The Callista trilogy is the unofficial name for the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' trilogy ''Children of the Jedi'', ''Darksaber'' and ''Planet of Twilight'', the middle novel written by Creator/KevinJAnderson and the other two by Creator/BarbaraHambly. The stories of each book are mostly standalone except that they all feature the supporting character Callista, Luke Skywalker's love interest.

''[[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Children_of_the_Jedi Children of the Jedi]]'' follows Luke's adventures as he, pupils Cray Mingla and Nichos Marr, C-3PO and a few others find themselves stranded aboard the starship known as the ''Eye of Palpatine'', a fully automated Dreadnaught which has set its destructive sights upon an old Jedi outpost on Belsavis. However, Luke finds an unexpected ally aboard ship, and in the most unusual place -- Callista, a Jedi who died trying to stop the ship decades ago, has infused her spirit into the ship's computer. Han and Leia, meanwhile, search Belsavis for the eponymous Jedi children, and encounter the reason for the ''Eye''[='s=] sudden reactivation: Roganda Ismaren, one of the Emperor's other Hands, who has used BioAugmentation to make her son Irek capable of reprogramming circuitry via the Force. While the Solos try to stop them from summoning the dreadnaught, Luke and Callista fight it from the inside. In the end, Luke's two students blow it up, and Cray hands her body over to Callista. She is reunited with Luke but has [[BroughtDownToNormal lost all connection to the Force]].

''[[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Darksaber_(novel) Darksaber]]'' takes place eight years after the Battle of Endor, about a year or so after the events of the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' (also written by Kevin J. Anderson). The story features the return of Admiral Daala, who manages to organize the Imperial forces in an attempt to destroy the new Jedi Academy; the graduation of KarmaHoudini Kyp Durron into a full-fledged Jedi Knight; and a new foe, Durga the Hutt, who is constructing his own [[KillSat Death Star]]. It also follows the exploits of Luke Skywalker as he searches for a way to help his new LoveInterest Callista [[SuperEmpowering regain her Jedi powers]].

While Luke is hopping and skipping about the galaxy seeking a cure for Callista's condition, Durga the Hutt approaches President Pro Tem Leia to establish peaceful relations. It's all a ruse; agents of Durga break into the Imperial computer archives and retrieve schematics of the Death Star, which Durga plans to recreate. He even goes so far as to hire the original engineer, Bevel Lemelisk, to redesign the new space station; Lemelisk's design strips the station down to just the power plant and superlaser shaft itself, making it look like a lightsaber ([[TitleDrop hence the book's title]]).

During all this, Admiral Daala returns to the Empire, only to find it [[VestigialEmpire splintered, factioned and civil-warring]]. Her attempts to reunite the Imperial forces fails, and so she enacts a plan which forces the feuding warlords to listen up, in the process gaining an ally: former Captain, now Vice Admiral Pellaeon, once the lieutenant of [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]] himself. Daala brings the warlords to a peace conference to negotiate a reunification; but when they can't get past their personal differences, Daala [[BoardToDeath executes them all]] and takes command herself, fulfilling her XanatosGambit; their cooperation would unite the empire, but Daala replacing them all does too.

Hints and vague warnings abound as the various New Republic leaders begin to uncover evidence of both Daala's and Durga's respective schemes. Meanwhile, newly minted Jedi Knights Kyp Durron and his pal Dorsk 81 have [[TheInfiltration infiltrated]] the Imperial systems in hopes of finding out what the Empre is up to these days. They learn that Daala has managed to reunify all of the Imperial forces and is planning to unleash it upon the New Republic. They get themselves exposed as spies in the process but manage to escape. Daala, instead of reworking her tactics, merely speeds up her schedule, and further [[DoomedHometown attacks Dorsk 81's home planet]] in retaliation.

