MG Reads Dark Empire #2
Jul. 1st, 2025 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterghandalf
Dark Empire #2
The Rebel Alliance fleet gathers above the moon Da Soocha V, where Admiral Ackbar has just returned from a mission in the Core. He reports to Mon Mothma that Imperial ships from both sides of the Imperial Mutiny have been seen vanishing into the Deep Core; she confirms that she’s heard reports of similar sightings. Ackbar further reports that Coruscant has been left a wasteland by the recent battle, while Mon Mothma fills him in on the recent rescue mission; they hope to get more specific news, since the Millennium Falcon has just returned.
The Falcon, accompanied by the survivors of the Coruscant mission, descends to the surface of Da Soocha V and passes through a forest of stone pillars, guided by local creatures called Ixlls, until they reach the main hangar. There, Leia reports to Mon Mothma and generals Dodonna and Madine that Luke was captured by the dark side, while Threepio panics that Artoo was with him too. At a strategy meeting later, Mon Mothma informs everyone that a massive war fleet has emerged from the Deep Core while the Rebels were distracted with the battling Imperial factions; General Dodonna speculates that some dark side genius must have been behind it to design the terrible new weapons it contains. Massive ships called World Devastators have appeared over planets sympathetic to the Alliance.
Mon Mothma displays footage from Mon Calamari (here just called “Calamari”), one planet where World Devastators have appeared. Ackbar recaps his home planet’s recent history, how the Empire tried to enslave the Mon Cals but they fought back and were hardened into the strongest soldiers of the Rebellion. Mon Calamari would have been destroyed by the Death Star had it survived; now the World Devastators have been sent to punish them. The Devastators forcibly extract resources from a planet’s surface in brutal fashion, then use those resources to fabricate more war materiel for the Empire. Ackbar thinks they’re far more frightening than the Death Star, and if they don’t act fast, the galaxy is doomed. As Da Soocha Prime is a habitable water world, the Rebellion will dispatch its fleet to begin the evacuation of Mon Calamari. Lando and Wedge Antilles will lead captured Star Destroyers against the World Devastators themselves.
After the meeting, Han and Leia have a rare moment alone. Han wanted to go with Lando, but would rather stay with Leia; Leia, for her part, fears for Luke. She senses something terrible has happened to him. Han thinks that if Luke said he can do this alone, he trusts him – and he’s not about to challenge the judgment of a Jedi!
Luke himself has been deposited in a holding cell on some sort of vehicle by the Force Storm, where he waits with Artoo. He determines this is an Imperial Dungeon Ship, where they used to hold Jedi prisoners during the Clone Wars, and it’s reached its destination – Byss, a planet in the Deep Core steeped in the dark side. If there’s a dark center of the universe… this is it. The prison ship lands, and Luke is deposited into a cage meant to hold Jedi; a local official orders him transported to the great hall. Luke’s unease grows as he’s escorted through a strange, alien city, and senses a dark presence full of mocking laughter in his mind. The guards release Luke outside the palace, but he bats them aside with the Force – he’s here of his own will; the officials order the guards to keep an eye on him but note to each other that Luke is heading to his doom and only thinks he’s here by his own choice. Inside the palace, Luke enters the throne room and confronts the Empire’s new leader, shocked to discover his true identity – Emperor Palpatine himself, back from the dead! He senses that Luke has grown strong in the Force since they last met… but Palpatine is stronger too.
He reveals that this isn’t the first time he’s died. Flesh is too weak a vessel to support the dark power of his spirit, so every time he dies, he transfers his consciousness into a new, cloned body. The process is terribly unpleasant, but the reward – immortality! And Palpatine’s true form now is not flesh at all, but pure energy. His apprentice, Darth Vader, is now dead, and Palpatine asks Luke if he’s here to take his father’s place. He calls up an image of his World Devastator fleet, promising Luke they’ll be his to command. The Rebels had the chance to take the galaxy back, and they failed. Now it’s Palpatine’s turn again, and it's Luke’s destiny to take Vader’s place at his side. Luke considers killing the Emperor, but Palpatine promises if he does, he’ll just return again – and maybe he’ll possess Luke’s body this time. Palpatine senses that Luke is no longer a brash youth at war with his own anger, and he knows there is only one way he can defeat the Emperor now – to join him, learn his secrets, and overthrow him. And so, Luke himself realizes that the only way to conquer the dark side is from within. He drops his lightsaber, bows before the Emperor, and pledges his allegiance, taking his father’s place. Palpatine, pleased, declares it is time to celebrate their conquest of the galaxy.
