Zombies alone are a frightening concept. Undead corpses that rise once more post-mortem. Yet, the idea of zombies which can learn, adapt, use their host's memories and abilities are even more terrifying.
it's the same with george romero's zombies, they can remember there past selves and learn how to use tools to get to other survivors but this one made that concept into a more terrifyng approche
I remember reading this when it came out. Was legit scary, and I kept thinking how Han and Chewie could possibly get out of it alive then never mention it again lol
"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny." - Han Solo in SW A New Hope. Makes you think about that line a bit more when he says it in the movie. 🤔
@@magicman3163 I can understand that argument. I actually think it was a good tie-in with the rest of the EU. Plus they added new characters. That's lore enriching unlike Canon nowadays.
Knowing Disney, they would find some way of fucking it up. Probably by making it about 3 jedi you've never heard of who also survived the purge, because seemingly every fucking Jedi did according to Disney, who would throw around quips and funny lines in some sort of shitty self-aware horror comedy.
This video, as good as it is, only slightly captures the horror of the book. If you haven’t already, READ THE BOOK. When it describes the brothers seeing inmates who put sheets over their heads to suffocate and kill themselves, that’s when you know it’s not a normal Star Wars story.
@@aierune8201 But with all this we are being told that there was not enough original lore to create new interesting and unique stories for Star Wars 🤔🤔🙄😲
The audio book version of this is one of the best produced audio books I've heard, the sounds are honestly sick. Especially that part where Zahara is doing no anesthetic surgery to Kale in the hangar, the sounds made me want to retch.
@@TriTomMaximum That was out of place and funny but you just reminded me of how the chapter titles had a second voice progressively get louder until it was was shouting them after the narrator. Loved how creepy that was.
@@prdalien0 That was so freaky to me the first time I heard it and it really set the mood for each chapter. The one that always stuck with me for some reason was the "Coffin Jockeys" chapter. I couldn't tell ya any other chapter name but that one and that it referred to tie piolts.
You know what just hit me? The events of this story are the reason why Han panicked and dropped his cargo at the first sign of an imperial cruiser, the event that got Jabba so mad at him. I mean the timing of 1BBY matches. The last time he was boarded by the imperials, he barely survived the subsequent zombie outbreak! He did NOT want to go through something like that again. And after you're given the synopsis of what happened... Who can blame him?
Which is hilarious how he then never brought up in the og trilogy. I mean its obvious why out of universe but in universe you’d think he’s bring it up at least once
@@Vavalry Trauma that made him want to forget that it ever happened mixed with a bit of survivor's guilt perhaps? Plus he probably thought nobody would believe him and possibly harm his reputation anyway. If pressed, he would probably just claim that it was a standard prison break.
I remember in 5th grade so seeing a girl in my class reading this book, intrigued by the frankly disturbing cover, compared to what Star Wars media I had been exposed to at the time. Sure dismemberment was normal in Star Wars but not with distinct tissue and viscera visable. Still surprised she was allowed to have that book I got a drawing taken away because it had swords and guns in it.
probably because just like you said, its frickin star wars nobody would expect it to have proper gore or anything that brutal so nobody really cared or ever thought about it
"They woke up. They just...eat." And that's where I started getting chills. They NEED to make this novel into a movie (and not a family-friendly kind, I wanna see blood and corpses)
idk man. you dont need blood and gore to make zombies freaky. look at tge zombie geonosians in clone wars. no blood. no gore. but dear GOD are tgey terrifying...and the way you hear flesh and bone crunch when they bite into the clones..then dragging them to god knows where... big nope.
I literally just got mad chills from that. This is one of the most horrifying things to hear this would be absolutely insane if adapted into live action
They woke up…..they just….just…..eat. That delivery was just perfect. The monotone voice, the stutter, it just make it feels like your gonna look up and see a Zombie running at you.
@@DH-jy9tr What’s interesting about that statement is the virus was actually created by a Sith Lord thousands of years before this story takes place… the Sith had been hoping to achieve immortality, but he ended up creating this nightmare and eventually died from his own creation. That’s also the reason Vader was mentioned as the project overseer, he was trying to continue the research so he could use it against the Rebels. Lesson learned, if an ancient Sith project fails… don’t do anything with it.
@@NighTMare-gv8gz True. But what's EVEN scarier is that the virus is sentient (as shown during Chewbacca's 'Lifeday' segment... the idea of a knowing, malevolent virus, puppetering armies of reanimated corpses; (I think) gives it an extra layer of horror over a traditional zombie virus (the call-and-response screaming is also a major factor in that horror too.)
The opening stages remind me a lot of the Halo mission 343 Guilty Spark when we first encounter The Flood. The way all the bodies suddenly vanished, their swarm tactics, the ability to coordinate.
I remember reading Death Troopers over the course of about two nights in my one person hammock at boyscout camp. Probably not my brightest moment. I have never been a big fan of horror but I had heard this one was great so I gave it a shot, and I was completely riveted. I stayed up till probably 5 am two nights in a row, reading with the dim red light of a headlamp on low, because I could not stop reading. My favorite part, or at least the one that stuck with me the longest, was when the Purge officer ends up in the lambda class shuttle with a group of officers that have been eating eachother to stay alive. Something about those poor bastards sitting in silence for hours on end, waiting until the hunger makes them pick another victim, wondering who it will be, just gives me chills. (22:24) Also, I normally hate when star wars media injects movie characters into stories they have nothing to do with, but I found the inclusion of Han and Chewie to be acceptable. The author kept the nostalga bait to a minimum and just got on with it, and it works fine.
That sounds cool I wish I was doing camp as a kid back then,I just remember the 2000’s as a depressing time where everything was decaying and all the cars were from the 90’s
@@magicman3163 I get depressed remembering it and how not awful it was compared to now. Nowdays there's very little that gets me excited or gets my attention. Why do you gets depressed thinking about it? Because things weren't decaying yet.
one important thing to know is that their engines were never damaged, the purge itself was caught by the tractor beam, this was a revelation discovered much further into the story though.
I remember reading this book around when it first came out without knowing what it was. It was available at my public library and my mom found it thinking it would be a cool read since we liked Star Wars, and well, let me say this, it gave me night mares for an entire week lol. Besides that, the lore is amazing and its actually a really good book. We never finished the book sadly, but I think I was too much of a coward back then to finish it, so we returned it fairly quickly. I miss those days, not having to worry about rent, work, life in general, just being able to relax reading a book or something after school. This book really brings me back lol.
I have a funny story about nightmares from this story. So, It came out when I was in late high school. At the time, I was in the dawn of my love of horror and decided to get it to be my main reading material during my senior trip. The trip was to DC so a lot of the trips travel was in the subway system. The gray, dimly lit, subway system was the main environment I read this book in... needless to day, there was one night during the trip where my roommates in the hotel for the trip ended up waking me up because I was having a vivid night terror and all I remember from the dream was stuff from this book
@@CalebBerman Let me politely tell you that I think you're wasting your time putting down this comment for Christianity in the middle of the zombie video thank you though for trying but you would have more luck putting this in a crisis video like the earthquake in Turkey since people are looking for some form of hope
Sometimes it takes the threat of galactic calamity to see the errors in our selves and our ways. He saw it in the end, he's a very well written character that has stuck with me all these years.
I'm just imagining Han randomly telling Luke and Leia this story one night and them just being like ??????? Leia would be disturbed by him telling the story so casually and I think Luke would try to pretend Han was lying despite being able to sense it was true lol
@@lonelysatoshi2482 Oh no, I meant like when he tells them about it. But you're right, it'd probably be told between Episode 4 and 5, when they seem to know one another better.
The implication that the infected are still somewhat alive but not in control from the infected researcher that was injected with the antivirus is also kinda terrifying
@@tothewin5388no they already had the ability to adapt and use the host’s memories and abilities. The researcher that Zahara stabbed with the antivirus regained his “consciousness” to at least inform her of virus’ name which was Blackwing.