In the meantime, Durga and his minions have been constructing the new Darksaber superlaser in Hoth's famous AsteroidThicket. Unfortunately, he's as bad at hiring good help as Daala is at military strategy; the HiveMind creatures who are doing the actual construction are [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny easily distracted]] and tend to get confused when they return to work, resulting in a nearly non-functional space craft. Nonetheless, the New Republic sends a small strike team (led by General Madine) to sabotage the project.

While all this is going on, Daala attacks the Jedi Academy. However, she underestimates the Jedi trainees' power, and they manage to use the Force to blow her fleet to the outer edges of the star system; Daala herself is spared this fate only because she was a little late to the party. While the Jedi continue mopping up the Imperial forces, Callista -- who can't stand to watch the Jedi do things she herself no longer can, especially Luke -- commandeers a ship and sneaks aboard Daala's flagship, sabotaging it and ending the battle, but at the cost of her life.

In ''[[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Planet_of_Twilight Planet of Twilight]]'' Luke heads off on, ostensibly, a mission to rescue Callista, whom he believes may be hiding on a backwater planet. Said planet also happens to be a hotspot for political upheaval and a [[ReligionOfEvil Cult Of Evil]] which is bent on conquering the New Republic -- meaning that Leia has to go in to negotiate.

It's all a ruse; Leia is kidnapped upon arrival, her invite to the negotiations having been merely a lure. Luke now has to both find his old flame and rescue his sister before she becomes a mere bargaining chip. There's also a subplot with a plague that sends Threepio and Artoo careening from one misadventure to another before being rescued by a former enemy, who then proceeds to help out because [[EvenEvilHasStandards she hates the Imperial moff]] involved in the political upheaval of said backwater system. Sentient power crystals are also involved.

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!!Tropes featured in these books include:

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Durga learns that one of his top subordinates is an incompetent imposter who has spent months lying to his face and getting away with it, he can't help but chuckle after hearing about some of the man's past gaffes, and admits it's his own fault for [[FailedASpotCheck not doing a background check on the guy after first hiring him]].
* AllYourPowersCombined: How Dorsk 81 and the rest of the Jedi trainees repelled Pellaeon's fleet in ''Darksaber''. It kills Dorsk, sadly.
* AndIMustScream: Callista's spirit became trapped in the computers aboard the ''Eye of Palpatine'' for decades.
* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Admiral Pellaeon's infamous line about how the cost of constructing the ''Executor'' nearly bankrupted the Empire. If that actually did happen, then one can only imagine how many loans the Emperor had to take out in order to afford the funds needed to build the Death Star II -- or how a warlord with a fraction of the resources was able to build another ''Executor''.
* ArmedWithCanon: At the time that ''Darksaber'' came out, there was a massive difference of opinion on the nature of the status quo in the galaxy. Timothy Zahn had decided that the Rebellion and the Empire had flipped roles, with the New Republic being the legitimate authority, which had more people and more hardware than the Empire. In this scenario only someone like Grand Admiral Thrawn could make the Empire a threat to stability. Tom Veitch, on the other hand, decided that a galactic civil war, with the Empire splintered into different factions and no power having any more claim to true rulership of the galaxy than any other, was better. This made the New Republic just another player in a galactic morass. The novel authors preferred Zahn's vision, but with ''Dark Empire'' still being in the same canon as the novels, this caused some obvious problems. Therefore ''Darksaber'' is a sort of FixFic wherein Daala changes the Veitchian status quo into the Zahnian one, creating the Imperial Remnant that served as the main antagonist for (most of) the rest of the line.
* AsteroidThicket: The asteroid field from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' makes a return appearance, as the location (and source of raw materials) for Durga's Darksaber Project.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: The Taurill in ''Darksaber'', much to Bevel Lemelisk's chagrin. They tend to get fascinated by any asteroid or starship that gets too close to the under-construction Darksaber. And once they're done gazing, they end up getting back to work... at the wrong stations, leading to component connections going all doolally. At one point they build the superlaser assembly [[EpicFail at a right angle]].
