During the Clone Wars, Senator Padme Amidala went on various diplomatic missions across the galaxy,
travelling to some of the most beautiful places in the core, but also the most
terrifying in the far reaches. On one mission to the planet Rubinero in the outer rim,
Padme took Jar Jar along, and during the trip, things went horribly wrong when Jar Jar was
possessed by a dark side curse from Vader’s Castle on Mustafar, leading to him chopping
off one of Anakin’s arms… So, lets break down this dark and chaotic mission.
Before we dive in, make sure you’re subscribed as this is the first episode of my Dark Side Tales
series, which will cover some of the darkest and most terrifying stories from Vader’s castlt vault.
So, the story begins on the fiery world of Mustafar, home to Vader’s castle.
Inside is the mysterious figure Venee’ who you likely will remember from Rogue One.
Venee’ was the acolyte who attended to Darth Vader inside of his chamber and was also supposed to be
Veris Hydan from Rebels, until Lucasfilm decided that there would be too many connections to show.
Either way, Venee’ has entered the deepest chambers of Vader’s castle
and is calling out to his former idol, wondering if he is truly dead. In return, the dark acolyte
does actually hear a response from Darth Vader, telling him that the Sith can never be defeated,
and that he will someday return. The way he is able to communicate with Vader here is because
although we know in Canon that only light side beings can manifest full force ghosts,
Dark Side users can remain present after death, but are bound to physical objects,
like a helmet or location. In this case, Vader is pretty much split, with his dark side surviving
and being bound to this castle, and his light side obviously becoming a true force ghost as Anakin.
Following this, Vader demands that Venee’ start the ancient sith ritual, and he does so,
calling upon the immortal gods of the Sith, summoning their malevolence, anger and dread.
He demands that the dark lord have his revenge against all those who have done wrong to the sith.
While this is happening, a young boy on the planet Orchis 2 is inside a huge, ancient library
exploring the untold history of the galaxy, which was hidden by the empire during it’s reign.
Inside, he gets a holo call from his sister Lina, and demands to know when she will visit
this archive on Orchis 2, calling it home. Lina asks “since when has this been our home”,
to which her brother replies that although it wasn’t exactly their home,
it was the home of their family line for centuries, until they were removed
from the planet before it was turned into a large, sprawling library of dark side relics,
knowledge and holocrons by the empire. Artefacts and relics of unspeakable evil were stored here.
The boy’s droid, Crater then chimes in, wishing the Empire had treated the archive with more
respect after they left. Lina then asks her brother Milo, “has he always been like that”,
to which he joking responds “he’s happiest when he’s complaining”...
Crater isn’t too happy with this, but before he can complain too much, Milo begins telling his
sister about the dark and horrifying records he has found in the library. Accounts from
the Jedi purge, art from the old Republic, and even Diagrams of Vader’s castle on Mustafar.
The name mustar itself horrified Lina, as she had a terrifying experience there previously. She then
hangs up the holo call as she has a meeting with General Syndulla of the Rebel alliance,
and the boy’s droid picks up a mysterious glowing holocron. As he picks it up,
Milo recalls a report he found deep in the archives about a senator and her Jedi bodyguard
from the Clone Wars where a strange force came over them and very dark things started to happen…
Milo even had a dream that he was the bodyguard in that situation.
We then cut to the events described archive, far out on the planet Rubinero,
where Padme, Anakin, Jar Jar, and their two droids exit their ship on the dusty surface.
Threepio asks Padme if she’s sure travelling to this remote world is a good idea, but Anakin
quickly responds asking him “since when had Padme listened to the senate, Threepio”... Threepio.
Despite being asked not to investigate the area, Padme tells C-3po that there
has been a settlement on this dustry world since the early days of the High Republic…
although small, they served as a bustling outpost for traders and travelers… and now,
they have suddenly stopped responding to messages from the Republic. As Jar Jar exits the ship,
finally realizes that the whole place is deserted, asking where everyone could be… Anakin is annoyed,
but tells him, that’s exactly why they’re here in the first place.
Moving through the quiet streets of the city, Anakin tells everyone to split up,
which frightens threepio, because he doesn’t want to roam a ghost town alone,
but he has no choice. As he moves forward, he enters a nearby building
and immediately hears a large metallic clunk. In the shadows, he then sees the bright,
glowing green eyes of a menacing droid, ready to pounce and crush him to bits…
As this is going on, Anakin and Jar Jar are still puzzled at where the population of this
town and this planet could have gone… It makes absolutely no sense that a once thriving outpost
has just evaporated out of thin air. As this is happening, Jar Jar decides to start touching
the golden droids that are seemingly deactivated along the street and in typical jar jar fashion,
he tips one over, causing it come toppling down, moments away from crushing the clumsy
gungan. Luckily for him Anakin uses the force to move the falling droid out of Jar Jar’s path,
and it’s ridiculously annoyed at him, asking why he has to touch everything he sees.