That reminds me of a segment from the Halo novel The Flood, where one of the marines first infected by the Flood got stuck with a pod that had been weakened by time, so he was still conscious of what was going on and sometimes able to control his actions. The idea of being a prisoner in your own mutated body is some of the most terrifying body horror... and that might not even be as bad as getting your mind torn apart for information like Captain Keyes.
In Red Harvest, there’s a chapter where all the infected sith almost simultaneously activate their red lightsabers in a pitch black room. That ALONE is nightmare fuel. Gave me chills the first time I read it. A favorite Legends book, highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It comes before Death Troopers and the origins of the Virus.
“I regret to inform you that your husband was killed in action while on guard duty of a prison transport.” “Oh God no! How was he killed? Was it a quick death? Please, I have to know!” “Well….”
I like how unlike many zombies these ones are organized they don't just wander until they find a target but instead as a group intentionally search for targets and call for reinforcements when they find one
@@soup7694 these zombies were all connected and functioning like a hive mind. A bit like the Geonosians and many IRL insects species. When they ''killed'' some of the grey fluid, the undead appeared to be hurt. It was one virus, with many, many hosts. It's not quite the same as sentient viruses, but it shares some similarities. For example, the Star Wars zombies all worked together to accomplish one goal. A sentient virus can theoretically do the same thing, but only if the infected are all from patient zero, which would connect them and possibly allow some sort of communication between them. It kinda loops back to a hive mind, but not entirely. Anyways, the Star Wars zombies are probably the best example of the saying: ''Team work makes the dream work!''. Them and also every other hive mind type ''societies''.
@@molkwi9077 bit strange how you deleted your message but yeah. essentially if you skip all the details it's the same as a hive mind, in this case as a "infect as many people as you humanly (or should i say undead heh) can even if you have to sacrifice a few or 100s of zombies
I read half of the book in 9th grade as a way to pass the time in class, and then I forgot about it. Several years later, I guess it's finally time to finish it now, eh?
Dude, it's one thing on dealing with a horde of zombies, but having the horde synchronize, coordinated, sharing visions with each other, *and* knowing how to use a blaster is just down right terrifying. 😨😱
@@Krejii05 They were ordered not to shoot them directly, yeah. But I don't remember the reason why, nor if it was just Luke they were ordered not to shoot. It has been a *LONG* time since I watched any of the movies. 😅 I would assume with Luke specifically, it had something to do with Vader.
15:17 is one of the most horrifying sentences I’ve ever heard. Just being able to piece together what happened from this alone sends shivers down my spine. Man, I loved this book.
One of my favorite things about this book was the way it captured the sheer scale of Star Destroyers. It's easy to forget, since we see them so often, but those things are MASSIVE. The book does a great job of showing it, making the characters feel small helpless.
I *really* wouldn't recommend reading the audio book version, then. I've never went through it myself, but from what I've heard, it REALLY doesn't help calm anyone's nerves.
I can only imagine what a Death Troopers film adaptation would be like. With modern CGI and make-up techniques, it would easily be one of the most terrifying book-to-movie adaptations ever. But I doubt it'll ever happen as long as Disney has the rights to Star Wars. I'm convinced, however, it'd break box office records.
@@simonnachreiner8380 Also, if Disney green lit the movie and not care about an R-rating, it could easily be one of the best horror movies of that year.
That certainly brings a new level of terror to Imperial Star Destroyers, having one cruising around with only a few dozen men aboard... Also it's interesting that the Imperial officers aren't just 'nasty' by nature here, they're more well-rounded, especially Sartorus. Plot brings out character.
The image of several lungs (and zombies) all screaming together in unison is just terrifying. I can picture a mass of zombies just stumbling around aimlessly until an unlucky human walks in on them. All of the zombies and I mean ALL of the zombies altogether stop what they're doing, look at the human, take a deep breath and scream before chasing after the human.
There's gotta be like a version of this in some zombie book where the zombies do that but instead of chasing the human, they all run in the opposite direction while screaming in terror
This was an extremely creepy book. When Chewee freaked out, I was was wondering if this was an alternate universe thing, and wondered of they all could die.
A friend of mine owned the book, I saw the cover and was like "Whats that? That looks Really interesting!" They gave it to me to read and I was really glad I did, never thought a imperial officer would sacrifice them self for someone else until that point. Sartonis sacrificing himself for the others made me think that Imperials were human to and some worth redeeming.
You could argue that Captain Needa sacrificed himself in Empire Strikes Back. Serving as part of Vader's personal fleet, there was a fair chance that he knew how Vader would deal with failure. Needa could have easily blamed a member of his crew for losing the Falcon and let that person be murdered, but instead he personally shuttled himself to Vader to assume full responsibility for losing the Falcon and to apologise face-to-face. Even if he didn't take full responsibility with the intention of saving his crewmates, or did so hoping that Vader not to murder him out of respect for the fact that he came to tell him face-to-face, took full responsibility, and apologised - he still did all of those things, like any good person would do.
Excellent work on this! I listened to this on audiobook when I was like 12 and To give you context of how terrifying my experience was with this book: It was summer vacation for me, and my mother was taking college courses, but we didn’t have internet or a computer at our house. This meant the closest outlet for a decently fast computer, was Dartmouth hospital a few towns over. And she didn’t get out of work until nighttime, which meant we’d head over to this hospital and use the computer labs until 11PM some nights. The hospital is notoriously massive, full of gift shops, stores, and eateries, But once visiting hours stopped, everything just stopped. So I’d be listening to this audiobook at a computer, surrounded by massive walkways and corridors, spanning several floors, like a mall. I would go to go to the bathroom, or to a snack machine in between chapters, and hear nothing but the ventilation, and if there was a sound, it would echo through everything. A few times I’d take the elevator to the wrong floor, going to floor -2 instead of 2, resulting me ending up in an almost square, narrow, dimly lit, grey walkway with hazard barrels, warning signs, and flickering lights, and hastily press the buttons to get back up to where I needed to be. Definitely added a lot to the atmosphere of the book to say the least.
@@cookiedev8527 Had to look up “Backrooms” after reading haha. I honestly had no knowledge that theory before this. That just what I saw on the bottom floor of that hospital haha
@@travis_mitchell "A few times I’d take the elevator to the wrong floor, going to floor -2 instead of 2, resulting me ending up in an almost square, narrow, dimly lit, grey walkway with hazard barrels, warning signs, and flickering lights, and hastily press the buttons to get back up to where I needed to be." This statement is almost exactly what the backrooms level known as "Level !" is
Ok, a bit of a theory of mine, Blackwing was made with samples of The Mnngal Mnngal. I mean it is a grey fluid, clearly sentient, capable of moving on its own, turns people into undead husks, enjoys torturing its prey with the bodies of former loved ones, highly sadistic and virulent, the similarities are too prominent to ignore.
Blackwing* and to make up for being a perfectionist, I remember either a different virus or this one were it could infect sentient beings not just living (droids did not apply) but plants and most notably kyber crystals.
@@endgame_404you’re correct, it can infect kyber crystals, emitting a smoking black blade when put in a lightsaber hilt. The virus was made by a Sith Lord who found a method for immortality in a black sith holocron.
Well I did some research and it turns out that the comparison between those 2 was actually not intentional, However the author of death troopers liked it so much that he made it part of the canon.
