By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In Star Wars, Darth Vader is generally considered one of the most dangerous threats in the galaxy… in addition to his mystical powers allowing him to kill anyone who opposes him, the Sith Lord has a well-deserved reputation as a fierce warrior who helped eliminate the Jedi. However, the long gone Star Wars Galaxies The MMORPG added a wrinkle to Anakin Skywalker’s story that even the biggest fans couldn’t have predicted. According to this game, Darth Vader accidentally saved the galaxy by killing the Separatist scientists who were about to unleash a new droid army powered by technology from the assassin droid HK-47.
HK-47 is the key to it all
The story of Darth Vader accidentally saving the galaxy requires us to go back a long, long time ago… more specifically, to the beloved 2003 RPG. Knights of the Old Republic. This game featured HK-47, a fan-favorite droid who loves nothing more than killing humans and aliens who oppose him (for this death-loving droid, all biological entities are just “meat bags”). Later, the HK-47 was returned to The Trials of Obi-Wan expansion that added the planet Mustafar and over 50 quests to the classic MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies.
What does this have to do with Darth Vader But saving the galaxy? Before arriving on Mustafar for his epic battle with former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Galaxies argues that Separtist scientists discovered the remains of HK-47 and were both horrified and impressed by the droid’s ability to kill anything that stood in its way (both droid and organic) upon its reactivation. Mastering the droid’s mind (they failed to erase its memory), the scientists stole its chassis and developed an HK-77 droid that was more advanced than anything the Jedi from the prequels had ever faced.
These same scientists were preparing to mass-produce these more advanced droids, which might have been enough to turn the tide in the Clone Wars, allowing the Separatists to defeat the Old Republic once and for all. However, the fate of these Separatists was sealed when Palpatine told young Anakin Skywalker that the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems were hiding on Mustafar. Now christened Darth Vader, the angry warrior slaughtered these leaders before battling Obi-Wan Kenobi, stopping production of the HK-77 and saving the galaxy in the process.
A vanished galaxy
Unfortunately, Star Wars Galaxies closed many years ago, and since then Disney After acquiring the franchise, all of these old tales were removed from the canon and relegated to Legend status. This means that this story of Darth Vader accidentally saving everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away is no longer an “official” part of the Star Wars narrative, and the story of HK-47’s body is no longer not found on Mustafar either.
However, the droid itself may have found its way back into the official canon…at least, from a certain point of view. In Chuck Wendig’s book Consequences: the end of the empirethe droid character Mister Bones has a problem at one point and says “COMMENT: I SAY WE BLOW UP THE MEAT BAG AND SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE, MASTER.” It’s a echo from how HK-47 spoke in the Knights of the Old Republic games, although it is up to fan interpretation whether this is simply an Easter egg or confirmation that the programming of the assassin droid officially lives on thousands of years later.
For Star Wars fans who are tired of the Disney era and the misfires of the Sequel Trilogy, the story of Darth Vader accidentally saving the galaxy is a nice throwback to the days of the Expanded Universe. At the time, talented writers were finding more and more innovative ways to merge our favorite characters and stories. These days, however, we have to be content to be impressed when Disney can deliver on just one series (Good morning, Skeleton crew) who manages not to sit on the bed, and who makes this particular sack of meat endlessly sad at years of lost creative potential for the most popular science fiction franchise.
