Heart of Darkness

"Heart of Darkness" is a comic that first appeared in Star Wars Tales 16 and was collected in Star Wars Tales Volume 4.
==Plot summary==
A group of Jedi has been dispatched to hunt down and stop several Dark Jedi. The mission leads the Jedi to a Commerce Guild trading station. One Jedi, Minch, catches up to a Dark Jedi and corners him. Igniting his lightsaber, Minch attempts to defeat the Dark Jedi in combat. As they duel, the Dark Jedi insults Minch in an attempt to anger him, referring to him as a Padawan and calling him "Little One." This ploy seems to work as Minch is knocked to the ground. Luckily for him, four other Jedi arrive at the scene quickly, but the Dark Jedi plunges his own lightsaber into his chest. Minch is left feeling angry and embarrassed by his failure to defeat the Dark Jedi on his own.
The Jedi are then contacted by allies monitoring the trading station, who alert them to the launch of a small ship. The Jedi hurry to their starfighters and attempt to contact the other ship, which they've decided must be piloted by the Bpfasshi Dark Jedi Master.
Following the ship closely, they attempt once again to contact it. It is then when the ship turns and makes a run for the planet Dagobah.
Wanting to make up for his defeat at the hands of the Dark Jedi, Minch breaks off formation and disobeys orders to return, heading after the Bpfasshi master.
On the way down, Minch's ship is struck by lightning and crashes into a swamp. Ignoring further orders to 'sit tight', Minch runs after the fleeing Bpfasshi master into the vegetation of the planet.
Minch follows the master into a cave underneath a tree. As Minch enters the cave, the Bpfasshi Master calls him a 'Child' who is 'small and weak, full of fear and anger.' Irritated at once by being called a small weak little Jedi, Minch leaps up at the Dark Jedi Master, yelling "SIZE MATTERS NOT!" Having blocked the initial attack and unleashing his own strength upon Minch the Master says matter-of-factly, "As you can see size does matter."
Angered, Minch sweeps his saber at the Bpfasshi, who then apparently changes into hundreds of smaller incarnations, who crawl onto Minch. He desperately sweeps around with his lightsaber as his vision blackens. Awakening seconds later, he sees the Master lying next to the wall of the cave, wounded and bleeding. He tells Minch "...you will make a great addition... to the Dark Jedi... one day..." before passing away. Reporting to the other Jedi, Minch announces, "Complete is our mission." He walks to the craft that has arrived to take him from Dagobah and says to himself "Away from this cursed place, the sooner the better." Meanwhile, the blood from the Dark Jedi Master seeps into the ground in the cave.
==Appearances==
==Collections==
*Star Wars Tales Volume 4
*Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 5
==Behind the scenes==
The story's title is a reference to the book Heart of Darkness, which the Star Wars novel Shatterpoint was partially inspired by. The main characters in the Star Wars short story are after a rogue Sith on a mission given by the Jedi Order. In the novel "Heart of Darkness", the main protagonist Charlie Marlowe, is sent to retrieve a rogue merchant named Kurtz by a Belgian trading company.
==Notes and references==
Category:Star Wars Tales 16 stories