I've heard of this it's considered to be the most Lovecraftian creature in all Star Wars second to Abeloth. And their obsession with collecting every ship they infected orbiting their home planet is messed up. And the fact that they have been around since the ancient Republic is quite an interesting yet scary experience. They have almost every single shift built throughout the entire history of Star Wars or getting their home planet. That's a better collection than general grievous's lightsaber collection. But like you said, they like to possess a host and then torture them, but I remember hearing one story where they possess someone, I think it was a child and they would torture the child and then keep his ass the child, and then repossess the child torturer, and they did it over and over in front of the child's parents just for fun. For being a senti in primordial liquid, this greyish white ectoplasm, it is pretty sadistic, not to mention, since they can basically enter any living being Makes them as equal as a threat as Abeloth They can both and to your body, even though Abeloth prefers to enter your mind, and they have no weaknesses
Jareth Sartorus being redeemed and making things right with Trigg is honestly one of the best moments for an imperial officer. Edit: Jareth’s redemption is way better than Reva’s
I remember when I was a child in 2009 I watched clone wars in its 2nd season and I saw the episode of the geonosis zombies which disturbed me, I wondered later if in the universe of star wars there would be some kind of virus-type zombie infection. Then in 2016 I saw images of covers of novels and I found the death troopers one just by looking at the image and the title I already knew what it was going to deal with worse I never had the opportunity to read it because it was difficult for me to find it in my city and country (Chile) , until I saw reviews in English and videos like this one.
31:15 I come back to this video every few months, and it's honestly one of the best visual audio stories I've ever watched or listened to. And what really is the icing on the cake? Is the brief opening to Free Bird, just a perfect touch. Excellent.
Just the fact that the Zombies were planning to escape and infect the whole galaxy is chilling on its own. Just shows you when there’s a greater threat, everyone has to stick up.
I thought theyd try to use ordinance on the star destroyer to blow themselves and the virus up until the book revealed han and chewie so i knew that couldnt happen.
I think that if Dr. Cody, Han, Chewie and Trig knew what the zombies were doing, they would’ve set the star destroyer to self-destruct to permanently end the Sickness (virus).
that was bone chilling but imagine youself here "the sound of rotting corpses scratching at the walls trying desperately to get out of the shaft until silence strikes the air with nothing but a mellow shuffling. PHSIEW the sound of a blaster cracks through the air soon to be followed by many blasters firing as the door glows red hot slowly melting away revealing the horrible stench of multiple zombie like creatures armed with blasters" (yes ik its not exact but i wanted to make my own little spin off)
Imagine they made a movie/show out of this. Rated R/NC-17, no-punches-held, bloody, gorey, and an exact 1-1 of this book. That would be one of the best Star Wars movies/shows ever made, I'm sure of it.
I know probably some people thought about this but, I feel really bad for the stormtroopers stationed in the Star destroyer, Being armed, armored and have literally military training and still this happening despite there being thousands of stormtroopers, officers, engineers etc. Having security measures like lockdowns, automated turrets, alarms, and a functioning command chain. The troopers being the first line of human defense with better equipment and training getting mauled down one by one... seeing one of those things tearing through a fellow trooper's chestplate or breaking the helmet just to get at them or just straight up biting so hard that the arms and leg armor pieces are just torn off like it's wet paper and them screaming out of pain, fear and desperation one moment and the other seeing them get up again as a hostile target... And it makes you wonder, how did this happen?, what was command doing?, did they put any defense line to prevent any sort of spread by the undead?, did they shut down any contaminated area or in general sealed off ANYTHING?, what happened to the escape pods?, or everything happened so fast that nothing of the already mentioned before really mattered since they were already in their massive coffin with the shape of a star destroyer... A horrible thought if that's the case... 😖
well technicaly, the crew of the said star destroyer only has a 30 man crew, so technically, they wouldn't have the firepower or the strength to hold their line of defense for long
"The woke up. They just eat" that's they scariest thing I've ever heard from from Star Wars considering Waste was talking about literal corpses AND the fact that Zahara, Han or Chewie didn't actually see it happen
I read this book it was absolutely amazing! Especially when you listen to the audio while reading the book it’s 100 times better that way. And if y’all have not read the book I highly recommend it.
That’s how I experienced the book and it freaked me out. Absolutely love the audiobook, don’t know how many times I’m going to listen to it though because it was incredibly unnerving.
@@bradley8575 you need the Audiobook, trust me. This video, while a good summary, does not capture the emotion the audiobook brings. I was legitimately terrified at some parts
It would be terrifying for a virus to kill everyone on the ship except for you and some others, and while you save a Wookiee and smuggler from the solitary cells, all the corridors once lined with corpses are empty, even the blaster you kicked behind you is gone. And when you head back to the medbay and find your smashed medical droid, all it says is “t-they woke up” “they just-just” “eat eat eat”
@@magosmarechferracioli1128 Star Wars Galaxies is still alive and servers occasionally run the Death Troopers event with the map. Think you could find more info in one of the top comments
Some folks also made Death Troopers mods for the old-gen Battlefront 2 games, I think. I just know that they existed at one point, can't tell you where or how to find them now.
death troopers was always my favorite, every year around october i would play the audio novel or pull out the book and start reading it over again. it was interesting to me cause you always see all these zombie movies all the time. but, in the galaxy far, far away.......it was scarier than it was for being on earth in all the movies.
Yeah it's like one minute your having a 'fun', if a bit dangerous quirky SPACE weastern adventures with your bestest friends and the classic heroes journey to become the chosen one, magic SPACE wizards with cool laser swords then...BOOM, *fucked up secret experiments and terrifying bioweapons research that creates horrors that could doom an entire planet, no the entire galaxy if ever unleashed as all life is consumed by a tide of madness and never ending hunger as the undead gorge themselves on a cosmic feast of blood.*
This reminds me a lot of the Halo horror story, the Mona Lisa. Similarly, a prison ship had an outbreak of the parasitic Flood due to unethical experiments as an unlikely team of soldiers, corrupt officers and prisoners tried to escape.
Loved the vid, was always curious about this book, since it's mainly been memed as "remember when star wars had zombies?", but either way I think your editing and storytelling did it justice. Would love to see some sort of proper adaptation of this, especially as a game. Basically Left 4 Dead Star Wars edition
Its been memed? Click read more for a Bible verse Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
I actually am running my own Star Wars Zombie campaign currently. It's an evolution of Project Blackwing that's been enhanced by different parts of the bioweapons from Project Starscream from the Galaxy of Fear books. Whole campaign is structured like Resident Evil 2 and 3, complete with them having to complete puzzles. Party has strict inventory management, and blasters are set to the highest power setting to actually kill these things so they're having to keep looking for power cells as ammo. Shit it really tense, and the party is made up of Imperials and Rebels.
Damn, you mean like a table-top Star Wars game? How does it work? I've heard there was a DnD esc. game for SW before, but I had no clue what it was called or how it worked.
@@CamelotGaming If you run the campaign again you could run it in dnd for the easier dice use but homebrew some things such as giving the zombies very low armour class and health. Then again, you seem to know what you’re doing so if this didn’t help then don’t worry. Good luck and have fun!
In all my 38 years of life, with 32 of those years being a devout sw fan, I never thought I’d see and hear Chewy having a fever dream trip out about eating flesh and singing life days songs in reference to the notorious holiday special, but here we are. Next week: Vader smokes a death stick, trips out, takes his helmet off, and flies through the corridors of the Executor using two mouse droids as skates while screaming “I won mom! I won the pod race!” as officers and storm troopers shit themselves in reaction
Listening to this video actually made me feel uncomfortable/anxious. It's such a terrifyingly well put together story. Imagining a virus developed to be sentient and to create a sort of hive mind that can slowly evolve its way of thinking so that it can function at the same level if not a better one than a normal human. Pair that with just the general standard characteristics of zombies and it's just a frightening concept. Plus just imagining the sheer size of a Star Destroyer and all 10k+ of the crewmembers being slowly infected or slaughtered in the most gruesome ways possible is a picture to put together in your head. Though it was just condensed to a single Star Destroyer, the apocalyptic scenario this creates is amazing.
Oh no the flood was bad, but these things were far worse. The flood could be blown to pieces and die while the Blackwing zombies could continue moving even as just an arm and such. A great example would be when the kid I think it was Trig emtered the room the crew of the star destroyer had stored the chopped up body’s of the zombies. A literal mountain of limbs started moving and attacking.
