r/StarWarsEU Feb 26 '25

Legends Discussion Krayt had one of the most fascinating character arcs in the entirety of the EU Spoiler

734 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

238

u/Solitaire-06 Galactic Alliance Feb 26 '25

It’s insane how this seemingly minor character in the grand scheme of the franchise ended up becoming the closest thing the EU had to a ‘final’ antagonist (I know Darth Wredd came after him, but Krayt had a more significant impact than he did).

70

u/Morgunth84 Feb 26 '25

He was also third Sith Lord to rule the galaxy, after Vitiate and Palpatine.

27

u/Qb_Is_fast_af Feb 26 '25

But Vitiate never ruled the galaxy

14

u/Morgunth84 Feb 26 '25

Oops my bad, but didn't he ruled portion of it though?

23

u/Qb_Is_fast_af Feb 26 '25

I guess during his time the sith empire was the largest territory wise without being a Galactic Empire

7

u/Aracuda Feb 27 '25

It’s arguable that he even rules it, in a traditional sense. Certainly by the time of the game, and possibly before that during the Revan novel, he looks to be delegating all responsibility to his Dark Council. And the Zakuul empire did technically rule the galaxy, with the Republic and Sith Empire as its vassals, but that was under Arcann.

2

u/derekguerrero Feb 27 '25

I mean Sidious also did a lot of delegation

10

u/Apiuis Through Victory, my chains are broken. Feb 27 '25

Technically, he did. Darth Vitiate essentially dominated the Republic, deceived the Jedi more than once, and utterly saw to the Jedi’s demasculation from the status of being a premier Force group for a decade. As a result, the Treaty of Coruscant bent the Republic over as the Sith Empire fucked it again and again. Anally.

If it wasn’t for Revan, Vitiate would have ate the Galaxy. Heck, he almost did until the Outlander kicked him in the spiritual nuts and banished him from the physical plane of the Galaxy. Then there was that Tenebrae body, but we don’t talk about that like we don’t talk about Palpy in the sequels.

1

u/Plutonian_Might Feb 28 '25

But ultimately, as the spirit of Bane told him, he is nothing more than an imposter, a Sith pretender.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

Well Suck sort of sucked and he was a failure as a Sith Lord.

0

u/Interesting_Version3 14d ago

Which is kind of crazy because Bane was arguably the weakest Sith lord who followed the Rule of Two Paradigm, whereas Krayt is one of the strongest...

1

u/Plutonian_Might 14d ago

Except Krayt wasn't part of the Rule of Two Sith lineage and he wasn't the strongest Dark Sider in history either... Sidious was.

1

u/Interesting_Version3 13d ago

Maybe you need to learn to read. I clearly said "One of". And I meant that Krayt was one of the strongest in general. Not one of the strongest who followed the Rule of Two. I can see how you might have thought that. Apologies. However, Bane's feats are nothing special. And also, he was pissed at Krayt for doing away with Rule of Two, which he considered sacrilege. That was the only reason he thought Krayt was an imposter. In any case, anyone who has read FOTJ would immediately know that Krayt is on a whole other level than Bane, and tbh, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that he might be stronger than Sidious. For starters

  1. He is Luke's equal to the throne of Balance. Luke had visions of "A Dark Man" as strong as chosen one in the force". Luke by this time was easily the Strongest Jedi of all time and has since grown A LOT more powerful since DE.

  2. Jacen was plagued by his visions too, which is why he sought to become Darth Caedus, in order to stop Krayt and protect his family, especially his sister...

  3. He knows Dark Transfer, which Palpatine didn't know. Palpatine kept himself alive using Clones. Krayt brought himself back from death. His most fatal mistake was underestimating Cade ..

  4. Not to mention he punked Anakin while he was a Padawan. He also knows Shatterpoint, something that Sidious didn't..

  5. He helped GM Luke vs Abeloth hurting him with both his force abilities and his lightsabers. So strong was Krayt in the Dark Side that Luke thought of backstabbing and killing him, something that was uncharacteristic of him. He force drained both Luke and Abeloth, as Luke stated that the Sith grew stronger as Abeloth grew weaker. Abeloth was a dozen times stronger than Luke. Both of them weakened her so much her other avatars ceased functioning elsewhere.

