'Star Wars' Confirms That Leia Struck A Deal With Crimson Dawn

The crime syndicate known as Crimson Dawn was a ruthless and cut-throat organization that would enact any number of brutal practices to reach their desired goals. Crimson Dawn can trace their roots back to a band of mercenaries who cut out the tongues of anyone who defied them. A member of Maul's Shadow Collective during the Clone Wars, Crimson Dawn was composed of smugglers, thieves, enforcers, and criminals of every ilk imaginable. Through a series of infighting and misguided missions, Lady Qi'ra took control of the syndicate from Dreydon Vos and Maul, jockeying it into a position of power that allowed her to compete with the Hutt Cartel and even the mighty Galactic Empire.

Considering the blood-soaked past of the Crimson Dawn, it seems surprising that someone as kind and sympathetic as Princess Leia Organa would make a deal with the syndicate's leader. However, this is exactly the story that is detailed in Charles Soule and Ramon Rosanas' Star Wars #18. The comic, which takes place shortly after the events of the War of the Bounty Hunters comic arc, details how the Rebellion tracked the carbonite-frozen Han Solo to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine and the deal that they made with Crimson Dawn.

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The opening act of Return of the Jedi shows the daring rescue of Captain Solo from the vile gangster, Jabba the Hutt. With Lando infiltrating Jabba's guard and Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca taken prisoner and in position to strike, the slightly ad-libbed operation results in Solo's thawing from carbonite, Jabba's death, and Boba Fett becoming a brief snack for the mighty Sarlaac. The Marvel run of Star Wars comics has worked to fill in the story threads between the many films and eras of the Star Wars universe. This includes the gap between Captain Solo's carbonite incarceration in Empire Strikes Back and the action packed sequence aboard Jabba's sail barge, the Khetanna, when he is rescued by his friends. This includes Qi'ra's brief possession of Han's carbon-frozen form at the tail end of The War of the Bounty Hunters.

War of the Bounty Hunters featured some of the deadliest and most ruthless beings in the galaxy, (including Boba Fett, Valance, Dengar, and Bossk) fighting to capture the immobilized Solo, whether for credits, notoriety, or revenge, various hunters and underworld scum and villainy battled it out for Jabba's prize. The Empire and Rebellion both also wade into the fray, attempting to respectively recapture and rescue the Rebel leader. In the end, Fett retains his target and successfully delivers him to Jabba, a fact that not all are privy to, including Princess Leia and Chewbacca.

Enter Lady Qi'ra, the crime boss who, all too recently, tried to auction off Han to the highest bidder. Qi'ra and Leia enter into a tentative alliance, with Lady Qi'ra informing the Rebellion about Fett's successful mission for the Hutt and promising "help, when the time comes to get (Han) back." The lack of something offered by Leia in return in this deal is more than a little concerning. Crimson Dawn do not seem like the type to let a debt go unpaid, and I have a bad feeling that Leia won't like what they ask for in return. Such is the way with crime families, just as Don Corleone called about those who owed him a service, Lady Qi'ra could come calling for Princess Leia. While we know the end point of this story, Han rescued by Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewie, what our heroes will have to overcome to reach that point has yet to be seen.

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Source: Screen Rant

Written by Weston Erickson

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