On Da Soocha V, Han tells Leia they have good news – the galaxy is coming together again to fight the Empire, and more fighter squadrons have just joined them. But Leia, who’s been sitting alone in her room for days, says she shouldn’t have listened to Han or Luke. She senses something terrible has happened and hears evil laughter in her mind – she fears that Luke has been lost. Han tries to reassure her, but Leia is convinced Luke is in terrible danger. Han has a bad feeling about this, and he says he knew marriage to a Jedi Princess wouldn’t be easy, but he wraps Leia in a comforting embrace. Later, Han heads out to Chewie and says they need to get the Falcon ready. They have a date with the dark side!
MG’s Thoughts
If last issue was mostly fight scenes, this one may have a bit too much plot. The already breakneck pacing really picks up here, with major events happening very quickly, or even off-page entirely. It makes the story feel less big and epic than it probably should, considering the events it depicts, though that’s probably an inherent hazard of it being told in a six-issue graphic novel rather than something longer to begin with. And some of the dialogue is rather awkward, in particular Ackbar giving an infodump on his people’s history with the Rebellion (they’re still not being called the New Republic, btw) that literally everyone he’s talking to ought to already know. But, despite my reservations with some aspects of the story (more on that in a minute) I think that it does sell how serious some of the big wham moments in it are, and I can only imagine what a punch to the gut this issue must have been for readers checking it out for the first time in the early nineties.
The art… I was actually not entirely correct in my assessment of it last time, in that the color palette is somewhat more diverse now that we’re away from battle-ridden Coruscant, but it’s still extremely limited, stylized, and, to my eye, rather garish. While it works on some scenes (it suits the eerie, eldritch environment of Byss, for example), and when it does work it works very well, overall count me as someone who isn’t a particular fan of this art style, strictly as a matter of personal taste. The cover, of course, is once again gorgeous.
And now for the bantha in the room, or rather, banthas plural, as we have three major plot developments in this issue. First off, and least overall, is the World Devastator attack. The Legends EU, especially in the Bantam/Dark Horse era of the nineties, had a reputation for loving over-the-top superweapons, each deadlier than the last (ironically, the first major storyline, the Thrawn Trilogy, very deliberately didn’t do this – Thrawn got good mileage out of creative uses of obscure technology, but he clearly considered these sorts of wunderwaffen to be an ineffective waste of resources). The World Devastators, in my experience, don’t really seem to show up in that conversation very often, compared to the likes of the Sun Crusher or Galaxy Gun, but I actually rather like them conceptually. As giant, roving, predatory factories that slowly chew up planets for resources and spew out Imperial war machines, they have a very different vibe and represent a very different threat from the Death Star, or from subsequent superweapons. Could’ve done without Ackbar literally calling them out as worse than the Death Star, though; that just feels like shallow overhyping of the new big threat.
The bigger issue… somehow, Palpatine returned. There, I said the meme, I won’t use it again (I hope…). I’ve got to say, as creepy as the reveal of his survival and apparent true nature is, I’m not really a fan of this as a concept. I really do think it undermines the victory at Endor, and I think it would have been even worse if this had been set within a year of RotJ, since that would have made it feel like the Rebellion didn’t even buy the galaxy any time at all. Especially in light of the fact that Palpatine claims it wasn’t even his first death, and thus barely a setback at all (iirc, that would get explicitly retconned later on; Endor was his first death, and Palpatine was lying here). And that brings us to the third big wham element – Luke voluntarily becoming Palpatine’s new apprentice. This one feels like it was meant as a massive shock to the reader, and it is even knowing it was coming going into it, but at the same time, after Luke’s past experience with Palpatine on the second Death Star (and, counting the Thrawn books, his more recent encounters with Joruus C’Baoth) Luke ought to be very well aware of the perils of the dark side and the slippery slope it offers, and I find it very hard to swallow that he would submit like this so easily, for any reason, even with the intention of working against the Empire from within. Part of it’s probably the pacing – this comic has a lot of plot to get through, and as I’d previously mentioned, it has to move fast – but I also just have qualms that this was a story that needed telling, much less in this particular way. It’s something I’ve always found off putting about this story, honestly, and probably subconsciously one reason I never read it before this. Still, even if Luke does give in far too quickly, IMO, the temptation scene itself is appropriately eerie and ominous, and the panel of Luke kneeling to the Emperor and pledging his allegiance is legit chilling, so kudos there.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-01 02:03 pm (UTC)(A case of covering for an actor with the flu leading to a truly brilliant moment of TV.)
