Vader's Quest is a 1999
Star Wars Legends four-issue miniseries set soon after the first movie, written by Darko Macan and drawn by Dave Gibbons and Angus
McKie. The
Two Lines, No Waiting plot follows Darth Vader learning that his son is the pilot who destroyed the Death Star and seeking to suppress this knowledge and track Luke down, Luke undertaking his perilous first solo mission for the Rebellion to cash in on his new fame, a
Bounty Hunter who knows Luke’s identity journeying to Coruscant to tell Palpatine, and a jealous Rebel pilot compromising Luke’s identity and location and then trying to make up for it by telling Luke before Vader can come.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Wimp: Not wimpy really, but at the end of the comic, Jal Te Gniev manages to blow up Vader's Star Destroyer, at which point the people of Jazbina rise up, take out Vader's entire contingent of stormtroopers, and surround him, with Princess Syayna asking "You'll fight a planet? Alone?" After an ominous promise he departs in his shuttle. Later-written comics have Vader be someone who would do that and come out on top. Then again, one of Syayna's followers says that they should have killed him, he'd been in their power. She says he hadn't been for a moment. (Also, Luke's there and likely would get hurt.)
- And This Is for...: Before blowing up the Star Destroyer, Jal says: "This one's for you, Bobek!"
- Blinded by the Light: Luke is tricked into igniting his lightsaber inside of a cave full of sun crystals that reflect and amplify it. Princess Syayna and company are all wearing goggles to prevent that from happening to them too.
- Break the Cutie: Wide-eyed Dubravan teenager Bobek tries to join the Rebellion and is subjected to a cruel and senseless prank just because the recruiter is in a bad mood. He buys a gun to try and kill the recruiter for revenge, although he ultimately doesn’t.
- Butt-Monkey: Luke is good-hearted and extremely skilled in various different ways, but in other ways he's naive and inept. Right at the start he shakes hands with a mechanic and gets thruster lubricant on himself, which gets transferred to the hands of several other people who are all disgusted. On Jazbina he clearly doesn't understand the position he's in, gets fruit thrown at him, and is casually manipulated into helping capture a Rebel cell, during which escapade he ends up with Temporary Blindness. The Rebels take him with them when they break out but one tells him to stare into the sun to regain his sight (which will not help). He almost does it, too, but is prevented by Syayna.
- Continuity Snarl: The series isn't entirely consistent with other works like Star Wars (Marvel 1977) regarding when Vader learned his son is alive and a rebel, or when the Rebellion abandoned Yavin (although lots of comics set in that period have similar discrepancies). The only element of this comic to appear again is Mala Mala - she has a role in one of the comics commemorating Chewbacca after his death at the start of New Jedi Order.
- Dies Wide Open:
- Nevana is shot In the Back and falls forward with her eyes open. Even if she wasn't dead or fatally wounded, her odds of escaping the Good-Guy Bar when it's set on fire minutes later aren't good.
- Bobek dies in Jal's arms while staring upward, after which Jal gently closes his eyes.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Nevana offers Bobek advice on how to remove leeches that got stuck on his arm during Jal’s prank, he angrily replies, "Who asked you?"
- Go Through Me: The people of Jazbina form a crowd to keep Vader from killing or capturing Luke, forcing him to retreat. Of course, it might not have worked if not for Vader’s fatherly concern for Luke.
Syanya: You’ll fight a planet alone?
After a short pause, Vader powers down his lightsaber, utters a threat, and walks off.
- Good-Guy Bar: The second issue features a bar in the swamps of Dubrava (an Imperial-occupied world) where Jal Te Gniev can wear his uniform and talk about the Rebellion freely (albeit unflatteringly). When the Imperials show up after Jal and Nevana, several of the customers start shooting at them. The Imperials set the bar on fire, and it's unclear if anyone besides Jal escapes or is spared.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Jal Te Gniev's main trait in the first half of the series is jealousy that rookie pilot Luke destroyed the Death Star while Jal (a veteran of fourteen dog fights) didn’t get that opportunity because he was sick with the measles and Luke took his X-wing. Wedge is baffled by his old comrade acting like medals are why they fight, but gets brushed aside.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Dubravans have green skin, and the only prominent female Dubravan, Nevana, plays the trope straight by wearing a low cut dress that has long slits.
- He Knows Too Much: When Vader learns that the Death Star's destroyer is named Skywalker, several Bounty Hunters are in the vicinity and have heard the name as well. He decides Murder Is the Best Solution to silence them. One gets away, intrigued by his insistence, and tells Palpatine at the end of the comic, when they all probably could have been kept silent if Vader bribed them or just downplayed the importance of the information.