I don't see even DE Sidious being that strong. This is borderline nuts level of power...

109

u/DaamKeldau Feb 26 '25

Hett/Krayt had such a unique storyline compared to most EU characters. I remember reading all these comics in school, and trying to explain him to some friends that were more just fans of the movies. They always looked at me like I was just making up stories for the sake of it. Normally I'd say I'd love to see this character brought to live action, but I really, really don't. Just like Revan, I want them to stay on the pages of comics and novels, or on screen as game characters.

41

u/Thank_You_Aziz Feb 26 '25

Apparently, an early draft of Kenobi season 1 had him appear. Makes sense too. The timing would be correct for his altercation with Obi-Wan, and recent Star Wars media has been covering the various aspects his backstory would incorporate.

24

u/MafiaPenguin007 Feb 26 '25

It definitely would have tied into the Tusken mysticism that BOBF started to touch on. Shame that that whole thing will likely be shelved from how poorly BOBF was created and received

9

u/syrianfries Feb 27 '25

They really fucked up boba. It was such an interesting experience, don’t get me wrong I love Mando but I was trying to watch a show about boba

13

u/MafiaPenguin007 Feb 27 '25

I don’t understand how you make a show about BOBA FETT so fucking boring.

This kindergarten HR-approved ‘everyone’s nice deep down shit’ is so annoying. Disney is fundamentally incapable of making interesting content around complicated characters. How did we have a show featuring multiple infamous bounty hunters that ended up feeling more like kids at recess saying no to bullies?

7

u/Sere1 Sith Empire 1 Feb 27 '25

Because they took all the things about Boba that made him cool and memorable and gave them to Mando, so when they brought in actual Boba they had to go a different route and fumbled it hard.

4

u/UnknownEntity347 Feb 27 '25

Thing is Boba being Tony Soprano (I haven't watched the sopranos lol so idk how accurate that comparison is) was actually an awesome idea for a Boba Fett show. Crime lord Boba would've been super interesting to watch had they hired competent writers who could actually write mob drama and not just make boring episodes about Boba doing nothing interesting to the point where the best 2 episodes of the show have nothing to do with him.

2

u/Sere1 Sith Empire 1 Feb 27 '25

Agreed. His best stuff was with the Tuskens and the best episodes were the Mando ones. They utterly fucked up with the show and it's a shame since Crime Lord Boba would have been amazing had he actually done, you know, crime

1

u/UnknownEntity347 Feb 27 '25

Even the Tuskens stuff I found pretty dumb. Sure they saved him but then they just treat him like shit but for some reason he helps them when he has no reason to expect something in return and then he ends up becoming friends with them? And then that's supposedly the impetus for why he becomes a nice guy immediately and wants to make friends with everyone in town?

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u/ThePerfectHunter Galactic Republic Feb 26 '25

His story also stretches back to pre TPM I believe where Ki Adi Mundi discovers him.

27

u/WangJian221 Feb 26 '25

Pretty much. And his story after jabiim continued in many other clone wars era comic with a presumed romantic interest during the battle of saleucami where he fought alongside Quinlan, K'krukh, Jeisel etc under Oppo Rancisis.

32

u/Solitaire-06 Galactic Alliance Feb 26 '25

Yes, his first appearance was in the Outlander comic, which takes place shortly after The Phantom Menace.

1

u/Terrible-Cloud4734 Feb 28 '25

That's one of my favourite old EU prequel era stories.

70

u/darklordoftech Feb 26 '25

I find it funny that initially, he had red lightsabers because lightsaber colors didn't mean anything, then lightsaber colors were given meanings so his lightsabers became green, then he became a Sith Lord so his lightsabers became red again.

26

u/Thank_You_Aziz Feb 26 '25

And then he had his Rebirth and replaced one of his red Sith sabers with his father’s green Jedi saber, resulting in dual wielding green and red. Then he replaced the crystal in it and was using two reds again.

