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Warning: contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic #5!
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics’ The High Republic, it’s just been revealed that the Jedi Order and the Hutt Clans were once allies in the Star Wars galaxy, albeit temporarily. In the High Republic era set nearly 200 years prior to the events of the Skywalker Saga, the Republic and Jedi are still expanding into the Outer Rim territories. This has created conflict with the powerful Hutt clans and their criminal enterprises, seeing as how they had long been operating unopposed until now. However, a new Dark Side threat has motivated the two rival groups to band together in this new issue.
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In prior issues of The High Republic from writer Cavan Scott and artist Ario Anindito, a group of Jedi were sent from the Republic’s new Starlight Beacon to investigate a derelict ship that had been attacked. However, their search soon led them to the planet Sedri Minor, where it was revealed that the Dark Side plant monsters known as the Drengir had been unleashed, growing underground and spreading their corruptive seeds throughout the galaxy along with the crops the planet produces. When two of the Jedi became corrupted themselves, Starlight’s Jedi Marshal Avar Kriss got involved in the situation. However, so did the Hutt Clans, who hold a vested interest in the planet and its valuable production of the healing compound known as bacta.
In The High Republic #5, the Hutt known as Myarga the Benevolent demands that the Jedi vacate this world, threatening the warriors with her battle-ready rancors. While a brawl soon erupts with the attack of the Drengir, Avar is able to get Myarga to listen to reason, making her see that it’s in both of their interests to fight together against the Dark Side monsters. Learning that her own homeworld is being attacked by the creatures, Myarga agrees to the truce, which remarkably leads to a Hutt and Jedi fighting side by side.
Thankfully, the Drengir eventually retreat thanks to Jedi Knight Keeve Trennis’ Mind Trick/Mind Touch on her master Sskeer, who is actively fighting the creatures’ corruption. Through Sskeer’s dark connection with the creatures, Trennis makes them believe through their telepathic root system that all their potential victims are poisoned and unclean for harvesting, leading to them fleeing for survival. However, it’s a trick that’s unlikely to work in the long-term, and it’s quite possible that the Hutt/Jedi alliance may persist into future issues.
However it all plays out, the fact that the Hutts and Jedi were able to put aside their differences to face a greater threat is pretty extraordinary, adding the context of past truces to the lore of the Star Wars universe. It’s a thrilling look at how the Jedi operated back when they were a more organized, more numerous force for order. High Republic continues to expose the secret history of Star Wars, exploring how century-spanning dynasties like the Jedi Order and the Hutt clans co-existed during a formative time in the distant past.
That the Hutts held dominion for so long, culminating in threats like Jabba the Hutt in the timeline of the original trilogy, is explained by their willingness to set animosity aside in the right circumstances. As Star Wars: The High Republic continues, the Jedi may need to depend on the Hutts to address the Drengir threat, but they’ll need to remain aware that any truce will only hold so long as it remains in the Hutts’ best interests.
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