* BadBoss: Palpatine to Lemelisk. Count the times he executed the poor guy (though he had the sense to have him cloned, due to his skills) with things like being lowered into molten copper.
* BigFun: In ''Children of the Jedi'', Han describes his smuggling friend Drub [=McKumb=] as a Rebel sympathizer who warned Han about trouble and was so fat they joked he was related to Jabba the Hutt. By the time he appears, though, he has lost lots of weight due to brutal captivity.
* BoardToDeath: Daala to the feuding warlords, although it's a little played with in the sense that it wasn't her first intention. She only did it as a last resort:
-->'''Daala:''' "I didn't ''want'' to rule. I had no ''intention'' of becoming a political leader. I wanted to crush the Rebels instead -- but you give me no choice. I can't leave the Empire in the hands of fools like you."
* BodyBackupDrive: Prominent mention is given to how the Emperor used to have Bevel Lemelisk executed for his failures -- slowly, painfully, often via... creative methods -- then immediately reanimate him in a cloned body. He would often "awaken" to find his corpse still nearby, apparently in case the horrible, horrible death he'd just suffered wasn't enough of an object lesson. It was later hinted Palpatine did this partly to see if [[ComicBook/DarkEmpire the technology would work on himself]].
* BodyHorror: Bevel Lemelisk, the designer of the first Death Star, [[spoiler: is killed horribly by Palpatine after the first Death Star is destroyed, then cloned and restored to life with full memories of how horrible his death was. He is set to work on the second Death Star and the process is repeated every time the project suffers a setback]].
* BodyMotifs: The ''Eye of Palpatine''.
* BrainUploading: How Callista got into the computer aboard the ''Eye of Palpatine''. Also, the transference of Lemelisk's mind to new bodies every time he was killed and cloned could be seen as this.
* BroughtDownToNormal: Callista, as the result of infusing her spirit into the body of a recently deceased Jedi. Also, this temporarily applies to Luke when he first arrives on Nam Chorios, since the weird effect created by the planet's living crystals augments the Force to an incredible degree, making any use of it spiral out of control. Until he adapts, Luke is compelled to rely on his wits and physical fighting prowess, not the Force.
* CallBack:
** In ''Darksaber'', Durga briefly alludes to his time serving under the legendary crime boss [[Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire Xizor]]. Notably, this also doubles as {{foreshadowing}} as ''Shadows of the Empire'' had not been released at the time ''Darksaber'' was published.
** During a brief visit to Hoth in ''Darksaber'' Luke encounters the wampa that captured him in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. [[spoiler: This time he kills it, and comments afterward that "I thought I'd done that years ago."]]
* ContinuitySnarl: Shares a [[ContinuitySnarl/StarWarsLegends page]] with the rest of ''Star Wars Legends''.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Bevel Lemelisk helped design the Death Star but, after it was destroyed, Palpatine had him fed to a swarm of piranha beetles. He was then reborn in a clone body and tasked with creating more superweapons; each time one failed, Palpatine had him killed in an even more horrible way (such as being lowered into a vat of molten copper or being made to breath in acidic gas which dissolves his lungs) and then reborn. When the Rebels capture him at the end and plan to execute him (though presumably in a much more humane manner) he just says "Ah, well. If you're going to kill me, at least make sure you get it right this time." Later material reveals he was found guilty of genocide and shot, a mild death in comparison.
* DamselOutOfDistress: Two things happen without fail in Barbara Hambly's novels: 1. Leia is kidnapped by the BigBad. 2. She will make their lives ''pure hell'' before she is rescued during her own escape attempt. Filleting her erstwhile kidnappers with a lightsaber is optional.
* DeathbringerTheAdorable: One of Leia's adoptive aunts had four pet pittins (analogous to kittens). Their names were Taffy, Winky, Fluffy, and AT-AV (short for All-Terrain Attack Vehicle). Leia named that one herself. Obviously harmless, but it is easy to imagine a kitten analogue behaving in a manner that would earn it such a name.
