I’ve been reading Kristin Baver’s excellent 100 Objects and it got my museum-trained mind going about objects NOT in the current Star Wars canon. Nowadays these stories are considered Legends, but back in the day it was the only material we had during…the Dark Times.
The Glove of Darth Vader
Way back in the early 1990’s, during what is now referred to as the Dark Times of Star Wars, Bantam Skylark publishing released a series of Star Wars kids books, the first ones since Return of the Jedi. In here you have Palpatine’s grandkids, both real and fake (sound familiar, Rey Skywalker?), a uniquely-bearded Hutt named Zorba and a lost Jedi city, plus killer cover art by poster legend Drew Struzan. The object I want to talk about is THE GLOVE OF DARTH VADER.
From the book of the same name, it’s literally the hand of Vader, the one that Luke cut off on the second Death Star. In the years since the Empire expired, a near mythical backstory began about the glove – that it grants the user the ability to use the Force to choke someone. It really doesn’t work that way, but that’s the way myths are. There are the Prophets of the Dark Side who claim that a new Emperor is coming and that he’s destined to wear the glove (it’s an indestructible Mandalorian gauntlet by the way). A 3-eyed guy named Trioculus says he’s the son of Palpatine, wants to be Emperor and needs to find this glove. Did I mention this storyline is borderline ridiculous and confusing? There was a wormhole that opened up on the Death Star and it somehow ended up on Dac, the Mon Calamari homeworld. There are also side-affects from using the glove, like blindness and hand-withering. Like I said, very confusing, especially for the kids that this book series was pitched at. More info can be found in the mighty Wookieepedia.
This storyline kind of got blended with other Legends stories and faded from existence, however I still think it’s a cool idea that could be used as some kind of Force object in an RPG campaign. I can see tiny copies of the glove (in actuality cut-off limbs from a Darth Vader action figure for extra authenticity) with a piece of paper giving its RPG stats. Put ‘em in a nice plastic ziploc baggie. Dice roll determine how bad the side effects are. Use it as a macguffin in your campaign for the Empire (or various factions) to go after.
Anakin Skywalker’s Lightsaber
We all know the story. Maz Kanata got hold of Luke’s lightsaber (was there a hand with it?) from Cloud City after the duel with Darth Vader and put it into a chest which was put in a room underneath her castle (I could watch BB-8 go down those stairs all day). The lightsaber rejects its blood heir (Kylo Ren) and flies into the hands of an inexperienced scavenger from Jakku called Rey, and in the snows of Starkiller Based they fight. Excalibur-style, the lightsaber is torn apart during a later battle aboard the First Order dreadnought Supremacy, is repaired using knowledge from old Jedi texts and it ignites once again. Eventually, it’s buried along with another Skywalker lightsaber in the Tatooine desert (as it had been under Obi-Wan’s ownership some 40 years earlier). That appears to be the end of Anakin’s, Luke’s and Rey’s heirloom lightsaber. However, Legends has something to say about this.
Technically, this was Anakin’s second lightsaber, a weapon built during the Clone Wars. it’s a weapon built for war by a warrior, and according to the Visual Dictionary Anakin’s first lightsaber was built according to a design given to him during meditation. They look much the same, so his second lightsaber design is also from the Force.
When Disney took over Lucasfilm and its subsequent entities, Dark Horse, Bantam and the rest of Legends was no longer relevant (except to Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau). Everything that happened in the movies still happened: Anakin used the lightsaber during the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan took the lightsaber after their Mustafar battle and hid it away until he gave the weapon to Anakin’s son, Luke. Luke then lost the lightsaber on Cloud City.
Here’s where the Legends stuff gets interesting.
According to Wookieepedia, Vader recovered his former lightsaber (and his son’s hand) but gave it to the Emperor. It stayed in his Wayland warehouse until Grand Admiral Thrawn and insane cloned Jedi Joruus C’baoth found it and cloned Luke. This clone, naturally named Luuke Skywalker, battled the real Luke and Mara Jade until he was defeated. Luke got his Dad’s lightsaber back and gave it to Mara Jade, who would eventually become his wife and Jedi Master in her own right. She carried it for years until she was killed by her nephew-turned-Sith-Lord Jacen Solo. The weapon somehow made it into the hands of another Dark Jedi (but not Jacen) until Anakin Solo took possession of it.
Then Legends became Canon, and history was rewritten.
Also according to Wookieepedia, the actual original prop has been sent into space on the Shuttle and sold for an incredible amount at auction.
And this, my friends, is why Star Wars is so great…
- Hardcover Book
- Baver, Kristin (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 256 Pages - 04/04/2023 (Publication Date) - DK (Publisher)
