Summary
Though it never appeared in the newStar Warssequel trilogy, a brand-new book has revealed that Coruscant was actually never captured by theFirst Order. After the events ofStar Wars:The Force Awakens, the First Order’s full might is finally revealed to the galaxy. This led toStar Wars:The Last Jedi’s opening crawl stating “Supreme Leader Snokenow deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the galaxy.”
This conquering force was deployed throughout the galaxy, leading to the First Order quickly being able to usurp the power vacuum left from their destruction of theNew Republicand its defense fleet. In the aftermath of this, viewers just assumed that lots of Core Worlds, like Coruscant, would be conquered by the First Order. Rey even assumes so, telling Luke Skywalker that the First Order will control “all the major systems” within weeks. As it turns out, however,Coruscant was never actually conquered by the First Order.
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The First Order Never Successfully Conquered Coruscant
Somehow, Coruscant Defended Itself Against The Invasion
The bookThe Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empireby Dr Chris Kempshall has revealed from an in-universe point of view that the planet Coruscant was never actually conquered by the First Order because it was somehow able to defend itself. This development is fascinating, and could have some big implications for the state of the galaxy at that point. The book reads:
It seems that at least two sizeable battlegroups made a push for Coruscant in the apparent hope of seizing it and ruling the galaxy from the Empire’s seat of power. It appears that the forces sent to achieve that were defeated, but there is still a good deal of confusion regarding recent events at the end of the war.
This meansthe First Order did indeed intend to conquer Coruscant, but failedas the world was defended. This could be the case for multiple reasons. Firstly, during the Cold War against the First Order, many New Republic member worlds held their own local defense forces, and the Coruscant defense force may have fought off the First Order. But the political alignment of the Senate was actually revealed all the way back in 2016, in the novelBloodlineby Claudia Gray, to be leaning towards supporting the First Order.
In 28 ABY, the First Order’s New Republic senator Arbo was part of the Centrist party, which had ties to First Order.
Will Star Wars Ever Show What Happened To Coruscant?
Coruscant Was Absent During The First Order-Resistance War
This is a fascinating development, particularly because of how little audiences have seen of Coruscant past the era ofThe Mandalorian. That series andAhsokahave both shown Coruscant as a central point of power for the New Republic, but it’s known that this wasn’t their capital. In fact, some other sources have depicted Coruscant as descending into lawlessness by the time of the sequel trilogy, making this revelation all the more confounding. Hopefully soon,Star Warscan answer as many questions about the ecumenopolis viewers all know and love, Coruscant.
Order The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Dr Chris Kempshall from Amazon