* {{Determinator}}: Luke spends most of the first book exhausted and in pain, mostly using the Force just to keep going, and still never gives in. Callista is also this trope, but it's deconstructed -- she spends so much time yearning to [[spoiler: get her Force powers back]] that she never considers becoming a BadassNormal -- she's still a trained Jedi with a lot of lightsaber skills, after all. It's either [[spoiler: get her powers back]] or nothing -- and [[Literature/FateOfTheJedi look how that turned out]].
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Honestly, Durga? What did you ''expect'' to happen when you tried to build a superweapon but decided to cheap out on construction material and labor? [[spoiler: It doesn't even fire.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Mara Jade finds out that Emperor Palpatine had more than one Emperor's Hand in the first book. Her rage and subsequent rant about it sounds a lot like that of a scorned lover who just found out her significant other was cheating on her. Given how single-mindedly devoted to him she was for years, this is pretty understandable.
* DoomedHometown: Khomm, Dorsk 81's home world. Especially notable in that Khomm had been neutral throughout all the previous galactic conflicts, and was attacked by Daala's forces for the sole reason that a Jedi spy had hailed from there.
* DoomedPredecessor: Han and Leia's plotline in ''Children of the Jedi'' involves them searching for a lost HiddenElfVillage of Order 66 survivors and their families, and they learn that many other treasure hunters also tried to find the place and vanished. They encounter those smugglers, brainwashed into being homicidal guardians of the area, several of whom they have to kill.
* DramaPreservingHandicap: Luke is so massively powerful at this point in Star Wars he'd be able to go through any of the challenges of ''Children of the Jedi'' easily. Thus, Luke spends the vast majority of ''Children'' badly injured without decent medical supplies available, the result of which being that he can barely use The Force and what little he can use he has to focus on keeping his body together.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[AristocratsAreEvil Lord Elegin]], a stereotypical EvilColonialist, is nevertheless an OfficerAndAGentleman who would never mistreat a woman.
* [[FakeUltimateHero Fake Ultimate Villain]]: General Sulamar in ''Darksaber''. Claims to be a feared and dreaded Imperial officer, responsible for the [[NoodleIncident Massacre at Mendicat]]. Turns out that Mendicat was a mining station and said Massacre was really a foolish command error of Sulamar's that sent it hurtling into the star it was orbiting. Guess Durga forgot to [[RecycledInSpace Space-Google]] him.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Callista gets a pretty good one.
* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: The Darksaber, essentially a cylindrical space station that can only fire its superlaser out one end.
* GeneralFailure:
** Admiral Daala, oh so very much. Later books have to give her ''brain damage'' to justify it.
** Also, [[spoiler: "General" Sulumar]] in ''Darksaber'', once it's revealed that [[spoiler: he's a great big fraud]].
** Pellaeon isn't really any better than Daala, at least in this series, being her admiring yes-man who enthusiastically supports all of her... ''questionable'' strategies.
** The warlords we see in ''Darksaber'' are hugely this. High Admiral Teradoc uses hugely costly wave assaults and completely fails to anticipate Harrsk's retaliatory strike, while Harrsk blindly charges in without any reconnaissance on said strike in another full frontal attack that also loses heavily. Judging by Daala's disillusionment, the rest of them are implied to be no better.
* GenerationXerox: What Leia and the rest of the New Republic believe is the case regarding Seti Ashgad, who they think is the son of a same-named Senator that Palpatine exiled to Nam Chorios. [[spoiler: Turns out [[MyGrandsonMyself he's the original Seti Ashgad]], having been kept alive and young by a mutated droch beetle.]]
