– Spoiler Review –
The fight against the Drengir reaches it grand finale in The High Republic #8, where the way to win could either cause the Jedi to lose themselves in order to defeat this terrifying new foe or lose the galaxy to the impending horde if they don’t take drastic measures. Or is there another way? Find out in the thrilling conclusion to “The Heart of the Drengir!”
The fight on Mulita, the planet where the Drengir’s Great Progenitor’s hideout was found thanks to Keeve Trennis via Sskeer’s dangerous connection to the deadly plants, is not going well despite the Hutt and Jedi coalition arrayed against the Drengir. Avar Kriss is missing and Sskeer’s calls for more Jedi can’t be answered, as a communications disruption and the Republic Fair on Valo take precedence, per the Jedi Council’s orders of course, even though Maru on Starlight Beacon understands the severity of the issue. Master Sskeer, Terec and Ceret, Master Cohmac Vitus and his Padawan Reath Silas, Archivist ObraLin (whose presence is a little surprising*), a few unnamed new Jedi, and Myarga and her Hutt band keep hacking away at the approaching Drengir but their numbers are overwhelming and seemingly unending, as each slice only seems to reveal more as seen in some gorgeous, packed panels thanks to the return of Ario Anindito. The Drengir turn some local insects, giant ant-like things, against the band, hurting their chances to fight back. The Jedi all seem to keep good spirits despite the impending doom, which is to be expected no matter the era or the Jedi, it seems. When all seems to be lost, Jedi Knight Keeve Trennis and Wayseeker Orla Jareni arrive and they have an exciting plan to hold back the Drengir.
In my review of last issue I wondered about the ways to defeat the Drengir:
“Is there an alternative to killing the Drengir, like sealing them away again, that the Jedi need to consider, least they lose themselves to some degree because no matter how terrible the Drengir are, they are still alive and therefore a part of the Force? Through Sskeer, Keeve has found non-violent ways to push back the Drengir, so if there’s any Jedi I trust to see the alternative method, once she’s out of her funk of course, it’s Jedi Knight Trennis. Jareni’s Wayseeker’s status, where she follows the Force only instead of any Jedi Order commands (explained quickly and neatly via the dialogue from Cavan Scott here), is also probably one of the best Jedi to have at Trennis’ side, as she can show her how better to listen to the Force…”
The fight against the Drengir isn’t just about saving the galaxy, it’s also about how the Jedi conduct such a battle and what it means for them to extinguish life, which the Drengir are despite their meat-thirsty, conquering ways. A recurring theme and discussion in The High Republic era as a whole has been the Jedi’s part in the fight against the Nihil, what it means to lead the charge against the marauders alongside the Republic: are they listening to the Force anymore or what the Jedi Order thinks the Force wants, what the Republic wants the Jedi to be for them? It’s an interesting question that leads to the Prequel era, of course, but how these Jedi get there will be something to watch as the era continues. In the meantime, most Jedi POV we’ve had in the novels includes their reluctance, time and time again, to take the life of a Nihil, knowing it must be done to protect others, but it’s easy to lose sight of that with the plant-like Drengir, as their insidious and relentless nature make it easier to think of them as less, but they are life just like anything else. Shouldn’t they be treated the same, with regret for snuffing them out? So Keeve takes a page from the book of the Sith Lord who locked up the Drengir before but adds in the Jedi ways to provide a new, surprising, and morally sound plan to deal with the Drengir.
Keeve lets Orla fill in the other Jedi about her plan while she confronts the Great Progenitor, which has Avar Kriss in its grasps (evilly teased at the end of last issue). Where Keeve used the physic connection between Sskeer and the Progenitor to locate it and the Progenitor uses the same connection to mess with her last issue, Keeve takes the root of that and instead invests in a different connection: the orchestra of the Force Avar Kriss conducts! Like the Progenitor connects her flock together to conquer the meat of the galaxy, Kriss connects her flock of the Jedi together to become the Force’s rousing theme song, so the Jedi arrayed on Mulita tap into Kriss’ ability to connect them and chant into the Force, coming together and cutting off the Progenitor’s connection to the rest of the Drengir! Once Avar is freed, ObraLin and the other Jedi set up a stasis field around the Progenitor, cutting her off for good but keeping her alive. Myarga isn’t keen on these Jedi ways of keeping this dangerous life alive and her Hutt mentality means she’s angered by their decision, attempting to attack and disrupt the shield so she can have the Progenitor’s head on a spike. Keeve steps up to stop her first and the rest of the Jedi join her, calling to mind one of the concept art images from the initial reveal with the wall of the Jedi standing together (which is at the top of our THR page!). Managing not to compromise their ideals, the Jedi save countless lives by sparing the Progenitor’s, but what does it say about the Hero of Hetzal and all the others who couldn’t see that other option? Will they take the time to understand and meditate on why none of them thought of another way first or will the revelation that the Republic Fair fell to the Nihil (as played out in The Rising Storm, also by writer Cavan Scott!) not give them the time to process this? I’ll be curious to see what the fall out is for these characters or how they think on this moment and Keeve’s idea in future stories.
