This fall, Star Wars fans can find out what happened in the hours and weeks after the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Emperor in Chuck Wendig”s novel “Aftermath.” To help build anticipation, StarWars.com released a special excerpt from the novel yesterday and, surprise! Cutting off the head of the beast doesn”t destroy it. It merely leaves a power vacuum*.
While the entire excerpt is worth your time, a particular sentence tickled the back of my brain:
Three airspeeders swoop down from the traffic lanes above-Imperial police. Red-and- black helmets.
Red and black helmets? That sounded vaguely familiar. Oh right, it sounds kind of like these guys from the Comic-Con sizzle reel.
Hell, it sounds like EVERYTHING from the First Order. This new version of the Empire loves them some red and black: from Captain Phasma”s cape, to the pilot chasing the Millennium Falcon, to the colors on the downed TIE fighter.
But why focus on the Coruscant cops? Because when you take the Coruscant Security Force from the animated “Clone Wars” show…
…and feed it through several decades of iteration, it kind of looks like those two dudes (or ladies) running full-tilt down a hallway.
Or they could be Rebels running on a mission. Or they could be a third party on Jakku working for the highest bidder. Either way, “Aftermath” shows the penchant for red and black as an intimidation tactic is merely one the First Order grafted on to their new regime from the ashes of the old.
*Bonus points to Chuck Wendig for taking Captain Rae Sloane from the novel “A New Dawn” and giving her a promotion to Admiral years later. THAT”S how you do continuity!