@Pico Newton. The flood was left to gain biomass and grow among places with ships and technology they could use to spread throughout the galaxy. The death troopers did not. All of the ships and whatnot were lacking the ability to pilot. If they were capable of getting the ship to fly? The virus would have easily destroyed the galaxy as it would simply have to land and let the airborne pathogen do the majority of the killing while they themselves finished everyone else off.
Yeah because it has rated R themes. Star Wars was always family-friendly this is more adult. It would be interesting if star wars had legends movies and this was one of them.
@@multicreativeartist6579 Filoni is the LAST person I'd want to lead Star Wars or Lucasfilm in general. He's contradicted Lore so many times it's not funny.
There actually was a sequel to this story. Kind of. All the survivng characters returned in the game Star Wars Galaxies, where it's revealed that the Empire continued the Blackwing experiment on the planet Dathomir.
I remember hearing of this book growing up like yea that could make a solid zombie mode for a new battlefront or republic commando. Also the geonosian deadworm would work. Of course being a boy growing up in the 2000s-2010s, anything sounds good with zombies in it.
In fact, the republic commando mission where the delta squad has to find out what happened to a missing republic cruiser gives that feeling of terror and mystery with clues, the state of the ship, deceased clone troopers, cut communications and the disappearance of some members , but all that feeling is lost when you see that those responsible were mercenaries and droids. But imagine that instead of trandoshans and droids you have a zombie plague like this one having to fight clones, officers and prisoners to survive and reunite with your squad if it's not too late.
5:15 I love it when zombie stories start with some kind of seemingly derelict/abandoned or stranded ship that later turns out to be a full blown infected ship
the "they woke up. they just...eat" from waste always set me off since i've had the book but with the addition of hearing it with a robotic and laggy voice, the creepy music, and the creepy photo, makes it 10x more horrifying.
My favorite part of the book is when the Imperials are in a small room malnourished and starving cannibals and I imagined its so small all 15-30~ Imperials had to crawl around in that tiny room and then this big guy just starts picking up dudes and throwing them to the zombies
Imagine darth Vader and emperor palpatine facing off against these monsters. Sure they’d prob win assuming they were also immune. But those screaming sounds? And they aren’t stupid they’d be able to correlate destruction of the virus with screams of the infected. That would terrify anyone, even those two
Vader: "Really master? Zombies?!" Palpatine: "I told you the Dark Side led to powers some consider unnatural. Though shambling corpses wasn't the immortality I had in mind." *Casually fries some zombies with Force lightning* "Looks like I need to go back to the drawing board..."
Vader being mostly mechanical and having armor would probably help his case, I could see zombies trying to bite his mechanical limbs and shattering their teeth in the process as he beats their face in
This story is basically dead space meets star wars and I love it. Plus, Zahara Cody is really cool character I'd love to see get reintroduced into the canon. Good work on the video by the way, you made zombies scary for me again. You get 100/10
When my brother was in rehab, he checked out this book when I came to visit him so we could read it together cause I loved starwars as a kid. This brought back so many memories I’ve made myself forget.
The thing about so many zombie novels, from what I’ve seen, is that they’re not just about surviving the undead. So many of the authors write in a tone that adds a layer of psychological or even eldritch horror to their stories. Some, you have to put down before continuing to read. Others, you wonder what’s reality and what isn’t. Still others that are meant for worldbuilding, like Death Troopers, you have to wonder if this is even same fandom anymore. It’s such a contrast from a lot of zombie-themed movies today. That’s mainly because you aren’t seeing in with your eyes, just picturing it in your head.
At the local health club, a lady had a bag full of Star Wars novels. Some hardback, most paperback. I had never been able to buy books during the beginning of my “work” period. She gave them to me. “Death Troopers” is a hardback. I know what to read during October now!!!
Hard agree. I’ve had a horror idea for SW for awhile. Basically it’s some early-imperial relay station on the outer rim. Poorly funded, Clone War era tech repurposed for the space boonies. It’s a small crew, who are relatively new to the place. They basically stumble upon an old set of commando droids, and accidentally re-activate them, with the droids trying carrying out their orders from the war, “kill all the inhabitants of the base” It’s so easy to come up with new concepts for such a vast galaxy. And personally, the Clone Wars show made me absolutely terrified of commando droids, so they deserve some time as horror villains. They’d work so well in that sort of role
The content, the visualization, and the effects are just so good, this is one of my favs as far as Star Wars books go, glad to see someone creating some excellent content from it man! Keep it up!
i remember reading this in middle school and being absolutely enthralled by how dark it was. after i returned it to the library, i regularly checked back to see if they'd by chance picked up Red Harvest because i was so ravenous for more. never did get to see it, though. :(
Bruh, I remember reading this with the audio book, loved hearing because it immersed me into how scary it was. I didn't get to finish because they removed it from UA-cam, and I forgot what chapter I left off on, I know I was halfway towards the end, but still one of my favorite stories from Star Wars.
"Death Troopers is the first true Star Wars horror story before the sequels." sick burn aside but isn't Galaxy of Fear series the first horror books based on Star Wars.
Everyone forgets Galaxy Of Fear. It was Lucasfilm Publishing's attempt to ride the Goosebumps wave. I think I remember one book I had that had Vader fighting himself and I thought it was awesome at the time.
The fact that I had re-read this whole story just weeks before this video was uploaded makes me happy, considering that I thought no one would remember this story! Very happy to have found this. You really gave it the best explanation it deserved (and a little more).
I remember hearing the audio book of this as a kid and it scared the shit out of me. So much detail was laid out on everything especially the gore and grotesque undead roaming on the ship. One of the best books I've read
First and only Star Wars novel I ever listened to. The audiobook narrator did this rather low-monotone voice that seriously helped portray the horror/scares of the novel. It was seriously great. Still one of my favourite pieces of star wars media that I hope gets a game/movie/show/mod adaptation.
For the original Battlefront 2, there is a Blackwing mod that places Stormtroopers on that one cruiser level where if one of you die to one of the zombies that person in turn will join the infected. I'm not sure if there is a dedicated server for Online zombies, but it is still a horrifying experience by yourself
Dude this literally terrified me. It's great to hear some dark or scary star wars stories Every once in a while. I love to hear stuff like this, sometimes I just want to have a good scare.
Death troopers is one of my favorite books outside of the Dune universe. I've read through it about 4 times now. It's a comfort book for some reason. Glad you covered it, and the extra bits were cool to learn about.
Man, your coverage of content is so in depth and well edited / researched, I hope you make much more in the future! Can’t wait to see what else you cover!
i love the idea of spin off movies like this. everyone knows this is in the starwars universe, but has nothing to do with the overall starwars story, or the characters. with stream services i really hope companies start to make movies/tv shows like this cause its a really cool idea
I think this was my first star wars book that I read. I loved it and I was a bit bummed but at at same time amazed that they made death troopers an actual thing of sorts. Zombies in star wars is something I think is cool. Since well, it's a galaxy, science fiction can do whatever they want.
DUDE, Death troopers as a movie would be amazing!! It would sell well for a halloween special specifically for star wars fans. This story was amazing and I absolutely loved it.
27:40. Sounds kinda like The Crossed. The zombies actively/intelligently find ways to spread the virus. I love that. Much better than mindlessly biting people.
It always baffles me on how the stereotypical zombies (eating brains, limping, etc) end up causing the apocalypse, especially when their weaknesses are similar to normal people, with special emphasis on beheadings
@Creativeguy1 Martinez Because very few, if any, people in these types of scenarios have never heard of the dead coming back to life only to infect others..... that and terribly written stories. Dumbass: "Hey folks, I hear some unnatural groaning behind this door. I'm gonna open it! AAAAARRGGHHH!!! WHY DID I OPEN IT!?!?!?!?!?"