The World Destroyers are a great concept that I wish the series made more use of. A series of giant machines that literally eat planets and produce materiel to make more of their fleet and presumably more of themselves? That's TERRIFYING. That's an existential threat on a level that can barely be comprehended. I'd honestly be quite happy for a series focussed entirely on dealing with them.
Aaaaaand he's back, with the exact same explanation that would make us all groan in Rise of Skywalker. At least the imagery is on point, excellent use of shadows on the artist's part.
Overall I kinda feel like this series needed a lot more issues to really be told properly, and we're only in the second entry. That worries me.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-03 01:08 am (UTC)Glad your eye is doing better (but sorry to hear that you might be allergic to the drops!); Luke's lower face is heavily in shadow here, and I think that might be messing it up for you.
The World Destroyers are a great concept that I wish the series made more use of. A series of giant machines that literally eat planets and produce materiel to make more of their fleet and presumably more of themselves? That's TERRIFYING. That's an existential threat on a level that can barely be comprehended. I'd honestly be quite happy for a series focussed entirely on dealing with them.
Agreed!
Aaaaaand he's back, with the exact same explanation that would make us all groan in Rise of Skywalker. At least the imagery is on point, excellent use of shadows on the artist's part.
Hey, Dark Empire did it first! And in fact one can make an argument that with Rise of Skywalker the sequel trilogy in general takes a sharp turn into being a loose adaptation of Dark Empire (and, admittedly, I'm generally of the opinion that most of the ST's problems are downstream from the really obvious behind the scenes tug of war about what it even was supposed to be). Agree about the imagery; the Byss scenes in general really play to the art style's strengths.
Overall I kinda feel like this series needed a lot more issues to really be told properly, and we're only in the second entry. That worries me.
I'm actually going to mention this explicitly in some of my later reviews, but I really do think Dark Empire could have expanded each arc to nine or even twelve issues rather than six and been the better for it.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 12:10 am (UTC)The already breakneck pacing really picks up here, with major events happening very quickly, or even off-page entirely.
Sounds like we have ourselves a case of a ten-issue story with a six-issue runtime.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-03 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 02:26 am (UTC)Why does he jump to the assumption that it's a Dark Jedi? I know the Rebellion's leadership had knowledge of the Force, and faith in it, to a degree, but there weren't that many real Dark-Siders in this era to begin with, and the number's only gone down since the rebellion started. Most people didn't even know the Emperor was a Sith.
Ah, it's always funny to see Star Wars media reference the Clone Wars before anyone knew what it actually was. Much like how in the original Thrawn books, Pellaeon has lingering anti-clone prejudice thanks to the Clone Wars...even though the clones, as later shown, were on his side. There was also apparently a fan theory that Obi-wan was a clone, and that his name was originally "OB1-Kenobi." And of course, we all remember Atha Prime, the genetics master, and his flagship, two star destroyers stacked on top of each other!
Although, even considering we knew almost nothing about the Clone Wars at the time, this doesn't really make sense. We knew that Obi-wan fought in the Clone Wars, which suggests he hadn't gone into hiding yet, which suggests the Empire didn't exist yet, which suggests they would not be able to build dedicated Jedi prison ships. Unless, I suppose, they're theorizing that the Clone Wars was fought between the newly formed Empire and the Jedi?
I do tend to agree that this was a bad idea, at least out of context (and we don't get much context). I agree that it does cheapen the ending of the original trilogy, making it feel like the heroes didn't really accomplish anything, but then, that's already been discussed. Though now that I think of it, it also cheapens Palpatine himself, in a way, by making his final defeat happen in what's ultimately ancillary material. Sure, the comic tries to portray Palpatine 2.0 as a massive, existential threat, but it can't quite escape the fact that is just a comic, in the same franchise as some of the most famous movies of all time. From the reader's perspective, Palpatine now comes across as just another warlord of the week, an also-ran to the likes of Thrawn.
But honestly, while I don't think it's a good idea, I don't care that much about it one way or the other. Because to me, it's just a minor speedbump, compared to what comes next.