* GetItOverWith, FacingTheBulletsOneLiner and FaceDeathWithDignity: Bevel Lemelisk's reaction to Wedge's threat of final execution as a threat to galactic peace? A resigned sigh of "Ah, well. If you're going to kill me, at least make sure you get it right this time." It especially makes sense given how ''many'' times he already died and was reborn. One guide to characters claims he made this his LastWords before the firing squad after he was sentenced to death by the New Republic for genocide.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Several characters from ''Children of the Jedi'' come across as people who were the protagonists of their own intense stories in the lead-up to the book.
** Master Plett is (or was, as his present status is unclear) a ScienceWizard who used botany skills and his wide array of unusual Force powers to benefit the planet he watched over, helped dozens of young fugitivies hide from the Empire after the Great Jedi Purge, defeated attacking forces, and then somehow arranged for the only {{Honest Corporate Executive}}s in the region to set up shop on the planet he'd had to leave so it could continue prospering. He vanished long before the novels take place, but there is a strong impression that his exploits could have filled a book or two.
** Cray Mingla is the descendant of Order 66 survivors who remained out of sight while studying under some of the people who were later recruited to work on the Death Star, fell in love with a fellow Force-sensitivie scientist, and tried to transfer his consciousness into a droid body to save him from a deadly disease shortly after they joined Luke's Jedi Order. However, during the main story, her role is rather limited.
** Triv Pothman is the SoleSurvivor of a garrison that spent decades fighting Gammoreans and each other, was MadeASlave, somehow escaped, and transformed from a tough stormtrooper to a kindly gardner and embroiderer.
** Han's friend Drub [=McKumb=] was a Rebel sympathizer and methodical treasure hunter who was kidnapped and brainwashed by the villains of the book but escaped in a moment of lucidity to warn Han about the danger they pose, kicking off the main plot in the opening chapter.
* HeroicSuicide: Cray and Nichos, blowing up the ''Eye''.
* HiveMind: The Taurill, the creatures that build the Darksaber. They're sadly easily distracted.
* HoldYourHippogriffs: A variation of "Might as well be hanged for horse theft as for stealing chicken feed" -- "In for two credits, let's rob a bank!"
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: This is practically Callista's refrain for pretty much the entirety of ''Darksaber''.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Luke and Tionne do this to an Imperial Flying Fortress using the stump of a giant broken tree.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: In ''Planet of Twilight'', Callista says this of Luke.
--> ''People have tried to use him from the moment [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack he put out his hand and summoned his lightsaber to come to him]]. Vader wanted to turn him. Palpatine wanted his services. [[ComicBook/DarkEmpire Palpatine's clone]] managed to enslave him for a time. But Luke is strong, stronger than he knows. And Luke has a single purpose. I suppose you could say that he has a [[TheHero pure heart]]. Luke doesn't hunger after power. In some ways I don't think he understands those who do."
* TheInfiltration: Several in ''Darksaber''. Most notably, Crix Madine manages to infiltrate Durga's organization to locate the Darksaber superweapon so the New Republic can destroy it.
* InfoDump: ''Darksaber'' is as long as it is partially because Daala and Bevel Lemelisk keep hauling the plot to a hard stop so they can reiterate their respective backstories. And not only them, but also General Madine, Qwi Xux, Dorsk 81...
* InformedAbility: Admiral Daala is described as a tactical prodigy that was kept down because the Empire was sexist. Daala's "campaigns" tend to be poorly thought-out raids that end in cataclysmic failure, and Daala herself comes across as trigger-happy and borderline unhinged. The only intelligent things she does are to [[BoardToDeath eliminate the feuding warlords]] and consolidate their fleets into a single Imperial Navy, and turn over command of what's left to Pellaeon after her scheme's inevitable failure.
* InformedFlaw: In ''Darksaber'' Pellaeon is described as speaking with "little charisma". This is the same Pellaeon who took command of the Imperial fleet at Endor, brought about [[PeaceConference an honorable peace]] with the New Republic in the face of diehards on his own side, went on to lead the Empire for three decades and in ''this'' book managed to persuade his fleet to disobey a direct order from their (and his) superior to attack Daala. Maybe he was having an off day (possible, since he's here described as deeply disillusioned after the Empire's defeats and now having to work for said superior, who's one of many petty warlords).
