What Might Have Been….

Written by Az Johnston

Like a lot of people who read these columns and follow the I Rebel podcast, I was a little sad when the news confirmed that Star Wars: Destiny was officially canceled, but not that surprised. Production delays coupled with the challenges of making the dice and packaging them together all combined to make it an easy decision for those in the organization that make those calls. 

So right now, we are not going to lament on that this time but talk more about which characters we might have seen (and in fact may yet see in Wild Horizons). 

Obviously, the release of The Rise of Skywalker would have given us new versions of all the main sequel characters as well as another Palpatine and other characters such as Babu Frik (surely Yellow neutral). The Mandalorian and season seven of The Clone Wars likewise would have a wealth of new source material for the design team to work with. There is still one Hero of the Rebellion who played a major part at the Battle of Endor who has not received a character card. Nien Numb. Maybe now is his time!

For myself, I think the characters I’m still keen to see are Black Krrsantan from the Aphra comic series as a neutral Bounty Hunter Wookiee and a Ki-Adi-Mundi from the Prequel Trilogy. I think because for me the appeal of Star Wars has always been a mixture of the edgier side of stories combined with lightsaber battles and spaceships and let’s face it the original premise is a samurai western with laser swords and mystical powers. This is what Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau understand so well.

I asked some people who they thought was missing from Star Wars: Destiny and the responses were very interesting, along with the reasons. Obviously, this comes from a small cross-section with the following conditions applied:

They had to be strictly Canon timeline so you can include all comics/books since the canon reset in 2014 and any cinematic / TV material pre-2014 (not counting the Holiday Special, Droid/Ewok cartoons and Ewok movies) which means no Soontir Fel, Mara Jade or Kyle Katarn.

From the Prequel Trilogy, there were several mentions for an Obi-Wan to pair with Qui-Gon because this is a pairing that both makes sense thematically and is well-liked but due to points costs has never really been viable. A Mace Windu as a Big Blue Hero on the scale of Vader or Bane or a combat-based Yoda from Episode II (you’re fooling no-one old man with that cane) as heroes haven’t really had that kick-ass-take-names kind of character that can dominate a game. One of my friends wanted a young Boba as did a few others but honestly, I think he’s a totally overrated character. I am surprised no one mentioned Zam Wesell too or Senator Jar-Jar either. 

Rio Durant from Solo and Pre Vizsla from Clone Wars get some honorable mentions. 

From the Original Trilogy there is still design space for Max Rebo and the band, Salacious Crumb, The Rancor and the rest of Jabba’s entourage. Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba could almost have one card between them. 

There would also undoubtedly be space for a Rogue Squadron series of characters with Zev, Porkins, another Wedge, etc to explore the piloting mechanics and squadrons more along with Snow Troopers and Tauntauns from Hoth because despite the fact Hoth Trooper was part of a Gen Con winning deck they are kind of underwhelming really. 

The above has not even started to explore the wealth of characters, battlefields, and situations from the books and comics such as Rukh and Eli Vanto to support Thrawn. 

In conclusion, there was so much more that Star Wars: Destiny could have given us, many more characters and stories it could have told through new cards. Maybe it still will. Who knows?

If you would like to try and design some of these yourself and add them in the comments, we at I Rebel would you love to see these ideas brought forth and made a reality. Just try to make them balanced-ish.

This is very much a piece where I would like as much feedback as possible and will try to compare and discuss these ideas in a future piece. 

Starting from the next column I will be doing a retrospective look at the various sets and arcs of Stars Wars Destiny and how the game was at those points. These will be interspersed with my regular columns about Destiny and other things.