Ban Papeega: Please, Lord Vader! I'll forget everything I've heard! I'll forget the name! Here, I've already forgotten all about Skywalker! I haven't even mentioned Skywalker just now!
NO!
(Cue Gory Discretion Shot).
- Mercy Kill: The Rebel prisoner who kicks off the series by revealing Luke’s name under duress is despondent about his failure to resist torture and how he has no means of escape from being subjected to further interrogation. He asks Bounty Hunter Mala Mala, who is running from Vader, to shoot him. She solemnly complies.
- My God, What Have I Done?
- Rebel sympathizer Nevana gives Luke's name and location to a bounty hunter her father owes money to without knowing who he is and is horrified to learn she’s endangered the Rebellion's biggest hero (and everyone on Dubrava who knows anything about him).
- Jal Te Gniev is contrite when it sinks in that his drunken ramblings to Nevana have endangered Luke and is even more upset when Bobek (who he earlier mocked and abused due to his cynicism and jealousy) dies saving his life and then reveals that he originally wanted to kill Gniev over the earlier abuse before seeing stormtroopers attacking him.
- Mourning a Dead Robot: Mala Mala is the one character in the setting who's least inclined to think of droids as Just a Machine. Her droids help her even to move around, as most of her nerve endings are dead and she really just has one good hand and eye. One of them goes through a Heroic Sacrifice to help her fake her death, after which both she and another droid regard this sacrifice somberly.
- Never Trust a Title: Despite the title, the other three plot-lines get more focus than Vader’s quest to find Luke.
- Obviously Evil: The ruler of Jazbian turns out to be an Imperial sympathizer, something that his opulent wardrobe and shifty, insincere manner makes very obvious from the start. That said, evil is probably overstating it.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After drunkenly crashing an X-Wing and being unable to work with Luke Skywalker due to being a Green-Eyed Monster, Rebel Alliance ace Jal Te Gniev is reassigned to be a recruiter on an unimportant planet. He makes no effort to carry out his duties and just drinks and insults the Rebellion until his big mouth endangers Luke, and he then has a shot at redemption.
- Recruit the Muggles: When Luke is blinded and helpless, a crowd of locals (both longtime Rebel sympathizers and Neutral No Longer civilians) come together to pull a Go Through Me gambit against Darth Vader and take out his stormtroopers.
- Redemption Equals Death:
- Jal Te Gniev flies his X-Wing into a Star Destroyer’s docking bay and then blows it and himself up to make up for putting Luke in danger.
- King Prepredenko is an Imperial collaborator who refuses to let his people join the Rebellion, but as he’s dying from wounds Vader inflicted when he thought Predpedenko killed Luke, he accepts his fate and apologizes to his Rebel daughter and his people for his actions, helping inspire them to fight.
- Prepredenko’s droid 3DVO betrays Luke, involuntarily giving him an Instant Sedative dart on his master's command. The droid is very upset about this and hates that his objections are brushed off. In retribution, 3DVO lies to Prepedenko, saying that Vader wants Luke killed before he arrived - the exact opposite of what he transmitted. Syayna thinks quickly, shoots Luke with a blaster on stun in front of her father, and breaks Luke out; meanwhile Prepedenko meets with an extremely displeased Vader. A remorseful 3DVO finds Prepedenko tortured and on the edge of death and broadcasts his dying words across the planet, and is glad to find that the broadcast actually got out; at this point he's shot.
- Set Swords to "Stun": A naive Luke is asked to rescue Prepedenko's daughter Syayna from "bandits". He goes in and suffers Temporary Blindness, but still fights through the "bandits" and takes them all out before Syayna can tell him that this is actually a Rebel cell that she's part of. Prepedenko's forces then storm in and capture everyone, Luke included. He didn't actually hurt any of the Rebels, who are in good enough shape to escape later.
- Sibling Team: Selle and Brazzo are brother and sister bounty hunters. Brazzo shows a lot of Big Brother Instinct trying to save a wounded Selle from Vader. When he fails he tearfully asks what he's going to tell their mother.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: A just-blinded Luke versus a cave full of "bandits" who've purportedly kidnapped a princess? He wins, only to be sleep-darted by one he thought was an ally.
- Temporary Blindness: Luke ignites his lightsaber in a cavern full of sun crystals which magnify and reflect the light, blinding him until the end of the miniseries. We're actually told that he has to keep his eyes bandaged to keep from getting "light-addicted" and subsequently giving himself permanent blindness.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The local Bounty Hunter who identifies Nevana as his source of information about Luke is shot by the stormtroopers accompanying him seconds later, as they no longer need him to find their source.
