History Trivia / DarkEmpire

* DuellingWorks: A rare intra-franchise example between Tom Veitch's ''Dark Empire'' comic and Timothy Zahn's ''Thrawn Trilogy'' novels. Both series were conceived as immediate sequels to the Original Trilogy, and their first instalments were even released in the same year. Zahn was purportedly dismissive of ''Dark Empire'' and refused to incorporate elements of the storyline into his Thrawn books, but since both series were set in the same universe, Veitch's comic had to be pushed forward six years in the in-universe timeline to accommodate the events of Zahn's novels. The fact that both Veitch and Zahn had many of the same basic ideas caused some incongruities (e.g. both authors wanted to write a major plot point of Han and Leia having Force-sensitive children, but the twins Jacen and Jaina are nowhere to be seen in ''Dark Empire'', though they did edit in some references to Leia's children, plural) that had to be ironed out in later works. Ultimately, while ''Dark Empire'' made a big splash initially due to its great artwork and crowd-pleasing elements, ''Heir to the Empire'', with its fresh direction and compelling new characters, was much more warmly received by both fans and critics, leading to a successful trilogy of books that laid the foundations for countless other Expanded Universe works. All that said, ''Dark Empire'' has the honour of heavily inspiring [[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker the final chapter of Disney's Sequel Trilogy]], so its influence is still felt to this day.

* DuellingWorks: A rare intra-franchise example between Tom Veitch's ''Dark Empire'' comic and Timothy Zahn's ''Thrawn Trilogy'' novels. Both series were conceived as immediate sequels to the Original Trilogy, and their first instalments were even released in the same year. Zahn was purportedly dismissive of ''Dark Empire'' and refused to incorporate elements of the storyline into his Thrawn books, but since both series were set in the same universe, Veitch's comic had to be pushed forward six years in the in-universe timeline to accommodate the events of Zahn's novels. The fact that both Veitch and Zahn had many of the same basic ideas caused some incongruities (e.g. both authors wanted to write a major plot point of Han and Leia having Force-sensitive children, but the twins Jacen and Jaina are nowhere to be seen in ''Dark Empire'') that had to be ironed out in later works. Ultimately, while ''Dark Empire'' made a big splash initially due to its great artwork and crowd-pleasing elements, ''Heir to the Empire'', with its fresh direction and compelling new characters, was much more warmly received by both fans and critics, leading to a successful trilogy of books that laid the foundations for countless other Expanded Universe works.

* DuellingWorks: A rare intra-franchise example between Tom Veitch's ''Dark Empire'' comic and Timothy Zahn's ''Thrawn Trilogy'' novels. Both series were conceived as immediate sequels to the Original Trilogy, and their first instalments were even released in the same year. Zahn was purportedly dismissive of ''Dark Empire'' and refused to incorporate elements of the storyline into his Thrawn books, but since both series were set in the same universe, Veitch's comic had to be pushed forward six years in the in-universe timeline to accommodate the events of Zahn's novels. The fact that both Veitch and Zahn had many of the same basic ideas caused some incongruity (e.g. both authors wanted to write a major plot point of Han and Leia having Force-sensitive children, but the twins Jacen and Jaina are nowhere to be seen in ''Dark Empire'') that had to be ironed out in later works. Ultimately, while ''Dark Empire'' made a big splash initially due to its great artwork and [[FanService crowd-pleasing elements]], ''Heir to the Empire'', with its fresh direction and compelling new characters, was much more warmly received by both fans and critics, leading to a successful trilogy of books that laid the foundations for countless other Expanded Universe works.

* ApprovalOfGod: To an extent. While the series met a mixed response from both fans and ''Franchise/StarWars'' authors, Creator/GeorgeLucas himself praised the artwork of Dark Empire. Despite coming to dislike the concept of Palpatine's return after creating Anakin's [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]] destiny as a plot point in the prequels, Lucas bought 14 of the 16 original artworks and gave signed collected editions as Christmas gifts to LucasFilm employees.

* FlipFlopOfGod: Despite Tom Veitch [[https://web.archive.org/web/20040603120517/http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/features/starwars/ claiming]] that Creator/GeorgeLucas praised the series, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/vso18w/lucy_autrey_wilson_creator_director_of_the/ an interview with Lucy Autrey Wilson]] revealed that Lucas was not fond of bringing back the Emperor. He did, however, praise the artwork of Cam Kennedy. It should be noted that Lucas is notorious for having changed his mind and positions on many matters in the past, and it's quite possible this is just another case of it - he approved of bringing the Emperor back before he thought up Anakin's position as TheChosenOne destined to destroy the Sith, but came to dislike it after he did. Ironically, Lucas would later consent to J.J Abrams bringing Palpatine back in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', making yet another flip-flop.

* ApprovalOfGod: To an extent. While the series met a mixed response from both fans and ''Franchise/StarWars'' authors, Creator/GeorgeLucas himself praised the artwork of Dark Empire. Despite not liking the concept of Palpatine's return, Lucas bought 14 of the 16 original artworks and gave signed collected editions as Christmas gifts to LucasFilm employees.

* FlipFlopOfGod: Despite Tom Veitch [[https://web.archive.org/web/20040603120517/http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/features/starwars/ claiming]] that Creator/GeorgeLucas praised the series, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/vso18w/lucy_autrey_wilson_creator_director_of_the/ an interview with Lucy Autrey Wilson]] revealed that Lucas was not fond of bringing back the Emperor. He did, however, praise the artwork of Cam Kennedy.

** The series was originally going to be published by Creator/MarvelComics, but was moved to Dark Horse since very few people at Marvel thought [[ItWillNeverCatchOn that there would be any real interest left in the franchise after the release of the third movie]].