* KilledOffForReal: Two cases in ''Darksaber''.
** [[spoiler:Crix Madine is the first film character with a speaking role to die, executed via blaster shot by Durga the Hutt. Also a ShaggyDogStory since he went on that mission to destroy the Darksaber, but as events transpired, he might as well not have bothered.]]
** [[spoiler:Dorsk 81 also bites the big one in a HeroicSacrifice, dying after pooling together all the Jedi's powers to repel Pellaeon's fleet when it began its attack on Yavin 4.]]
* LampshadeHanging: In ''Darksaber'', upon learning of the eponymous menace, Han quips "Not ''another'' superweapon!"
* LavaPit: One of the various ways Palpatine executed Lemelisk. Played with in that it was in fact molten copper, and when Lemelisk asked "Why molten ''copper''?" a month later, Palpatine simply responded "It's what the smelter used that day."
* TheMagnificent: In a spectacular case of SmallNameBigEgo, the various warlords in ''Darksaber'' keep trying to top each other in terms of ridiculous titles. Supreme Warlord, High Admiral, Superior General, High Moff, Honored Overlord, Supreme Leader, Supreme Commander and Omnipotent Battle Leader are all mentioned as made-up titles various specimens gave themselves. That last was so ridiculous that background sources later retconned it as a title Palpatine used to hide his return in ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''.
* MeaningfulName:
** Daala alters the ''Night Hammer'''s name slightly, adding a K at the front as a sort of sick joke against the Jedi.
** Also, the eponymous superweapon in ''Darksaber'', named due to its resemblance to a Jedi's lightsaber.
* MetamorphosisMonster: The alien parasites in ''Planet of Twilight'' start off as little beetles that burrow into people and are supposedly quickly killed by the immune system. That's dependent on light, though; in the dark, they grow into horribly fat, claw-legged and {{Lamprey Mouth}}ed monstrosities that use their little siblings to drain pure LifeEnergy from a distance, but they'll attack directly to gain biomass. [[spoiler: One or two can become something like a protoshoggoth, with a normal human head atop a maw-studded body.]]
* AMoltenDateWithDeath: One of the seven executions Bevel Lemelisk suffered was to be lowered into a vat of molten copper. Compared to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the others]], he found it almost disappointingly banal of the Emperor in retrospect.
* MyGrandsonMyself: [[spoiler:Seti Ashgad presents himself as his same-named son in ''Planet of Twilight''.]]
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: ''Planet of Twilight'' has:
-->Sitting up, the youth said a word that Threepio knew in close to a million languages but was programmed never to utter in any of them.
* NoodleIncident:
** Played straight and eventually subverted with General Sulamar and the "Massacre at Mendicat", which he claims was a magnificent military campaign that put him on the map in Imperial history. [[spoiler:Crix Madine reveals to Durga and Lemelisk that said massacre was in fact nothing more than when Sulamar made a buffoonish command error that sent the Mendicat, an Imperial mining station, hurtling into a star]].
** Also: since the end of Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy, Pellaeon has gained a promotion but lost the ''Chimaera'' and ended up in the service of a warlord, all of which hint at an interesting few years between ''The Last Command'' and ''Darksaber''. Source material says he lost the ''Chimaera'' while fighting under the reborn Emperor, and then the Empire split up into warlord factions again. Later books show that he eventually manages to recapture the ''Chimaera''.
* PostDefeatExplosionChain: The [[spoiler:''Knight Hammer'']] is destroyed in such way when [[spoiler:Callista]] infiltrates her and in an unguarded hangar full of TIE bombers causes all of them to fire against the bulkhead separating them from the engines, with both the bombers' weaponry and the explosions destroying them leaving the ship engineless, with no power and (most critically) propulsion on a direct trajectory towards Yavin.