Does Palpatine not remember that Vader threw him into a reactor? I'm not sure "taking Vader's place" would be a good thing, from his perspective. And as far as tempting Luke to the Dark Side more generally, he already tried that, in that very same scene, and it also contributed to his death. And even before then, he seems to have given up on the idea, hence why he tried to torture him to death with lightning. Kind of beating a dead horse at this point. But of course, because proper characterization is apparently far from the author's mind...
Okay. Honestly glad we're getting this out of the way early. Because this? This is probably my most hated moment in the expanded universe. Notice I did not "Legends" or "Old Expanded Universe," or "Post-Return-of-the-Jedi-Expanded-Universe," or any other qualifier (besides "probably," because only a Sith deals in absolutes). I do not have the words to describe how much this enrages me, though I'll try my best. To me, this is equivalent to Captain America saying "Hail Hydra." This is equivalent to Spider-Man making a deal with Mephisto. This is, even more appropriately, equivalent to Superman shooting everything with a giant gun. This is anathemic to Luke's character, to his arc, and to the arc of the series as a whole.
The entire point, the emotional core of the movies, was Luke resisting the temptation of the Dark Side, and indeed, resisting it so hard he brought his father back as well. He is tempted, he is tested, but he overcomes and triumphs. That is his hero's journey. That is what makes Star Wars a real story, instead of just six hours of flashing lights and quips. To reverse that, to act like it never even happened, ruins the ending of the original trilogy on a far deeper level than Palpatine returning does. And the comic really does seem to act like Luke's pivotal, character-defining moment of heroic defiance never happened - as far as I can tell, Palpatine doesn't say anything about it, and neither does Luke. They might as well be meeting for the first time. The writer doesn't seem to recognize that Luke even had an arc, or even seem to see Luke as an actual character - just as a prop, to use for cheap shock value.
We can also see this in how this gets almost no buildup. We do not see how or why Luke has changed since the end of the movies - we have no idea why he would make this choice after rejecting it the first time. He seems to be callous, arrogant, and apathetic from the beginning of the comic, with no hint of how he got that way. Although, honestly, even if there was a slow, logical buildup to this, it still wouldn't make it good, because it would still be rendering the emotional core of the movies pointless for the sake of a much less important story. Even if the rest of this story was perfect, even if the villain wasn't Palpatine, this would still sink it. I try not to judge things too harshly if I haven't actually read them, but here, there is no way to do this, and make it good.
And no, I don't think the idea that Luke is trying to "conquer the Dark Side from within" excuses it. First, from what I understand, his attempts at undermining Palpatine are half-hearted enough that they just as easily be explained by him genuinely joining Palpatine, and then just feeling kind of bad about it later. But more importantly, learning that he cannot use the Dark Side to defeat the Dark Side is also an essential part of Luke's arc, and inextricably entwined with his learning to resist the temptations of the Dark Side. The main thing tempting Luke to the Dark Side in the first place was his anger at Vader and his desperation to defeat him, but he learned that giving in to that temptation would make him no better than Vader. Much like Lord of the Rings, one of the lessons of Star Wars is that you cannot use evil's methods to defeat evil. And the lesson doesn't work nearly as well if the protagonist hasn't learned it by the end of the movie! Not to mention, joining Palpatine to overthrow him was Vader's plan. It was what he initially wanted for Luke! Luke might as well have just accepted Vader's offer on Bespin! The outcome would be the same, except maybe his father wouldn't be dead!
And on that note, think about how this renders Vader's sacrifice pointless! Vader's redemption and sacrifice led to Palpatine's defeat, but that wasn't his primary goal. He did it to save his son. And now his son is squandering that, submitting to the evil that Vader gave his life to save him from. His ghost must be weeping right now.
It honestly baffles me that this does not get more negative press than it does. Sure, it's not as well known as some expanded universe material, but even when it does come up, people seem mostly neutral. I've even seen it praised as a amazing, shocking twist, as if doing something for no other reason than to shock the readers wasn't by its nature bad writing. It's not even storytelling, at best it's performance. I'd use this to make a point about the priorities of the Star Wars fandom, but that's a little outside our scope, so suffice to say...I intensely, intensely...dislike this.
Okay, it makes sense that Leia would feel sad, and afraid, and maybe a little guilty about this, but sitting in her room for days, doing nothing, while the New Republic is facing its greatest crisis yet? No way. This is a woman who was able to fight her way off the Death Star shortly after watching her entire planet die. She'd be out there helping to coordinate the defense, even if she had to hold back tears while doing it.
