Star Wars: The Force Awakens launched a whole new era of Star Wars when it hit theaters in 2015. The sequel trilogy chronicled the rise of the First Order from the ashes of the Empire, and war with the Resistance that nearly put the galaxy back in the grip of Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. However, the pivotal events of The Force Awakens occur 30 years after the Battle of Endor and the Empire’s defeat in Return of the Jedi. There were a lot of formative events that led to that conflict, and one of the most pivotal ones was the “Battle of Jakku.” It was never shown in the sequel trilogy films, but it shaped so many of the characters and events seen in those films.
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8 years ago, Star Wars tried to give more insight into the Battle of Jakku, via a canon novel that helped to fill in some key backstory. And yet, in keeping with what Star Wars has become, the events of the Battle of Jakku can’t seem to be agreed upon, and have been changed several times since the original story was told.
Star Wars: Aftermath Trilogy Ended 8 Years Ago
As Star Wars was relaunching itself on movie screens, it also rebooted the franchise within the literary market. One of the first book projects in the Disney era of Star Wars was Aftermath, the 2015 novel that is the first installment in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of books, all written by author Chuck Wendig. The final book in that trilogy was Aftermath: Empire’s End, which chronicled the Battle of Jakku, the final battle against the remaining forces of the Empire, which officially ended the Galactic Civil War and started the era of the New Republic’s governance.
The book features one of the main characters in the series, Imperial leader Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. Sloane was set up by Emperor Palpatine’s secret counselor, Gallius Rax, to take the blame for a major Imperial Remnant attack on the New Republic, marking her as the biggest public enemy in the galaxy. Eventually, Sloane found her way back to Rax, and through his own confession and some key flashback scenes in the book, we learn a dark truth about how the enemy of the Star Wars sequel trilogy was born.
Aftermath: Empire’s End Revealed the Origin of the First Order
While hiding out on Planet Jakku, Gallius Rax acquired several dozen local children from Lady Niima of the Hutt crime family. Rax brainwashed the children and had his subordinate, Brendol Hux, train them to be deadly assassins and soldiers. The child soldiers’ first mission was to carry out Rax’s assassinations of former Imperials in a plan called the “Contingency” that was devised by Palpatine, prior to his defeat. They even defeated an entire unit of Stormtroopers, proving their superior might.
The New Republic won the Battle of Jakku after months of fighting, but unbeknownst to leaders like Mon Mothma and Leia Organa, Palpatine had set a lot more in motion to guarantee his legacy. Rax was tasked with killing off the majority of the remaining Imperials, while taking a select few “worthy” and the child soldiers into the Unknown Regions, where they would build a new version of the Empire.
During the Battle of Jakku, Sloane killed Rax before he could destroy the planet, eliminating both the Imperials and the New Republic. Sloane became Rax’s successor and allied with Brendol Hux to carry out Rax’s plan, fleeing to the Unknown Regions of the Galaxy. Sloane appointed Brendol’s son, Armitage, leader of the child soldiers in exchange for his loyalty (and her protection from his father). Armitage would grow up and also grow his child soldier regiment into an entire army, developing a brainwashing and training regimen just like his father’s. And thus, the First Order was born.
Star Wars Has Retconned The First Order’s Origin Story (Many Times)
It’s no secret that the Star Wars sequel trilogy created a messy knot of lore that the franchise has been trying to untie since 2019, when The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters. In that time, more layers have been folded onto Wendig’s original story. Palpatine (as Snoke) was later revealed to have been invovled with guiding Sloane’s fleet into the Unknown Regions.
Many other Star Wars characters have been directly or indirectly tied into Sloane and the Hux family’s plot to grow from Imperial remnants in hiding to a unified force under the Emperor’s New Order ideology. That included scouting worlds for children to abduct, brainwash, and conscript into military service (giving much-needed context for Finn’s backstory).
There are now numerous Star Wars novels, audiobooks, and comics all dedicated to telling stories and lore about the 33 years it took for the First Order to form; have Snoke rise up as its leader; the fascist group’s invasion and conquering of worlds in the Unknown Regions; the group’s secret strikes and eventual Cold War against the New Republic; the schims between the New Repubic worlds and Resistance giving the First Order its opportunity to emerge from hiding and start an imperial campaign in the open; the rise of the second generation of leaders (Armitage Hux, Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma), and the start of the Second Galactic Civil War, where The Force Awakens picks up the story.
Like so many of the backfilling the sequel trilogy has done, it’s hard to know how many fans actually take the time to connect all the dots, or even engage with this expanded lore. It’s not like there was overwhelming love for the actual films that inspired it.
The Star Wars movie timeline will continue beyond Rise of Skywalker with Star Wars: Starfighter, which has a release date of May 28, 2027.
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