How Will Qi’ra Try To Kill Emperor Palpatine?
The reign of Crimson Dawn has just begun. Last month, Charles Soule’s comic miniseries Star Wars: Crimson Reign came to a close with an explosive final issue. In Crimson Reign 5, we saw Qi’ra, leader of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn begin her final preparations for her ultimate plan to assassinate the Emperor of the galaxy, Darth Sidious. Qi’ra originally made her return in the first issue of The War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event, where she took the still-frozen Han Solo from Boba Fett to auction him off to the most powerful factions in the criminal underworld. Though the event did ultimately end with Han being reclaimed by Fett and returned to Jabba the Hutt, the auction still put Crimson Dawn among the most influential organizations in the galaxy.
This was followed by Crimson Reign, in which Qi’ra assembled multiple people and teams with their own unique grudges against the Sith. Qi’ra’s followers included the Knights of Ren, whose dark side ambitions were quelled by the Sith, Deathstick, whose Nightsister coven was wiped out on the orders of the Sith, the Archivist, who lost her livelihood to the Sith, Chanath Cha, whose family was killed by Darth Vader, and Ochi of Bestoon, whose eyes were lost to Darth Sidious. Each issue of Crimson Reign followed a different disciple of Qi’ra as they carried out their assignments to assassinate the Emperor. Crimson Reign 1 saw Chanath Cha and her team of mercenaries, the Orphans, stoke a war amongst the crime syndicates, Crimson Reign 2 saw Ochi poison the Emperor’s royal guards, Crimson Reign 3 saw the Archivist nearly find and recruit Yoda, and Crimson Reign 4 saw the Knights of Ren steal a device known as the Screaming Key from Fortress Vader on Mustafar.
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Crimson Reign 5 showed the ultimate culmination of everything accomplished in the previous issues. In the issue, we primarily follow Qi’ra as she speaks with Cadeliah; the child heir to crime syndicates Mourner’s Wail and the Unbroken Clan. Qi’ra informs Cadeliah of how she grew up on Corellia as a scrumrat and had to learn how to survive on her own until becoming the leader of Crimson Dawn. Qi’ra then offers to teach Cadeliah how to be a leader in the criminal underworld so that she can be prepared to take control of the ones she is destined to inherit. Qi’ra also has her own personal motive for doing this, as she plans to take control of those syndicates as well through Cadeliah. While this is happening, we also cut to the Archivist and the Knights of Ren, who travel to an unknown location and use the Screaming Key to awaken an army of giants. The issue ends with the Emperor deducing Qi’ra’s plan and ordering everyone in the Empire to target Crimson Dawn. In response, Qir’a orders her associates to cause as much chaos as possible to distract the Empire and create a path to the Emperor. So with all of that established, one primary question remains; how exactly will Qi’ra try to kill Darth Sidious?
With the Empire’s resources stretched so thin, Crimson Dawn does seem to have a genuine chance at targeting the Emperor. Qi’ra has also amassed an impressive army of assassins, Force-users, historians, and literal giants to go against Sidious. But will Qi’ra’s operation truly be as simple as surrounding the Emperor with immense forces? Or is her army simply a part of a much larger plan? Perhaps Qi’ra will attempt to strand or isolate Sidious on another planet without his fractured Empire to guard him. We also know that she has agents within the Empire who have likely told her a few of the Empire’s most tightly-kept secrets. With this in mind, could Qi’ra possibly even be aware of Exegol and the infinite resources the Emperor has stashed on the ancient Sith world? If so, would she be bold enough to lead her forces to Exegol and strike at Sidious while he’s on the planet? Qi’ra does certainly seem bold and sure enough of herself to attempt such a bold play. Plus with the Final Order still in development, the odds of Crimson Dawn having the advantage over the Emperor’s forces at Exegol are fairly high.
As I’ve said before, we know that Qi’ra ultimately won’t succeed in destroying Darth Sidious. Though this doesn’t mean that seeing a confrontation between the Empire and Crimson Dawn wouldn’t still be exciting. At the end of the day, I’m just eager to see how Charles Soule completes the story of Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn in the current Star Wars comics. His writing of the character has been consistent and engaging, building her up for a tragic yet fitting fall. If the Emperor does end up defeating Qi’ra and her organization, I’m interested to see how he’ll do it.
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