Han, on the other hand, seems to be getting off pretty well in this comic. His attitude, overall, makes sense. He's not dismissing the danger, but he's learned he can trust in his friends to make it through. He's not as skeptical about the Force as he used to be, his seen its power for himself enough times, but he also knows the Dark Side can be beaten - he's seen that for himself, too. Maybe Wolverton set my standards too low, but it is kind of refreshing.
I would agree with all of that. Industrialized evil can work well, and in this case, it still manages to keep the otherworldly, unnatural quality of Sith artifice, I'd say. Though in general, I'm not too keen on the idea of excess superweapons, either. If nothing else, you have to wonder where they came from, and why the Empire didn't use them already. But, it's plausible that they were already in development, but still not ready for deployment, at the time of the Battle of Endor, and the Empire probably would have plenty of secret weapons labs hidden around the galaxy. And Palpatine seems like the sort of person who always has some kind of superweapon project in development.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-03 01:21 am (UTC)*shrugs* Maybe it was something in the design of the Devastators that tipped him off? The comic doesn't really explain the thought process behind the statement at all.
Ah, it's always funny to see Star Wars media reference the Clone Wars before anyone knew what it actually was. Much like how in the original Thrawn books, Pellaeon has lingering anti-clone prejudice thanks to the Clone Wars...even though the clones, as later shown, were on his side. There was also apparently a fan theory that Obi-wan was a clone, and that his name was originally "OB1-Kenobi." And of course, we all remember Atha Prime, the genetics master, and his flagship, two star destroyers stacked on top of each other!
Although, even considering we knew almost nothing about the Clone Wars at the time, this doesn't really make sense. We knew that Obi-wan fought in the Clone Wars, which suggests he hadn't gone into hiding yet, which suggests the Empire didn't exist yet, which suggests they would not be able to build dedicated Jedi prison ships. Unless, I suppose, they're theorizing that the Clone Wars was fought between the newly formed Empire and the Jedi?
Yes, this line in particular really did jump out at me, and even before the prequels, I always felt like the implication was that the Clone Wars were the last great conflict of the Republic before it collapsed into the Empire. Maybe some of the supplemental materials that the omnibus I'm reading from unfortunately doesn't have goes into more detail about what Veitch may have had in mind with this line.
From the reader's perspective, Palpatine now comes across as just another warlord of the week, an also-ran to the likes of Thrawn.
I feel like this is a big part of why later writers (including Zahn) at least planted the seeds of the idea that this was a delusional clone and not actually Palpatine 1.0 in a new body.
EDIT: Though I do remember the original Essential Chronology went out of its way to stress that the reborn Emperor was more dangerous than any of the warlords, including Thrawn, and I suspect this was why... though it doesn't address the issue of the franchise's main antagonist having his story resolved in supplementary materials, obviously.
Does Palpatine not remember that Vader threw him into a reactor? I'm not sure "taking Vader's place" would be a good thing, from his perspective. And as far as tempting Luke to the Dark Side more generally, he already tried that, in that very same scene, and it also contributed to his death. And even before then, he seems to have given up on the idea, hence why he tried to torture him to death with lightning. Kind of beating a dead horse at this point. But of course, because proper characterization is apparently far from the author's mind...
FWIW, dialogue in later issues suggests that Palpatine is at least partially yanking Luke's chain here and that he really wants Leia (and her children).
Okay. Honestly glad we're getting this out of the way early. Because this? This is probably my most hated moment in the expanded universe. Notice I did not "Legends" or "Old Expanded Universe," or "Post-Return-of-the-Jedi-Expanded-Universe," or any other qualifier (besides "probably," because only a Sith deals in absolutes). I do not have the words to describe how much this enrages me, though I'll try my best. To me, this is equivalent to Captain America saying "Hail Hydra." This is equivalent to Spider-Man making a deal with Mephisto. This is, even more appropriately, equivalent to Superman shooting everything with a giant gun. This is anathemic to Luke's character, to his arc, and to the arc of the series as a whole.