@@keztannis6848 it'd be interesting if it was containable, but not easily eradicatable. It would be a constant looming danger that you need to constantly keep watch
@@keztannis6848 That's why World War Z novel is probably the best piece of zombie media out there. It details the economic, political, psychological, and social ripples throughout society and the repercussions that came with them
I bought the audiobook and listened to it late at night alone in my room. And I loved how it had sounds, like during the amputation you would hear menear being cut, blood squirting, blasters, and screams. Nonstop screaming
Man they really don't know how to have fun anymore. The Freedom for writers to make stories like this, and the little promotional ARG of the Stormtrooper Twitter. Nowadays everything has to fit within their small restricted "canon" Don't get me wrong, Legends is Hit and Miss, but I think it generally has more Hits. While Canon is Hit or Miss but i'm finding more Misses because of its more restrictive nature.
This would make an amazing immersive sim, all the metroidvania stuff you could fit in, that allows more of the ship to open up. Minimal resources, survival horror. Oh yes indeed.
This is one of the few zombie/apocalypse scenarios that scares me for one reason Committing “slippyslide” doesn’t spare you or your corpse from becoming a zombie. Even with half a brain you can still become one of them
I read Death Troopers in one day last year. It was a pleasant read. I loved how they named the chapters. The author has wonderful descriptive language needed for a good horror novel. The inclusion of Han and Chewie was my only major complaint. Having them there gave the story a lot of plot armor and really derailed the pacing of the book. Overall, I'd say it was worth it. It was a quick read, well-paced, and definitely one I would recommend.
This was a really well made book. Like, very atmospheric, very creepy and, since most of the characters aren’t canon, it felt like they could die at any moment. I think the lack of Force users also helped a lot. Everyone was kinda helpless. Good times.
This was an story i discovered years ago in my twenties and i remember listening to the audio of the book that somebody had uploaded on to UA-cam and listened to it at night...kept making me look over my shoulder, lol. Great story, can't wait to hear about the Red Harvest story!
Zombies alone are a frightening concept. Undead corpses that rise once more post-mortem. Yet, the idea of zombies which can learn, adapt, use their host's memories and abilities are even more terrifying.
Put like that they sound like Halos flood
Duh!! I was gonna say that!
I may suggest you to read the Marvel Zombie series if you want.
it's the same with george romero's zombies, they can remember there past selves and learn how to use tools to get to other survivors
but this one made that concept into a more terrifyng approche
No kidding I'd be pissing myself being in that ship having to deal with these things
I remember reading this when it came out. Was legit scary, and I kept thinking how Han and Chewie could possibly get out of it alive then never mention it again lol
this is like the SW equivalent of the Star Trek First Contact in terms of the Fear Factor of unstoppable space zombies
The book would be very cool movie, tv series or video game.
"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny." - Han Solo in SW A New Hope. Makes you think about that line a bit more when he says it in the movie. 🤔
I think adding Han and Chewie ruined it because we know they survive in the end
@@magicman3163
I can understand that argument. I actually think it was a good tie-in with the rest of the EU. Plus they added new characters. That's lore enriching unlike Canon nowadays.
The thought of this being a rated R Star Wars movie is the best idea I’ll ever have. Absolutely terrifying and yet what all older fans would love
Prometheus copy...now a thunderdome sequel ..
I mean we're getting Marvel Zombies- anything's possible! This would be awesome. Even if it was just an episode or two of one of the shows
Well shit i cant sleep now
Listen to the audio book, it's terrifying
Knowing Disney, they would find some way of fucking it up. Probably by making it about 3 jedi you've never heard of who also survived the purge, because seemingly every fucking Jedi did according to Disney, who would throw around quips and funny lines in some sort of shitty self-aware horror comedy.
This video, as good as it is, only slightly captures the horror of the book. If you haven’t already, READ THE BOOK. When it describes the brothers seeing inmates who put sheets over their heads to suffocate and kill themselves, that’s when you know it’s not a normal Star Wars story.
Or listen to the audio book, either one is still so Incredibly good for a unique star wars story.
@@aierune8201 But with all this we are being told that there was not enough original lore to create new interesting and unique stories for Star Wars 🤔🤔🙄😲
i havnt read the book but listened to the audio book and omg its fricking terrifying D;
I still remember when they found the decapitated head from the cover in a part of the book
just Imagine as an Imperial after Reading that nightmare you will be transfered to the star destroyer with the sane name
The audio book version of this is one of the best produced audio books I've heard, the sounds are honestly sick. Especially that part where Zahara is doing no anesthetic surgery to Kale in the hangar, the sounds made me want to retch.
Definitely great though I do laugh every time the narrator would read out loud the chapter "Bubbles"
@@TriTomMaximum That was out of place and funny but you just reminded me of how the chapter titles had a second voice progressively get louder until it was was shouting them after the narrator. Loved how creepy that was.
@@prdalien0
bubbles...
*BUBBLES*
@@prdalien0 That was so freaky to me the first time I heard it and it really set the mood for each chapter. The one that always stuck with me for some reason was the "Coffin Jockeys" chapter. I couldn't tell ya any other chapter name but that one and that it referred to tie piolts.
The screaming sound effect. I had read the book multiple times before ii got the audio book but hearing it the first time made my blood go cold
You know what just hit me? The events of this story are the reason why Han panicked and dropped his cargo at the first sign of an imperial cruiser, the event that got Jabba so mad at him. I mean the timing of 1BBY matches. The last time he was boarded by the imperials, he barely survived the subsequent zombie outbreak! He did NOT want to go through something like that again. And after you're given the synopsis of what happened... Who can blame him?
That makes sense
Holy shit that’s genius
Which is hilarious how he then never brought up in the og trilogy. I mean its obvious why out of universe but in universe you’d think he’s bring it up at least once
@@Vavalry Trauma that made him want to forget that it ever happened mixed with a bit of survivor's guilt perhaps? Plus he probably thought nobody would believe him and possibly harm his reputation anyway. If pressed, he would probably just claim that it was a standard prison break.
@@Vavalryit was one of the only times he was legitimately terrified. it makes sense he would never speak of it.
Simply hearing the words “they woke up” gives me so many goosebumps I love it.
"They woke up... they jus- just... eat... eat... eat"
- Broken 2-1B Medical Droid
“they woke up,they jus- just.. eat... eat... eat...”
@@bendingdemon6483 imagine then a zombie just rips open the droid and charges at sarah
@@frenchcommune7198 the droid is already dead
@@frenchcommune7198 they woke up but when they reemerged he definitely was killed
I remember in 5th grade so seeing a girl in my class reading this book, intrigued by the frankly disturbing cover, compared to what Star Wars media I had been exposed to at the time. Sure dismemberment was normal in Star Wars but not with distinct tissue and viscera visable. Still surprised she was allowed to have that book I got a drawing taken away because it had swords and guns in it.
I did an essay on this book in High School
Weird seeing you here
I've been wondering Jack, is that Payday 2 porn drawn by you?
probably because just like you said, its frickin star wars nobody would expect it to have proper gore or anything that brutal so nobody really cared or ever thought about it
@@blehh_mae I did
"They woke up. They just...eat."
And that's where I started getting chills. They NEED to make this novel into a movie (and not a family-friendly kind, I wanna see blood and corpses)
idk man. you dont need blood and gore to make zombies freaky.
look at tge zombie geonosians in clone wars. no blood. no gore. but dear GOD are tgey terrifying...and the way you hear flesh and bone crunch when they bite into the clones..then dragging them to god knows where... big nope.
We so need this
Or the Flood.
I literally just got mad chills from that. This is one of the most horrifying things to hear this would be absolutely insane if adapted into live action
ok to be honest the they woke up and eat part is me waking up and cooking some eggs to eat in 4:00am
They woke up…..they just….just…..eat.
That delivery was just perfect. The monotone voice, the stutter, it just make it feels like your gonna look up and see a Zombie running at you.
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD 😱
yooo nacht der untoten
@@isaiahp.4609 *round start theme intensifies*
Man this book made feel bad for everyone, the prisoners, the guards, the Imperials, everyone.
That's what I love about this book...you got to see that there's something far worse in the SW galaxy than the Sith and and the Dark Side.