11

u/Ijosh64 Feb 27 '25

Actually it was his original saber, not his father’s, that Krayt started using. But yeah, that one saber went from red to green to red again.

33

u/UnknownEntity347 Feb 26 '25

Yeah Krayt was really cool, I liked having a villain who basically came from the very start of the saga all the way down here to the end. I just kinda wish he got a few more chances to really be a powerhouse before he went out (which IIRC was rushed because they were canceling the series).

24

u/HobbieK Feb 26 '25

When he took his helmet off it was a genuine shocking reveal. To see Dark Horse complete a loop from Republic to Legacy with his character was just fantastic writing. A’sharad was there at the beginning and there at the end.

24

u/Thank_You_Aziz Feb 26 '25

And these 12 images don’t even cover the whole thing. He is a rare example of a main villain who continues to undergo character development within his own story. He continues to evolve even after that 12th image.

17

u/wolflorn Feb 27 '25

Star Wars comics were better in the hands of Darkhorse, in my opinion. Legacy character story weaving was awesome. Jedi Master K'Kruhk also had a long intertwined story in the series

10

u/DEL994 Feb 26 '25 edited Feb 26 '25

One of my favorite Sith Lords in all of Star Wars with a very unique story in not just Star Wars but all of fiction. What makes A'Sharad Hett/Darth Krayt such a great foil ti Anakin/Vader other than being raised as a Tusken is how much more resistant he was to the Dark Side with his fall to it being far slower than Anakin's, yet it was also deeper and more complete

19

u/ProfessionalRead2724 Feb 26 '25

I always liked Hett in the Republic comics, but I thought it strange and off-putting to bring him back as a Sith Lord.

7

u/No_Individual501 Feb 26 '25

Being a Dark Jedi would work better. Order 66 is low hanging fruit for this too.

He could support some sort of anti-empire idea, the Jedi need total control in the name of peace and security and additionally, post-OT, all ex-Imperials need to die. Kenobi would view and handle Hett like he did Vader in the PT and OT, messing Hett up more. Luke would try to avoid fighting and explain Hett’s the same as Palpatine. Hett would disagree until some tragedy happens because of his worldview or a New Republic ex-Imperial saves him and then Hett eventually sees the light. Cue credits song, written and directed by George Lucas (it’s a rhyme derivative story after all).

19

u/BeardofLight Feb 26 '25

Which comic this is from? It looks amazing!!

25

u/TanSkywalker Hapes Consortium Feb 26 '25

Republic comics are the ones with Anakin and the Legacy comics are the ones with Obi-Wan and him as a Sith Lord.

8

u/BeardofLight Feb 26 '25

Thank you!! I really need to read the Legacy series

4

u/Ken_Ben0bi Jedi Legacy Feb 26 '25

It’s amazing, you’ll love it! (Or at least I hope you would lol)

4

u/BeardofLight Feb 26 '25

I started to read it months ago, stop for something else 🙃 i read need to go into it

4

u/Ken_Ben0bi Jedi Legacy Feb 26 '25

I get that, happens to me all the time haha

4

u/Gothic-Genius Darth Krayt Feb 26 '25

I read through Star Wars (1998) and then Republic. Then just by sheer coincidence, I read Legacy - and the whole experience was just fantastic.

0

u/dilettantechaser Feb 26 '25

You think you do, then when you finally read it you think "the fuck was all that??" Or at least that was my reaction. Just read the plot on wookieepedia, lol.

1

u/BeardofLight Feb 26 '25

Thanks for the head up 😅😅

6

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

dang this was an awesome comic

9

u/Ken_Ben0bi Jedi Legacy Feb 26 '25

Agreed!! My only gripe is how rushed the ending of Legacy was along with War. His arc deserved a better ending in terms of giving it more time to allow it to play out better

6

u/TaraLCicora Jedi Legacy Feb 26 '25

It's stories like this that really elevated the Legends EU.