Having Keeve be the one to come up with the solution, after everything she and Sskeer have gone through since the beginning, was an excellent, cathartic moment as she conquered doubts and demons and come together in the Force with her allies to save the day, all while doing it in the most Jedi way possible, something not even Jedi Master Avar Kriss considered. And I love how Keeve doesn’t mock Kriss or bring her down at all for her seeming failure, but rather she offers the senior Jedi a rousing speech about her abilities and what it means to the Jedi, causing Kriss to cry even. Scott has introduced a number of memorable and exciting characters in the era, but it’s been Keeve time and time again that’s delighted the most for me with her open emotions and willingness to confront them and talk through them, albeit reluctantly. It makes the potential of her being part of the Lost Twenty, as teased in Scott’s Dooku: Jedi Lost, even more tragic considering how heroic and Jedi-adherent she’s been up to this point.
I’m a little surprise the Drengir threat has been neutralized this early in the era and the first Phase, but the Jedi secreting the Progenitor away to Starlight Beacon’s Bogan Vault, which they also have in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, means she’ll always be around, waiting to be unleashed. Which could happen at the end of Phase I in the Wave III novels, considering Claudia Gray’s novel The Fallen Star could mean many different possibilities, including Starlight, and an attack by the Nihil could see the Progenitor free again. Would the Jedi be able to lock her away again or will Marchion Ro’s Leveler threat be too much for them to unite and defeat the Progenitor without having to finally kill it, like the Hutts want? Or am I just theorizing and it’ll die alongside Starlight? We’ll know more in January 2022! Otherwise, not allowing the Hutts to kill the Progenitor could cause some troubles for the Republic and Jedi going forward with the Hutts, though two Padawans know a lot about trouble with the Hutts already in the current The High Republic Adventures storyline!
Sweet mynocks, Ario Anindito makes an epic return on art this issue, with Mark Morales on inks, Annalisa Leoni for colors, and Ariana Maher lettering. We get not one, but two full splash pages, one that’s included in the preview (seen above) showing the imposing battle the Jedi and Hutts find themselves in against the Drengir hoards, packed with so many characters it sort of boggles the mind, and later one of the Great Progenitor, pained by the chanting of the various Jedi on Mulita, their words echoing loudly in bright and bold green by Maher, reeling back as Keeve and Ceret push it, Avar slowly slipping from its grasp. Just bask in this image above! All the battles images were suitably intense and moody, Leoni’s nighttime palette of blues and purples infusing every panel with dread and a feeling of twilight for the Jedi here, while Ario draws and Morales inks big, looming Drengir and ants, or all encompassing Drengir tendrils to make you feel the suffocating feel of the Jedi and Hutts wrapped up in them. Maher’s lettering for the ants’ “chitter” was spooky with its wavy shakes, while I liked how the ants exploding was a little ball of “voosh,” but my favorite SFX was the Force emboldened chant of the Jedi, which was basically the same look of Ario’s lightsabers but used for letters instead. I appreciated how Ario and Morales honored the horrific final panel of last issue, Kriss as a pile of bones wrapped in Drengir tentacles, by having her wrapped in Drengir tentacles, with one snaking into her mouth, held aloft by the Progenitor. Her tear as Keeve hypes her up, a small smile returning to the haunted face, really gave extra emotional weight to the speech and Kriss’ understanding of what Keeve’s planning. Also, the panel of the Progenitor trapped in the stasis field, the giant swirling yellow ball kicking up purple dust, was a fist-pump moment if I ever saw one and the whole art team brought it to make me pump my fist in the air while reading. While the final page, of the devastation wrought from the Nihil’s attack on Valo, was a rubble-filled debbie-downer of a panel that did everything it needed to to bring the haunting outcome of the Nihil’s attack sweep away the joyous moment against the Drengir. Nothing will be the same after this, a feeling one easily gets from reading TRS, and this panel just about captured it.
Here are a few other things:
- *ObraLin is here on Mulita…and at the very same time, he has a starring role in The Rising Storm during the events on Valo. How is one Jedi in two places at once?! It’s such a clear contradiction, there wasn’t any way the writer of both of ObraLin’s appearances would be able to mess that up and Scott took to Twitter to answer a fan’s question about it, saying “All will be revealed.” Does ObraLin’s blob-like species allow for him to separate blobs and be in multiple places? Or is ObraLin two distinct blob-ish individuals, hence the Obra and Lin capitalized in his name? Or is it not ObraLin but someone else entirely? I’m very curious to find out because I really enjoyed the character after his outgoing and fun role in the novel!
- There’s some wonderful humor, even the pun we’ve all been using about roots and the Drengir, but the most out of left field moment that absolutely hits when it has no right to is the romantic past between Sskeer and Orla! You go, sexy Sskeer.
- Today also marks the launch of the IDW miniseries by Cavan Scott: The High Republic Adventures – The Monster at Temple Peak, starring Ty Yorrick, a character I was looking forward to meeting and blew my expectations away in both The Rising Storm and Race to Crashpoint Tower. Check out our review of the miniseries’ excellent start now! Quite an amazing week for Scott…and month, considering his Tempest Runner audiobook original is out on August 31!
- Last and definitely not least, you’ll want to follow our channels, both Twitter and Instagram, next week Monday (8/16) if you like free things and The High Republic (as a heads up, this giveaway is US only)!
The High Republic #8 is an excellent end to the Drengir storyline (for now?) as it shows the Jedi of this era haven’t lost their way yet, thanks to one of their wayward members who had the room to grow and deal with her problems to arrive at a different way to win.
+ Keeve FOR THE WIN!
+ Non-violent solution
+ Great resolution to Drengir conflict (for now?)
+ Ario Anindito back!!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE HIGH REPUBLIC COMIC REVIEWS:
There Is No Fear: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 — Heart of the Drengir: #6 | #7