* RememberTheNewGuy: The way Cray and Nichos are introduced in Children of the Jedi makes it seem like they are important reoccurring characters that the reader should be familiar with, complete with the early chapters "recapping" their relationship and history as Luke's students. They are completely new characters.
* TheRemnant: ''Triple subverted'' in ''Children of the Jedi''. Luke's investigative mission to the ''Eye of Palpatine'' starts with the [[ThatsNoMoon dreadnought]] shooting them down, leading to a crash-landing on a planet where they are confronted by a garrison of Imperial stormtroopers... consisting of one old man, Triv Pothman, who immediately helps patch them up. He's been waiting for the ''Eye'' to pick him up for decades. Then it ''does'', brainwashing everyone into being stormtroopers -- again, in Triv's case. ''Then'' Luke helps him snap out of it and he remains on the good-guy side, eventually experiencing the CallToAgriculture at the end of the novel.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Nichos Marr in the first book. He's the result of a failed attempt at [[BrainUploading Brain Uploading]]. As a result, he has heated outer plating to imitate body heat and the ability to move his face. Too bad he's still a robot who happens to have some human memories. This not only foreshadows the fact that Callista might exist, but [[spoiler:it also explains her reincarnation: Nichos' lover, Cray Mingla, who orchestrated the creation of the droid as a ReplacementGoldfish, decides to [[TogetherInDeath rejoin him on the other side]]. And since she's got this spare human female body she won't need anymore, and Callista could use one...]]
* ScaramangaSpecial: One of the Imperial warlords, Superior General Delvardus, can take off the medals and accouterments from his uniform and assemble them together into a bladed weapon.
* ShaggyDogStory:
** Luke and Callista spend ''Darksaber'' traveling the galaxy trying to restore Callista's connection to the Force, but the subplot is interrupted [[spoiler: when Daala attacks the Jedi Temple and Callista disappears in the process of stopping her.]] She does show up in ''Planet of Twilight'' but the status of her connection to the Force is not addressed again until the ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' series, where after going through ''even worse'', she gets a happy ending.
** As mentioned elsewhere, the trilogy is something of this out of universe -- in the words of Barbara Hambly, she was hired to write the perfect match for Luke in ''Children of the Jedi'', then, because the fandom had latched on to Mara Jade as a romantic interest for Luke, she came back for ''Planet of Twilight'' to write that same "perfect match" out.
* ShapedLikeItself: Anderson is fond of these because they make him happy. "The structure rose like a giant ivory edifice." "Below, the dense greenery looked like clouds of foliage."
* ShootTheBuilder:
** Bevel Lemelisk, the primary designer of the Death Star, was initially rewarded instead of being murdered, but after the Death Star was destroyed due to an overlooked weak spot, [[YouHaveFailedMe he was tortured to death by a furious Palpatine]]. Then [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou Lemelisk was resurrected with dark magic so he could build a second, improved Death Star.]]
** Lemelisk's former teacher Nasdra Magrody played a minor, ObliviouslyEvil role in creating the Death Star, but suffered this fate in relation to a completely different project in the BackStory of ''Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy.'' Magrody's family was held hostage while he was forced to build a brain implant that would control machines with the Force. After the project's completion, he disappeared and was probably murdered.
* ShootTheShaggyDog:
** Durga the Hutt spends an entire book building his Darksaber in the asteroid field from Episode V. When the time comes for him to go forth and menace the New Republic [[spoiler: the superlaser fails and the entire vessel is fatally sandwiched between two giant asteroids before it can even get out of the asteroid field.]] And so [[spoiler:Crix Madine]] and his team [[SenselessSacrifice died for nothing]].