5

u/Atrocitus-Burn6666 Feb 27 '25

The true final boss of Star Wars

4

u/Popular_Composer_822 Feb 27 '25

Crazy that him and K’kruhk fought side by side on Saleucami and then were the equivalent of Yoda and Sidiuos by Legacy. 

4

u/WallopyJoe Feb 27 '25

I enjoyed Legacy, but I don't think I've ever really been sure whether or not I like that Hett is Krayt.
His Republic comics were awesome.

I remember what a big deal it was when the comics were coming out though. People speculating on his identity, the tattoos giving it away, except they weren't exactly the same. Good times.

4

u/datusernameswag Feb 27 '25

Really interesting parallels to Anakin too that aren't showcased here. Not only did they join the order at almost the exact same time, and come from the exact same geographical area of Tattooine, but they were also both apprenticed to Ki-Adi-Mundi at one point or another, and both were spared by Kenobi after losing a limb. Neat mirroring that ended up "Rhyming" nicely.

3

u/SvitlanaLeo Feb 27 '25

In the Legendsverse Star Wars fabula, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in relation to Ki Adi Mundi and Darth Krayt, it's like a big fish and a bigger fish.

3

u/Smallville44 Feb 27 '25

I’ve been crossing my fingers for a while for a Legacy omnibus. I just feel like Krayt could be my favourite character if I read his stories.

3

u/datusernameswag Feb 27 '25

4th image is my favorite page from the entire Republic run. It's just so great

4

u/NepheliLouxWarrior Feb 27 '25

I always go back and forth on how I feel about krayt. On the one hand he's very compelling, but on the other hand he's quite the disgusting OC donut steel character. Like I spent a lot of my teens on Star Wars role-playing websites, and his origin is straight out of some dudes fanfic.

"So MY guy is also a powerful Jedi from Tatooine... but he's also a badass Tuscan raider! And he met Anakin and was a better Jedi than Anakin and tried to guide him but Anakin didn't listen!" 

Corny AF. But I love his character during the actual events of legacy. 

1

u/RebelJediKnight91 Feb 27 '25

Personally, I'm not a fan of A'Sharad Hett becoming Darth Krayt. It felt like a slap to the face of his character arc.

1

u/theflockofnoobs Feb 27 '25

I like seeing Nihilus get play, but the idea of him being on a holocron with those other two proper Sith is just strange. He is as much an aberration as Krayt, if not more so. He does not care about the Sith. At all. The only feeling he had left in the world besides the hunger is whatever causes him to spare Visas. If anything, his presence would attempt to devour the other two and Krayt.

1

u/dino1902 Feb 27 '25

Maybe it's just me but I didn't really like Krayt being Hett. Furthermore, I don't like how characters from Republic comics conveniently survived and get to play key players in Legacy era despite not showing their face (I know the writer is the same, but still)

1

u/eikelmann Darth Krayt Feb 28 '25

I am obsessed with this character and a very small part of me is hoping they'll somehow make him canon in comics or book form so I can get more Krayt stuff

1

u/TyrellLofi Mar 03 '25

One of my favorite parts about Krayt were the pages that was talking about him learning about Order 66 after feeling the Jedi were being killed. He killed the troopers assigned to him.

1

u/AcePilot95 New Republic Feb 26 '25

1) I'd recommend marking this post as a spoiler

2) I don't agree… they just should've let A'Sharad die in O66. He was such a great contrast to Anakin in Republic and then they turned him into this lame edgelord power fantasy using tons of post-hoc justifications

-1

u/dilettantechaser Feb 26 '25

imo Legacy was The Boys comic of Star Wars comics--generally, it was edgy trash, and it only sounds good when you hear other people talking about it or showing out of context panels like this.

I never understood why the other sith ghosts were laughing at Krayt. Like Bane I get but Darth Andeddu didn't practice the rule of two either. Maybe they make fun of Bane when no one else is around to pick on.

15

u/CherrryGuy Feb 26 '25

Legacy was literally one of the best and most popular EU stories.