In Defense of Knight Errant

By Maxine Morrell

Knight Errant, not exactly the story you think of when you think about the Expanded Universe. Most of the time, it goes under the radar, overshadowed by its chronological successor, the Darth Bane trilogy. What if I told you that Knight Errant was a great book, worthy of praise and deserving of a place of respect among EU fans? Well in this article, I will show you why. We’re gonna start with the Knight Errant novel, this book picks up right after the first 5 issue arc of the Knight Errant comics and sees Jedi Knight Kerra Holt deep in Sith occupied space embarking on an assassination attempt of Sith Lord Daiman.

Kerra’s journey takes her across vast regions of Sith space working to help a displaced group of youngsters caught in the midst of the warring Sith brothers, Odion and Daiman as well as other Sith lords. This concept is so fascinating, a lone Jedi knight, in Sith space going from planet to planet to help people under Stih rule. It is a very underground railroad type theme and it is executed superbly by John Jackson Miller.

I would also like to highlight the vast array of Sith in this book, from the ever eccentric and insufferable Lord Daiman, his psychotic brother, Odion and even a Quermian Sith Lord, there is no shortage of interesting villains. One of the most interesting concepts in this book was the Sith twins, these children were such a highlight of the book and really had an intriguing story. The twins ruled over a population through mind manipulation, using the telepathic abilities of the Celegian species, the species of Jedi Master Ooroo, from the Tales of the Jedi comics, which are referenced many times through the book which is always fun to see.

Knight Errant also introduced the concept of this warring Sith family, all vying for favor with their grandmother. It is a very Game of Thrones type concept and it was something I wish we could have explored further, I’m confident we would have had Disney not discontinued the EU. If you think your family gatherings are bad, try imagining this Sith family gathering where your cousins are plotting to kill you and take your stuff. When reading this book, this was the last thing I expected, the twists in Knight Errant were done so well and had me on the edge of my seat reading.

I would like to touch on the topic of Kerra Holt herself. Kerra gets a lot of flak in the fandom unfortunately but I am here to tell you that she is incredibly underrated. Kerra Holt starts out as this arrogant, hot headed Jedi who thinks she can save everyone. Over the course of the various Knight Errant media, she learns to be as her master was, she learns to be cunning and calculating while also retaining her sharp wit and ferocious fighting abilities. She also learns that she can’t save everyone on her own, for a good portion of the story, she believes that she is the only one capable of doing her job but reluctantly she realizes that she isn’t the only force for good and that it is okay to seek help and work cooperatively. Another thing about Kerra is that she is always going to go the extra mile to make sure a mission is completed, as we see in the Influx short story, she goes out of her way to get a vital part for the ship they need to access Daiman’s territories. While it was not officially sanctioned, she still was the reason the mission was able to proceed when all hope seemed lost. Kerra is the ideal Jedi for an era of war, she is a fierce combatant and willing to do what is necessary to complete a task. Kerra also is pretty interesting regarding the color of her lightsaber, she is questioned on the green blade from a fellow Jedi, who asks if she seeks to become a consular, to which she states, it was just the first crystal she grabbed. At her core, Kerra is a pragmatist, she is realistic in her goals and she isn’t the greatest Jedi, she takes a lot of beatings instead of being perfect in every regard. Kerra Holt is far from the greatest Star Wars character but she is also far from the worst and she is one that I personally took a liking to.

The Knight Errant comics are a really fun addition to the story and they compliment the novel well. In the comics we get to see the exhilarating battles of the New Sith Wars and we can truly see the heights of insanity of Daiman and Odion. I can see why people may not take to them and I believe that is partially due to them being canceled, if the EU had continued, we could have gotten more of the comics as where we left off was most definitely an open end.

Either way, Knight Errant can be considered an acquired taste for some but I hope that this article made some of you want to reread it with a little more of an open mind and just give it one more chance or maybe I even changed your mind on Knight Errant, if not, that’s okay too. At the end of the day, we are all EU fans and we all have the books and comics we love and dislike but one thing that connects us all is a shared love of the Expanded Universe.

Long Live the Expanded Universe