What Happened To The Imperial Remnant?
Image Source: screenrant
It is said that the worst and most challenging part of taking down an established power or empire is what comes after it has been taken down, and that certainly rang true with the Galactic Empire from the Star Wars Universe. Following the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Empire splintered into factions. However, these Imperial remnants continued to play a role in the post-Empire era of Star Wars and were the subject of numerous comics, books, and games between the early 1990s and 2000s.
Throw in the buyout of Lucasfilm in 2012, and it wasn’t long before Disney threw their take on the Imperial Remnants as well, with media like The Mandalorian, the Aftermath trilogy, and the Battlefront games. But regardless of Canon or Legends, the question remains; what happened to the Imperial Remnants?
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CANON
The Canon Imperial Remnants appear in Star Wars media like The Mandalorian, The Aftermath trilogy novels, and Battlefront II. Still, only two well-known examples are mentioned on this list.
The first example is the Gideon Remnant, the Imperial faction led by Moff Gideon seen in The Mandalorian. This faction was relatively small, comprised of only a few stormtrooper squads, a skeleton Imperial light-cruiser crew, and some robotic Dark Troopers, but was still dangerous enough to give the titular Mandalorian and his allies trouble until Gideon’s defeat at the end of The Mandalorian Season Two (shout-out to Luke Skywalker for the assist!).
The second example is the remnant led by the self-proclaimed “Counsellor of the Empire” Gallius Rax, created immediately after Palpatine’s death. Rax considered himself the best candidate to lead the fractured Empire, recruiting other Remnants before being ambushed by the New Republic on Jakku in 5ABY. But unbeknownst to both the Imperial and New Republic forces, Rax had engineered the Battle of Jakku as a part of a plan to destroy the surviving Imperial forces and “rebuild them from the ashes.”
Thankfully(?), Rax was killed by Grand Admiral Rae Sloane in the Aftermath novel trilogy, who fled with the survivors of the Battle of Jakku into the Unknown Regions, building what would eventually become the First Order.
LEGENDS
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The Imperial Remnants of Star Wars Legends followed a similar suit to their Canon counterparts but played more varied roles within the Legend’s continuity.
The New Republic faced its first real challenge in 8ABY, the form of the Thrawn Remnant/Confederation, led by Mitth’raw’nuruodo, AKA Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn was defeated less than a year later. Still, his deadly military genius and alliance with the Dark Jedi Joruus C’Baoth gave him a considerable edge and reminded the fledgling New Republic that the ‘Empire’ was still a threat.
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The Imperial Remnant exchanged hands several times over the following decade, operating as a military dictatorship in the Outer Rim until Supreme Commander Gilead Pellaeon (former right-hand man of Thrawn) encouraged the remnant to side with the New Republic during the Yuuzhan-Vong War (25-29ABY), creating the Galactic Alliance, which lasted until Pellaeon was assassinated in 41ABY.
Pellaeon’s assassin, Darth Caedus, AKA Jacen Solo (son of Han and Leia Organa-Solo), dragged the Galactic Alliance into the Second Galactic Civil War. Following Caedus’ defeat at the hands of his sister, Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel (an Imperial officer and Jaina’s future husband) became the remnant’s first democratically elected leader after 44ABY, finally bringing peace to the embattled remnant.
And there you have a brief but eventful history of the Imperial Remnants from both Canon and Legends Star Wars. These Remnants and the New Republic, though varying in motive and morality, show us that while an ideal or an enemy will never truly be vanquished, that doesn’t mean they are beyond redemption. And that to overcome old wounds, sometimes the past has to be forgiven; smoothed over to create a foundation onto which a new and better future can be built.
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