"Crimson Reign, Part 3: The Archivist" by Charles Soule

"Crimson Reign, Part 3: The Archivist" written by Charles Soule, illustrated by Steven Cummings, Victor Olazaba, and Guru-eFX

Okay, so this issue had A LOT of background information by way of the Archivist's thoughts and a good bit of dialogue. There was hardly any action and it went back in time instead of forward, but my goodness I LOVED it!! We get to learn SO much about who the Archivist really is and her perception of the world. I found the whole issue quite fascinating!

The Archivist's real name is Madelin Sun and she used to be a Sava (teacher and researcher) at the University of Bar'leth, the very same school that Dr. Aphra and Sana Starros went to!! Unfortunately, her studies were in the Force (specifically the Dark Side) so when Order 66 happened, her position as Sava went the way of the Jedi. See an image of the old her below. After Order 66 she runs a junk shop, but still keeps some sentimental Force-y items around to keep her happy. Well, stormtroopers show up and ransack the place, almost taking her into custody, but Qi'ra shows up and blasts them all to hell!! See Qi'ra looking all confident below.

With all the stormtroopers dead, Qi'ra strikes up a conversation with Madelin and makes a wonderfully good point that I've always had niggling in the back of my head, "Within our lifetime, a huge, powerful group of Force users worked directly with the galactic government. Now it's as if they never existed. That is my question. Why has the Force disappeared from the galaxy?" Madelin has the reply that the Force disappeared because of fear. "Emperor Palpatine rose to power because he made people afraid. He made people fear the Jedi. He called them traitors. He said they used their mystical powers to subvert democracy and peace, to cause war. It worked, possibly because as much as people loved the Jedi, they also hated them, on some level. It is hard to look at people who have become their best selves. It reminds you that you have not. [...] Those who remember, stay silent. In time, they will die. And the Order will truly be lost." I get fear being a driver, but people seem to have completely blanked out the Force and Jedi from their minds. We come across so many people it seems like in the original and sequel trilogy who simply don't seem to even know what people are talking about when the Force and the Jedi are brought up. Or they act like they don't believe in it one bit. But I guess if you stay silent and don't pass the word along, those who would be on the outskirts would have no reason to come into contact with the information, thus leading to an overall lack of knowledge of the Force and the Jedi's existence.

Qi'ra takes Madelin onto her ship and shows off the vast array of Dark Side artifacts she has in her possession (see below), telling Madelin that she can have her life back and study anything she likes under the patronage and protection of Qi'ra...if she helps Qi'ra learn more about the Dark Side and do one task in particular...retrieve Yoda!!! She believes he is still alive because when the Empire melted down all the Jedi's lightsabers and announced the deaths of many of them (see below), Yoda was not mentioned. I really liked the way Charles Soule pulled this one off!!! Keep reading to see what I mean...

 

WHAT?!?!? Talk about payoff for fans who know every detail!!! Madelin begins her research into finding Yoda and figures out that he was on Coruscant the night of Order 66 and escaped the planet on the Tantive III, Bail Organa's personal ship. She then goes to meet a prisoner who would have been on that ship so many years before...Jeremoch Colton!! He was the Tantive III's pilot!!! Oh my goodness, this is DragonCon level trivia and it's actually paying off in-story! Of course Jeremoch won't give anything away without persuasion, so Madelin uses a thought dowser on him!!! Yikes!! Remember that device from the "Doctor Aphra" series?? It nearly fried Aphra's whole arm off. It doesn't affect Madelin in the same way, probably because she's slightly Force-sensitive, but I don't really know. Jeremoch does end up giving away the Sluis Sector as Yoda's destination...

Madelin does some more research and discovers that Dagobah exudes Force energy, so much so that it can mask the Force energy of a Jedi... But when she arrives on planet, she gets pulled to the Dark Side Cave and decides that there's no way she's going to give up Yoda to anyone. She doesn't say what she learned in the cave, but she does come out of it both physically and mentally changed (see below). She looks AWFUL post cave and Qi'ra doesn't even question her appearance...I find this deeply strange.

I'm REALLY enjoying this mini-series SO much!! The lengths to which they're going to expand on and deepen the lore is phenomenal!! I can't wait to see where this takes us next...

I will leave you with an image of Madelin running from a beastie on Dagobah: