#12 – Exar Kun
Exar Kun is one of the great Sith lords no one ever names. He precedes both Bane and Revan in both chronology and creation. While he was a powerful Sith lord of the Old Republic, we are first introduced to him in the New Republic era book Jedi Search. Exar surfaces in the old Massassi temples of Yavin IV, where he attempts to corrupt Luke’s new students. He comatizes Luke and wins over a couple students short term, but he is eventually defeated.
Then we received his full story in the Tales of the Jedi comic series. He was a brash, arrogant young student afraid of nothing but death and fear itself. When his life is on the line, he cuts a deal with a Sith spirit and becomes the new Sith Lord. He leads the galaxy into war, but just like his heirs many millennia, his true obsession was of course – cheating death. With the Massassi slaves, he creates a Sith device within the temple that transforms him into his spirit self. Forever alive as a spirit but unable to leave the temple.
One of Exar’s great gifts to the Star Wars universe was his invention of the double bladed lightsaber that would be copied by both sides through the ages. Exar’s lightsaber was a converted single blade, making the hilt smaller than Darth Maul’s, but the surprise second blade gave him the edge to defeat his master, Vodo-Siosk Baas.
#11 Corran Horn
Many of the New Republic characters from legends would need major reworks to fit into the current canon-verse. Their stories are simply too divergent to work with all the differences. While Corran’s story is no different, the keys to who he is and the core of his character would fit perfectly with minimal changes into the current canon story line.
Corran Horn was unaware of his Jedi heritage at first. He made a name for himself as a great pilot and as a Corellian Security Forces Investigator. He was a cop first and Jedi second until the galaxy began to shift towards war once more. This would make it very easy to fit his story in along side Rey and the New Jedi Order. His story could very easily come along side Rey and her journey and start his path to Jedi Knighthood.
Besides his occupations, Corran was known for three things other than always being depicted in green. First was the goatee. Somehow that became one of his trademarks and made him stand out in comics and even the books. The second was his lightsaber. Corran had a typical lightsaber with a silver blade, but looks are deceiving. By pressing a button that realigned his crystals, Corran’s blade would change to purple and extend to 3 meters in length.
The final trademark of Corran was his force abilities. While others were adept at telekinesis and threw objects around at whim, Corran struggled mightily. He was fluent in mind control and introducing thoughts to people, but otherwise he struggled – until you charged him up! Corran had the ability to absorb different types of energy, and once absorbed could redirect the energy either through telekinetic feats or sheer force power. It was a very unique power.
#10 – Omega Squad
Omega squad was a group off Republic Commando troopers reassembled from destroyed units. While the Clone Wars gave us some feel for stories that followed troopers during the Clone Wars, Omega Squad went even further. They were elite trained commandos sent on the special missions no one knows about.
These clones were the story behind the Republic Commando books by Karen Traviss. The series of books led them on adventures throughout the Clone Wars. Niner, Darman, Fi and Atin had to learn to become a squad since they were the remnants of fallen squads, but they also had the unique advantage of having a Jedi as a ‘Squad Mate’. Etain Tur-Mukan was a young padawan that went through a disastrous mission with her master and ended up along side Omega squad and helped them through their mission. Darman became the lynch pin as he developed feelings for Etain.
This Jedi kinship became very complex when Order 66 came down, and that, along with being a great story to follow commandos, is one of the best reasons to re-canonize this group. There was also Delta Squad (Boss, Fixer, Sev and Scorch) from the video games, but Omega has the leg up due to the Jedi connection.