@@DH-jy9tr What’s interesting about that statement is the virus was actually created by a Sith Lord thousands of years before this story takes place… the Sith had been hoping to achieve immortality, but he ended up creating this nightmare and eventually died from his own creation. That’s also the reason Vader was mentioned as the project overseer, he was trying to continue the research so he could use it against the Rebels.
Lesson learned, if an ancient Sith project fails… don’t do anything with it.
@@NighTMare-gv8gz True. But what's EVEN scarier is that the virus is sentient (as shown during Chewbacca's 'Lifeday' segment... the idea of a knowing, malevolent virus, puppetering armies of reanimated corpses; (I think) gives it an extra layer of horror over a traditional zombie virus (the call-and-response screaming is also a major factor in that horror too.)
@@DH-jy9tr It's basically Viral Dark Side
@@DH-jy9tr if this scares you man watch overlord similar to this but it’s a film but yea the supersoilders and the scenes are scary asf
The opening stages remind me a lot of the Halo mission 343 Guilty Spark when we first encounter The Flood. The way all the bodies suddenly vanished, their swarm tactics, the ability to coordinate.
the whole thing kinda reminds me of the "Mona Lisa" Halo Evolutions story
Personally i get Dead Space 1 vibes where you see jack shit until it hits the fan
Mona Lisa type shit
i wonder if Joe Schreiber played halo and took inspiration from it.
@@darth_autie_117I remember that story. What did they call the Sangheli prisoner again? Jeff? I hope Jeff is the one who escaped!
I remember reading Death Troopers over the course of about two nights in my one person hammock at boyscout camp. Probably not my brightest moment. I have never been a big fan of horror but I had heard this one was great so I gave it a shot, and I was completely riveted. I stayed up till probably 5 am two nights in a row, reading with the dim red light of a headlamp on low, because I could not stop reading.
My favorite part, or at least the one that stuck with me the longest, was when the Purge officer ends up in the lambda class shuttle with a group of officers that have been eating eachother to stay alive. Something about those poor bastards sitting in silence for hours on end, waiting until the hunger makes them pick another victim, wondering who it will be, just gives me chills. (22:24)
Also, I normally hate when star wars media injects movie characters into stories they have nothing to do with, but I found the inclusion of Han and Chewie to be acceptable. The author kept the nostalga bait to a minimum and just got on with it, and it works fine.
That sounds cool I wish I was doing camp as a kid back then,I just remember the 2000’s as a depressing time where everything was decaying and all the cars were from the 90’s
@@magicman3163 the 2000s were actually a great era minus 911 and the recession. There was a lot of cool stuff then if you were growing up.
@@joshuaholman7760 I just feel a sad melancholy thinking about it like a Jack Stauber video
@@magicman3163 I get depressed remembering it and how not awful it was compared to now. Nowdays there's very little that gets me excited or gets my attention.
Why do you gets depressed thinking about it? Because things weren't decaying yet.
@@joshuaholman7760 like I said the buildings were old and decaying and the cars were all from the 90’s
one important thing to know is that their engines were never damaged, the purge itself was caught by the tractor beam, this was a revelation discovered much further into the story though.
And they thought they were killed engines? Don't they notice when tractor beam?
@@slin2903 nope, they never noticed. They only found out after it was too late and everyone on the Purge had perished.
@@bluekunt But still stupid I mean any engineer who knows his shit should know the difference between dead engine and tractor
I read book but long ago
@@slin2903 yeah same I still own the book, so I might give it a read again.
69 likes, make a wish!
I remember reading this book around when it first came out without knowing what it was. It was available at my public library and my mom found it thinking it would be a cool read since we liked Star Wars, and well, let me say this, it gave me night mares for an entire week lol. Besides that, the lore is amazing and its actually a really good book. We never finished the book sadly, but I think I was too much of a coward back then to finish it, so we returned it fairly quickly. I miss those days, not having to worry about rent, work, life in general, just being able to relax reading a book or something after school. This book really brings me back lol.
It gives me nightmares everytime I hear it lol, I frieking hate this story, but yet... I am drawn to it
I always have nightmares and its weird because i can control what time i wake up when i feel like its the end
i don't blame you for not finishing it i mean when i was a kid i love zombies but the concept alone scares me and even as a teen it still does
I have a funny story about nightmares from this story. So, It came out when I was in late high school. At the time, I was in the dawn of my love of horror and decided to get it to be my main reading material during my senior trip. The trip was to DC so a lot of the trips travel was in the subway system. The gray, dimly lit, subway system was the main environment I read this book in... needless to day, there was one night during the trip where my roommates in the hotel for the trip ended up waking me up because I was having a vivid night terror and all I remember from the dream was stuff from this book
NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Sartoris? He had quite the resolve for a disgruntled officer
@@CalebBerman wasn't expecting this on a random comment about zombies
@@CalebBerman Let me politely tell you that I think you're wasting your time putting down this comment for Christianity in the middle of the zombie video thank you though for trying but you would have more luck putting this in a crisis video like the earthquake in Turkey since people are looking for some form of hope
@@ingamingpc1634 it's just something they do, don't get worked up over it
@@evangault1392 expect the unexpected when it comes to youtube comments lol. Christians gona try to keep the recruitment quota up lmao.
@@creatureTHEcritter Is that a bad thing?
Mad respect to Commander Sartourus.
Dude was willing to admit to his own flaws, sacrificing himself in order to make amends with his enemies.
Mad respect to commander sartourus indeed
Fr
Commander Sartourus did what Emperor Palpatine never even thought of doing, admitting his mistakes, then sacrificing himself.
Sometimes it takes the threat of galactic calamity to see the errors in our selves and our ways. He saw it in the end, he's a very well written character that has stuck with me all these years.
I'm just imagining Han randomly telling Luke and Leia this story one night and them just being like ??????? Leia would be disturbed by him telling the story so casually and I think Luke would try to pretend Han was lying despite being able to sense it was true lol
That's terrifying, honestly. Like sometime between Episode 5 and 6 perhaps.
@@Profile__1 That wouldn't be possible since Han was frozen in carbonite, this probably happened before Episode 4
@@lonelysatoshi2482 Oh no, I meant like when he tells them about it. But you're right, it'd probably be told between Episode 4 and 5, when they seem to know one another better.
Yes. One year before a new hope is when this story takes place. @@lonelysatoshi2482
And then luke told it to vader or palpatine
This would unironically be the best horror movie in a long time if Disney were to adapt it to a movie and use the story as a script.
I doubt it since Disney wants to be “for children” although at the end of rise of skywalker; let’s just say the same gender did the la bise
Disney is too cowardly to adapt it
@@whippedcreamsprinkles they would for Hulu or smth
Disney needs to sell their overpriced toys. They'll never do horror
@@whippedcreamsprinkles so is it not for children when people kiss?
The implication that the infected are still somewhat alive but not in control from the infected researcher that was injected with the antivirus is also kinda terrifying
Wait so because of the reacher that took the anti-virus, it's why the zombies can learn how to shoot and stuff?
@@tothewin5388no they already had the ability to adapt and use the host’s memories and abilities.
The researcher that Zahara stabbed with the antivirus regained his “consciousness” to at least inform her of virus’ name which was Blackwing.
That reminds me of a segment from the Halo novel The Flood, where one of the marines first infected by the Flood got stuck with a pod that had been weakened by time, so he was still conscious of what was going on and sometimes able to control his actions.
The idea of being a prisoner in your own mutated body is some of the most terrifying body horror... and that might not even be as bad as getting your mind torn apart for information like Captain Keyes.
@konahrikb1578 the song Carrion from CoD Zombies captures this wonderfully
@@Thomas20Smithdoes it ever specify what’s happens after it gain consciousness? Does it still want flesh or does it “live” but as a zombie
The fact that the zombies know how to shoot a e 11 blaster is terrifying on a new level
I thought those were e11
In Red Harvest, there’s a chapter where all the infected sith almost simultaneously activate their red lightsabers in a pitch black room.