** It's made even worse when you consider that the sporadic scenes where Bevel Lemelisk is dealing with the hive mind laborers screwing up his designs quickly devolve to the status of an OverusedRunningGag. Even with enough time to complete the weapon, the shoddy materials and computers used to put it together would render it a laughing stock.
* SpearCounterpart: ''Children of the Jedi'' is, in a real sense, a romance novel told from the guy's perspective.
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Crix Madine, who is executed trying to sabotage the Darksaber, only for it to get crushed by two asteroids after failing to fire due to shoddy workmanship anyway.]]
* SuccessThroughSexAccusation: In ''Darksaber'', Admiral Daala relates to her NumberTwo Admiral Pellaeon that during her rise through the Imperial Navy, a disgruntled male officer accused her of [[SleepingTheirWayToTheTop sleeping her way to the top]] -- with some cause, given she was Grand Moff Tarkin's [[TheMistress mistress]] at the time. Tarkin reacted quite poorly to this and [[ThrownOutTheAirlock threw him out an airlock]] in a decaying orbit with his spacesuit's radio locked in the "on" position [[MakeAnExampleOfThem so that everyone on the planet could hear his screams as he burned up on reentry]].
* TakingYouWithMe: Delvardus tries to pull this when Daala gasses the room they're in, assembling a knife from his medals and other accoutrements, but can't reach her before he succumbs to the nerve gas.
* TemporaryLoveInterest: Zigzagged with Callista. Hambly was commissioned to create a love interest for Luke Skywalker, on the understanding that Callista would stick around as his permanent match. But Mara Jade had built up such enormous PopularityPower by then that Lucasfilm decided on a new direction.
* UntouchableUntilTagged: How [[BrainUploading Jedi-turned-computer entity Callista Ming]] died. As she notes to Luke, a Jedi may be able to fend off blasterfire for a while, but once one {{mook}} gets lucky, more {{mook}}s will get lucky. Although in her case it was automated blaster turrets, not mooks.
* VillainDecay: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and addressed. At the end of ''Darksaber'', [[spoiler: Daala resigns her commission because she feels that after her repeated defeats, she can no longer ask her men to follow her lead.]]
* VillainousValour: When Daala gasses the warlords, most of them only scream and plead and try to break out (as expected). Superior General Delvardus, however, methodically takes off all of his medals and uniform accouterments and assembles them together into a bladed weapon. Daala is impressed at his focus and wonders if he will be able to complete his task before succumbing. [[spoiler: He does finish the weapon, but collapses before he actually reaches her]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Ismarens get away, and aren't seen again until the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: {{Averted|Trope}}. Say what you like about how [[spoiler:Madine]] died, but at least Durga was smart enough to ensure that it was properly carried out.
* WouldNotShootACivilian: Averted with Daala, who orders Colonel Cronus and his massive fleet of Victory-class Star Destroyers to launch a terror campaign against a large number of civilian and military targets, including Khomm, the Chardaan Shipyards, and a library world. She already showed her willingness to do it in previous books, and most Imperials have no problem with this.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Pellaeon, after Daala [[spoiler: resigns.]]
* YouGetWhatYouPayFor: Durga's Darksaber probably would have worked better if he hadn't been chintzy on the construction costs. Lemelisk tried to warn him early enough to fix it, but he didn't listen.
* YouHaveFailedMe:
** Lemelisk gets executed by Palpatine for failing to look over a fault in the first Death Star which the Rebels finally took advantage of... [[spoiler:Then he's cloned, being too good to throw away, but he does end up executed and resurrected multiple times whenever Palpatine sees a setback.]]
** Durga ''tries'' this trope, via an electrified chair, but he pushes the wrong button and executes [[SubvertedTrope someone else entirely]]. The next time someone screws up, the entire crew [[TaughtByExperience jumps out of their chairs]], leaving Durga with [[AvertedTrope nobody]] he can execute that way. And later on, we see that Durga has learned from his experiences, and [[ZigZaggedTrope had everyone restrained]] in their seats so they can't get away.
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