization seems to be gaining speed.
They were nonviolent in the first book, but they’ve definitely changed their tune here.
They still idolize Vader, and wear masks, which have to be earned.
The chapter was very creepy.
Okay I’ve been focusing a lot on the Empire and the darker side of things, so seventh
let’s talk about our main heroes Luke, Han, and Leia.
We learn that Han and Leia got married on Endor shortly after the battle.
In Legends it took them years to get married and have kids.
Now it took them a few minutes and it wasn’t long after that before they got pregnant.
Luke didn’t stick around for long.
He went missing, according to Leia, but I imagine he’s just off visiting Jedi temples,
something he promised he would do in Weapon of a Jedi.
Or maybe he’s searching for Force sensitive beings.
At any rate, we know he’ll return before too long.
Before he left he taught Leia a few basic Force techniques, which she practices.
The focal point of her practice is a small sapling of a tree, growing from a seed that
was given to her by Wicket.
Which is adorable.
During one of her sessions she senses her unborn baby, and learns that it is a boy.
Eighth, I want to discuss the state of the New Republic.
It is having somewhat of a rocky transition from Rebellion to government.
With a senate in place, there is bureaucracy and things move much slower, which causes
Han, Leia, Chewie, and Admiral Ackbar to become frustrated with the situation on Kashyyyk
and similarly enslaved planets.
With people to answer to, they cannot simply play the hero and attack the Empire when and
where they please.
However, the New Republic is still making efforts.
Notably, they are capturing Imperial ships, dismantling them, and rebuilding them into
a new capital ship called the Nadiri Starhawk.
Those might be the ships seen very briefly in The Force Awakens above Hosnian Prime.
Additionally they are working to help other refugees from the war, like the surviving
Alderaanians.
Evaan from the Princess Leia comic has a substantial role, and the New Republic sends them supplies
to create a new space station for their home.
Those pieces are from the destroyed Death Star.
Back to Kashyyyk, that’s number nine.
We get a lot of information on the slavery of the Wookiees.
They each had inhibitor chips implanted into their heads that could cause pain or death.
They sound a lot like the chips Anakin mentions in The Phantom Menace.
The entire planet was filled with work camps of Wookiees.
They were tortured, forced to breed, and hunted for sport by the local Grand Moff.
But of course by the end of the book, Han, Chewie, and more have successfully liberated
them all.
The fighting sounds like what the Battle of Endor would have been like with Wookiees instead
of Ewoks.
If it were rated R. Stormtroopers lose their arms, heads, and are straight up ripped in
half.
It’s nuts.
We also learn of a place the Wookiees call the Black Forest.
This area is dead and has been for thousands of years.
It was scarred by some dark event.
Right now we don’t know what that is, but it’s very intriguing.
Finally, number ten.
Boba Fett’s armor makes a reappearance on Tatooine.
Combining some information from the first book, we have a clearer picture of the story
so far.
The sarlacc was injured in the explosion of the sail barge.
Some of it unearthed, and Jawas cut into it so they could scavenge.
That would explain how Fett’s armor was on a sandcrawler in the first book.
But where is Fett?
Was he dead or unconscious and they just took his armor?
Again in the first book a local lawman purchases the armor, and now he seems to be using it
to keep the peace in his town.
This is complete speculation on my part, but what if that’s Fett?
What if he’s turning over a new leaf?
Or maybe Fett is dead after all, and the armor will live on in his legacy.
I have a feeling Empire’s End will give us the answers we want.
Anyway, those are my top ten moments from Aftermath: Life Debt.
What do you think of them?
Did I skip something you think was important?
Do you have any more questions?
Let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Also keep an eye out for another Life Debt video coming soon.
I’m planning on covering even more of the connections and details revealed in the new
book.