That ALONE is nightmare fuel. Gave me chills the first time I read it. A favorite Legends book, highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It comes before Death Troopers and the origins of the Virus.
“I regret to inform you that your husband was killed in action while on guard duty of a prison transport.”
“Oh God no! How was he killed? Was it a quick death? Please, I have to know!”
“Well….”
...You don't want to know.
_"It was poggers."_
You see what had happened was…
I miss that Trooper he was a good friend
@@CHRF-55457 Sergeant Tommy Innit.
I like how unlike many zombies these ones are organized they don't just wander until they find a target but instead as a group intentionally search for targets and call for reinforcements when they find one
Sentient viruses be the scariest ones
@@AmaryInkawult esp if it's the hive mind ones (if that's not the same thing lol)
@@soup7694 these zombies were all connected and functioning like a hive mind. A bit like the Geonosians and many IRL insects species. When they ''killed'' some of the grey fluid, the undead appeared to be hurt. It was one virus, with many, many hosts. It's not quite the same as sentient viruses, but it shares some similarities. For example, the Star Wars zombies all worked together to accomplish one goal. A sentient virus can theoretically do the same thing, but only if the infected are all from patient zero, which would connect them and possibly allow some sort of communication between them. It kinda loops back to a hive mind, but not entirely. Anyways, the Star Wars zombies are probably the best example of the saying: ''Team work makes the dream work!''. Them and also every other hive mind type ''societies''.
@@molkwi9077 bit strange how you deleted your message but yeah. essentially if you skip all the details it's the same as a hive mind, in this case as a "infect as many people as you humanly (or should i say undead heh) can even if you have to sacrifice a few or 100s of zombies
@@soup7694 I didn't mean to delete it. I just did stuff without even realising.
I listened to the audiobook a few years ago. It's honestly scarring it's such an unforgettable story and pretty terrifying too
same
@@CalebBermansir, this is a McDonald's
I read half of the book in 9th grade as a way to pass the time in class, and then I forgot about it. Several years later, I guess it's finally time to finish it now, eh?
ay lmao a youtuber reads the same shit I do. neat
ayo somesteven
Oh cool I didnt know you liked this shi steven
I read this in 9th grade and you know kinda funny how this comes out
ay hello somesteven
Zombie Stormtroopers is the most 2009 thing ever.
Lmao ikr!😂
And its still awesome. I found a new copy at my half price books a while back.
Still better than the sequel trilogy
@@NurseAmamiya so true
Dude, it's one thing on dealing with a horde of zombies, but having the horde synchronize, coordinated, sharing visions with each other, *and* knowing how to use a blaster is just down right terrifying. 😨😱
Sounds like the Flood from Halo, except the Flood is objectively worse. The Flood can do everything Blackwing can, and so…much…more…..
They might be able to use blasters but they can't aim them. They learned from stormtroopers afterall 😏
@@catbert7 Lore-wise, Stormtroopers are terrifyingly accurate. Disney just nerfed the ones in the movies and shows. Those zombies are eating good. 😋
@@Kurai_Hikari yeah, and in the OG movie they weren’t supposed to kill luke iirc?
Seems like it was kinda lost in translation
@@Krejii05 They were ordered not to shoot them directly, yeah. But I don't remember the reason why, nor if it was just Luke they were ordered not to shoot. It has been a *LONG* time since I watched any of the movies. 😅
I would assume with Luke specifically, it had something to do with Vader.
The only part that I remember most from this book was the death of the child Wookiee in the beginning. Shit still haunts me.
I don't even remember a child wookie dying. Maybe i should reread this when i can.
Really makes you thankful that the zombie Wookies never used their climbing claws when grabbing Han's neck
@@josesosa3337 He brings it up at 11:58 in the video for a refresher.
Yeah the author really upped the emotional trauma factor in that part. It was so visceral and depraved.
That and a character's face being melted off by a blaster bolt during a chase sequence.
15:17 is one of the most horrifying sentences I’ve ever heard. Just being able to piece together what happened from this alone sends shivers down my spine. Man, I loved this book.
It wasn’t that scary to me. Maybe I’m just weird.
Bruh I shat myself hearing that. This is disturbing in general, but I love it.
lmao i thought it was kinda corny ngl
you must not read much
@@piratehookerss not everyone likes the same thing
One of my favorite things about this book was the way it captured the sheer scale of Star Destroyers. It's easy to forget, since we see them so often, but those things are MASSIVE. The book does a great job of showing it, making the characters feel small helpless.
watched the whole thing and while i'm usually not scared by zombies this left me freaked out, legit having to leave the lights on for tonight
This book is legitimately chilling. Even with the trappings of Star Wars, it is 100% unapologetic in its horror
I *really* wouldn't recommend reading the audio book version, then. I've never went through it myself, but from what I've heard, it REALLY doesn't help calm anyone's nerves.
I feel ya its morning and I got shivers
I always wanted Star Wars to be more Mature and have dark themes
Legends does that perfectly.
@@TheSOGchronicles Same lmfao.
I can only imagine what a Death Troopers film adaptation would be like. With modern CGI and make-up techniques, it would easily be one of the most terrifying book-to-movie adaptations ever.
But I doubt it'll ever happen as long as Disney has the rights to Star Wars. I'm convinced, however, it'd break box office records.
As long as they slap an R rating...Some idiot parent would still take their kid to a star wars movie regardless if it has an R rating or not.
@@simonnachreiner8380
No shit! I've heard parents complain about Deadpool because they thought it'd be like every MCU movie ever.
@@simonnachreiner8380
Also, if Disney green lit the movie and not care about an R-rating, it could easily be one of the best horror movies of that year.
@@q-tip4723 I mean, they did it with the MCU in what if, so if Star Wars had its own what if, they could probably pull it off.
idk , zombie flicks are kinda that, it would do well as a starwars film generally does but the PR around it from old old fans wouldnt be good
That certainly brings a new level of terror to Imperial Star Destroyers, having one cruising around with only a few dozen men aboard...
Also it's interesting that the Imperial officers aren't just 'nasty' by nature here, they're more well-rounded, especially Sartorus. Plot brings out character.
The image of several lungs (and zombies) all screaming together in unison is just terrifying.
I can picture a mass of zombies just stumbling around aimlessly until an unlucky human walks in on them. All of the zombies and I mean ALL of the zombies altogether stop what they're doing, look at the human, take a deep breath and scream before chasing after the human.
U said human to much
You should listen to the audiobook, the way they all scream together is fucking horrifying
There's gotta be like a version of this in some zombie book where the zombies do that but instead of chasing the human, they all run in the opposite direction while screaming in terror
Human: *exists*
Zombies: *inhales AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*
@@sageempires1232 🤭
This was an extremely creepy book.
When Chewee freaked out, I was was wondering if this was an alternate universe thing, and wondered of they all could die.
Why does this give me a “project blackwing” vibe
@@notsmii7y Because it is Project Blackwing, I think
@@thezambambo2184 I looove project blackwing
@@notsmii7y because it is, this is the blackwing virus
oh it was great: "from now on, you will sing MY songs..."
15:12 This part really gave me some goosebumps.
Same
Not me lol
@@Boymanbiy Same I really enjoy goodebump- giving moments, but I can’t feel it
A friend of mine owned the book, I saw the cover and was like "Whats that? That looks Really interesting!" They gave it to me to read and I was really glad I did, never thought a imperial officer would sacrifice them self for someone else until that point. Sartonis sacrificing himself for the others made me think that Imperials were human to and some worth redeeming.
Of course Imperials we’re human. Theres two sides to every war.
You could argue that Captain Needa sacrificed himself in Empire Strikes Back. Serving as part of Vader's personal fleet, there was a fair chance that he knew how Vader would deal with failure.
Needa could have easily blamed a member of his crew for losing the Falcon and let that person be murdered, but instead he personally shuttled himself to Vader to assume full responsibility for losing the Falcon and to apologise face-to-face.