After this incident, Padme begins to feel concerned, asking if anyone has seen Threepio
since he’s been missing for quite a while. Moments later, Artoo spots the golden protocol droid…
but something is horribly wrong. The droid’s eyes are glowing that same bright green as before,
a strange goo is seeping from his joints and he’s missing an arm…
Anakin tries to back away, but Threepio suddenly gains the strength of a krayt
dragon and topples his master over. Anakin then gets and asks when his droid got so strong…
He then is forced to slice his protocol droid in half to protect himself and the others,
and when threepio is lying dead on the ground, he begins to apoligise,
but the encounter is not over just yet… His wires are now being possessed by some unknown
dark entity and they are beginning to repair the droid, bringing back his glowing green eyes.
We of course know that in this flashback, Threepio’s actions come is a result of the
same type of Dark Side curse that Venee’ would later use in the present, After Vader’s death.
Anakin knows this is not good… really not good, but at this point, it’s too late and he is being
entangled by the wiring. Jar jar immediately call out that Anakin is in some deep trouble, but Padme
worryingly shouts out that he’s not the only one. Immediately as she says this, a horde of droids,
in a variety of models surround the Senator and the Gungan, each with the distinctive green curse.
Jar Jar then idiotically decides to try to escape the droids
and help Anakin get away from Threepio’s possessed grasp,
but a huge droid immediately grabs his leg and pummels him to the ground.
At this point, Jar Jar is being swarmed by droids of all kinds,
each with the same green eyed affliction, forcing the Gungan to scream out for help.
Padme looks over and attempts to help Jar Jar get out of this situation, but she’s got her own
problems with drones swarming her, and wishes that Anakin were around to start slicing them to bits.
As Padme continues pushing away the savage and psychotic droids, Anakin is
struggling against threepio’s slivering wires, attempting to get reach out to his lightsaber.
He eventually does manage to reach his blue blade and cuts himself free, but still has one
huge question. Why is all this happening? Is it weird force ichor like on Dathomir, corrupted oil?
Jar Jar however doesn’t care how it started, telling Anakin that
these clankers are nuts. Anakin agrees and Frees Jar Jar from the wrath of the droids,
before scrambling to get everyone back to shuttle with haste.
At this point however, the wiring from the possessed droids have surrounded Anakin’s
mechanical hand and are making it pull Padme away, despite him wanting to run to the shuttle.
He tells Padme that he can’t control it, and Jar Jar comes up with… an idea…
He picks up a metal baking tray with his tongue form nearby and places it in his hand, before
wildy launching it in Anakin’s direction. The plan surprisingly works, and Jar Jar disconnects
Anakin’s mechanical arm, saving him from the control of the dark curse… for now…
But things aren’t over yet, with the possessed threepio crawling towards Anakin and violently
grabbing his robe. Artoo immediately jets in to rescue Anakin, but threepio seemingly spreads
the curse to the r2-unit, turning him against Anakin as well. At this point, almost every droid
in sight is overcome with the dark curse and are chasing the living beings back onto their shuttle.
As they rush back into the ship, Padme is saddened but tells Anakin there’s
nothing he can do for his droids, and that he shouldn’t let their sacrifice be in vain.
As Padme, Jar Jar and Anakin fly off world,
Anakin is absolutely furious that he was forced to leave his two beloved droids behind,
and Padme asks if he’s ok. Anakin tells her that he’ll live, unlike Artoo and Threepio,
and says that maybe the senate was right about staying away from this desolate hellscape.
Padme still doesn’t know what could possibly have happened to the citizens of the planet after the
droids took over, because there should still be bodies left behind… or skeletons at least.
Anakin then asks Jar Jar what he thinks, but after he doesn’t respond, Anakin turns around.
As he turns his head, he is greeted by an horribly infected Jar Jar, suffering from
the Sith curse that was sung at Vader’s castle. Wiring crawls from jar Jar’s body and begins to
strangle Anakin, while winding up Padme’s arms and inflicting sheer terror on the couple…
and that’s where the Archive ends, until Milo digs deeper into the archive,
we will never know Padme and Anakin escaped, or how they rescued their two droids.
Back in the library, his droid Crate finishes telling the story and Milo says “i’ll never
look at droids the same way… but not you of course”... Unfortunately, just after he says this,
Crate zaps the young boy with a jolt of electricity, knocking him unconscious…
Under the control of Venee’s dark side curse, he has turned on his former best friend.
Crate has also been afflicted by the curse of the dark lord and vows to serve him.
This is actually one of the oldest and most ancient Dark Side force powers,
the ability to both control droids and turn living beings into droids, called Mechu-Deru.
The powe allowed Dark side force users to turn living organs into mechanical parts,
slowly turning a being into a techno beast. Yeah this one is terrifying.
So that is the time Jar Jar sliced Anakin’s arm off, in hopes of saving his life. Make sure
you’re subscribed so you’ll be notified as soon as the next issue of this comic is released, and
we find out how Anakin and Padme get out of this situation, and rescue their droids. Thanks so much
for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video. Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!