The entire point, the emotional core of the movies, was Luke resisting the temptation of the Dark Side, and indeed, resisting it so hard he brought his father back as well. He is tempted, he is tested, but he overcomes and triumphs. That is his hero's journey. That is what makes Star Wars a real story, instead of just six hours of flashing lights and quips. To reverse that, to act like it never even happened, ruins the ending of the original trilogy on a far deeper level than Palpatine returning does. And the comic really does seem to act like Luke's pivotal, character-defining moment of heroic defiance never happened - as far as I can tell, Palpatine doesn't say anything about it, and neither does Luke. They might as well be meeting for the first time. The writer doesn't seem to recognize that Luke even had an arc, or even seem to see Luke as an actual character - just as a prop, to use for cheap shock value.
We can also see this in how this gets almost no buildup. We do not see how or why Luke has changed since the end of the movies - we have no idea why he would make this choice after rejecting it the first time. He seems to be callous, arrogant, and apathetic from the beginning of the comic, with no hint of how he got that way. Although, honestly, even if there was a slow, logical buildup to this, it still wouldn't make it good, because it would still be rendering the emotional core of the movies pointless for the sake of a much less important story. Even if the rest of this story was perfect, even if the villain wasn't Palpatine, this would still sink it. I try not to judge things too harshly if I haven't actually read them, but here, there is no way to do this, and make it good.
And no, I don't think the idea that Luke is trying to "conquer the Dark Side from within" excuses it. First, from what I understand, his attempts at undermining Palpatine are half-hearted enough that they just as easily be explained by him genuinely joining Palpatine, and then just feeling kind of bad about it later. But more importantly, learning that he cannot use the Dark Side to defeat the Dark Side is also an essential part of Luke's arc, and inextricably entwined with his learning to resist the temptations of the Dark Side. The main thing tempting Luke to the Dark Side in the first place was his anger at Vader and his desperation to defeat him, but he learned that giving in to that temptation would make him no better than Vader. Much like Lord of the Rings, one of the lessons of Star Wars is that you cannot use evil's methods to defeat evil. And the lesson doesn't work nearly as well if the protagonist hasn't learned it by the end of the movie! Not to mention, joining Palpatine to overthrow him was Vader's plan. It was what he initially wanted for Luke! Luke might as well have just accepted Vader's offer on Bespin! The outcome would be the same, except maybe his father wouldn't be dead!
And on that note, think about how this renders Vader's sacrifice pointless! Vader's redemption and sacrifice led to Palpatine's defeat, but that wasn't his primary goal. He did it to save his son. And now his son is squandering that, submitting to the evil that Vader gave his life to save him from. His ghost must be weeping right now.
It honestly baffles me that this does not get more negative press than it does. Sure, it's not as well known as some expanded universe material, but even when it does come up, people seem mostly neutral. I've even seen it praised as a amazing, shocking twist, as if doing something for no other reason than to shock the readers wasn't by its nature bad writing. It's not even storytelling, at best it's performance. I'd use this to make a point about the priorities of the Star Wars fandom, but that's a little outside our scope, so suffice to say...I intensely, intensely...dislike this.
I don't think I feel quite as strongly about this as you do (but I do understand the feeling - for another SW-related example, no matter what Disney does with the franchise, I can almost guarantee you I will never hate any of it with the sheer, burning passion I hate Legacy of the Force with... though that's a story for another time) but broadly speaking... I'd agree with most of those points, though I'm going to save discussing it until we get to the end of the first series.
Okay, it makes sense that Leia would feel sad, and afraid, and maybe a little guilty about this, but sitting in her room for days, doing nothing, while the New Republic is facing its greatest crisis yet? No way. This is a woman who was able to fight her way off the Death Star shortly after watching her entire planet die. She'd be out there helping to coordinate the defense, even if she had to hold back tears while doing it.
I think this is a very good point (though it's somewhat mitigated by the fact that Leia is going to get to do stuff down the line).
I would agree with all of that. Industrialized evil can work well, and in this case, it still manages to keep the otherworldly, unnatural quality of Sith artifice, I'd say. Though in general, I'm not too keen on the idea of excess superweapons, either. If nothing else, you have to wonder where they came from, and why the Empire didn't use them already. But, it's plausible that they were already in development, but still not ready for deployment, at the time of the Battle of Endor, and the Empire probably would have plenty of secret weapons labs hidden around the galaxy. And Palpatine seems like the sort of person who always has some kind of superweapon project in development.
In this specific case I don't mind it; it's pretty clear Palpatine had been setting up Byss as his backup capital and stockpiling war materiel there for a very long time, and the World Devastators by their nature essentially build themselves once you set up the fabrication systems and engines and give them planets or asteroids to chew on.