Even if he didn't take full responsibility with the intention of saving his crewmates, or did so hoping that Vader not to murder him out of respect for the fact that he came to tell him face-to-face, took full responsibility, and apologised - he still did all of those things, like any good person would do.
Excellent work on this!
I listened to this on audiobook when I was like 12 and To give you context of how terrifying my experience was with this book:
It was summer vacation for me, and my mother was taking college courses, but we didn’t have internet or a computer at our house.
This meant the closest outlet for a decently fast computer, was Dartmouth hospital a few towns over.
And she didn’t get out of work until nighttime, which meant we’d head over to this hospital and use the computer labs until
11PM some nights.
The hospital is notoriously massive, full of gift shops, stores, and eateries,
But once visiting hours stopped, everything just stopped.
So I’d be listening to this audiobook at a computer, surrounded by massive walkways and corridors, spanning several floors, like a mall.
I would go to go to the bathroom, or to a snack machine in between chapters, and hear nothing but the ventilation, and if there was a sound, it would echo through everything.
A few times I’d take the elevator to the wrong floor, going to floor -2 instead of 2, resulting me ending up in an almost square, narrow, dimly lit, grey walkway with hazard barrels, warning signs, and flickering lights, and hastily press the buttons to get back up to where I needed to be.
Definitely added a lot to the atmosphere of the book to say the least.
Nice little backrooms reference there :)
@@cookiedev8527
Had to look up “Backrooms” after reading haha.
I honestly had no knowledge that theory before this.
That just what I saw on the bottom floor of that hospital haha
@@travis_mitchell "A few times I’d take the elevator to the wrong floor, going to floor -2 instead of 2, resulting me ending up in an almost square, narrow, dimly lit, grey walkway with hazard barrels, warning signs, and flickering lights, and hastily press the buttons to get back up to where I needed to be."
This statement is almost exactly what the backrooms level known as "Level !" is
That sounds terrifying lol
Ok, a bit of a theory of mine, Blackwing was made with samples of The Mnngal Mnngal. I mean it is a grey fluid, clearly sentient, capable of moving on its own, turns people into undead husks, enjoys torturing its prey with the bodies of former loved ones, highly sadistic and virulent, the similarities are too prominent to ignore.
Blackwing* and to make up for being a perfectionist, I remember either a different virus or this one were it could infect sentient beings not just living (droids did not apply) but plants and most notably kyber crystals.
@@endgame_404you’re correct, it can infect kyber crystals, emitting a smoking black blade when put in a lightsaber hilt. The virus was made by a Sith Lord who found a method for immortality in a black sith holocron.
Well I did some research and it turns out that the comparison between those 2 was actually not intentional, However the author of death troopers liked it so much that he made it part of the canon.
Deathwing is the Dark Angels First Company, not the virus.
I've heard of this it's considered to be the most Lovecraftian creature in all Star Wars second to Abeloth.
And their obsession with collecting every ship they infected orbiting their home planet is messed up.
And the fact that they have been around since the ancient Republic is quite an interesting yet scary experience.
They have almost every single shift built throughout the entire history of Star Wars or getting their home planet. That's a better collection than general grievous's lightsaber collection.
But like you said, they like to possess a host and then torture them, but I remember hearing one story where they possess someone, I think it was a child and they would torture the child and then keep his ass the child, and then repossess the child torturer, and they did it over and over in front of the child's parents just for fun.
For being a senti in primordial liquid, this greyish white ectoplasm, it is pretty sadistic, not to mention, since they can basically enter any living being
Makes them as equal as a threat as Abeloth
They can both and to your body, even though Abeloth prefers to enter your mind, and they have no weaknesses
Jareth Sartorus being redeemed and making things right with Trigg is honestly one of the best moments for an imperial officer.
Edit: Jareth’s redemption is way better than Reva’s
Right up there with Needa taking responsibility for not being able to catch the Millennium Falcon
@@NotReal-187 I agree completely
Easily better
@@CalebBerman So you're saying Jesus was a zombie? Otherwise, none of that is related in any way to the video.
Such a chad
I remember when I was a child in 2009 I watched clone wars in its 2nd season and I saw the episode of the geonosis zombies which disturbed me, I wondered later if in the universe of star wars there would be some kind of virus-type zombie infection. Then in 2016 I saw images of covers of novels and I found the death troopers one just by looking at the image and the title I already knew what it was going to deal with worse I never had the opportunity to read it because it was difficult for me to find it in my city and country (Chile) , until I saw reviews in English and videos like this one.
Oh man...that episode was scary as hell!
Which episode was that
@@Sirdinudaly i think it was in season 2 during the second invasion on geonosis.
@@Sirdinudaly legacy of terror
Ok, thanks y’all
31:15 I come back to this video every few months, and it's honestly one of the best visual audio stories I've ever watched or listened to. And what really is the icing on the cake? Is the brief opening to Free Bird, just a perfect touch. Excellent.
Just the fact that the Zombies were planning to escape and infect the whole galaxy is chilling on its own.
Just shows you when there’s a greater threat, everyone has to stick up.
I thought theyd try to use ordinance on the star destroyer to blow themselves and the virus up until the book revealed han and chewie so i knew that couldnt happen.
The fact zombies were *PLANNING*
I think that if Dr. Cody, Han, Chewie and Trig knew what the zombies were doing, they would’ve set the star destroyer to self-destruct to permanently end the Sickness (virus).
The flood from Halo are the same thing, but they actually evolve!
Having a common enemy leads to peace, albeit mostly temporary
15:17
“They woke up. They just…eat.”
Felt like a current of electricity passed through me at that part. Wow.
The full sentence is actually “An amazing thing. They're miracles, really. Marvelous. They woke up! They just…eat” -Waste
This is even more terrifying
that was bone chilling but imagine youself here "the sound of rotting corpses scratching at the walls trying desperately to get out of the shaft until silence strikes the air with nothing but a mellow shuffling. PHSIEW the sound of a blaster cracks through the air soon to be followed by many blasters firing as the door glows red hot slowly melting away revealing the horrible stench of multiple zombie like creatures armed with blasters" (yes ik its not exact but i wanted to make my own little spin off)
Ngl fr there will be that one person who had to change their pants after that.
@@mudchaiahwa9918 I would be that one person
I love how Han asks what's for dinner after a galactic outbreak breaks out😂😂😂
Han and Chewies cameo was excellent 👌
Love this book, it would be great if they made a movie of it.
The baby wookie part really creepy.
It was depressing to look at
Disney and LucasFilm should make it into a show. That way, they can cover almost all of the book.
Imagine they made a movie/show out of this. Rated R/NC-17, no-punches-held, bloody, gorey, and an exact 1-1 of this book. That would be one of the best Star Wars movies/shows ever made, I'm sure of it.
So if i understood, the baby wookie, was corrupted like chubaka, but since it didn't have the antidone it started eating it's parents????
@@swaim6995 I think that the parents woke up and began to eat it.
I know probably some people thought about this but, I feel really bad for the stormtroopers stationed in the Star destroyer, Being armed, armored and have literally military training and still this happening despite there being thousands of stormtroopers, officers, engineers etc.
Having security measures like lockdowns, automated turrets, alarms, and a functioning command chain. The troopers being the first line of human defense with better equipment and training getting mauled down one by one... seeing one of those things tearing through a fellow trooper's chestplate or breaking the helmet just to get at them or just straight up biting so hard that the arms and leg armor pieces are just torn off like it's wet paper and them screaming out of pain, fear and desperation one moment and the other seeing them get up again as a hostile target...
And it makes you wonder, how did this happen?, what was command doing?, did they put any defense line to prevent any sort of spread by the undead?, did they shut down any contaminated area or in general sealed off ANYTHING?, what happened to the escape pods?, or everything happened so fast that nothing of the already mentioned before really mattered since they were already in their massive coffin with the shape of a star destroyer...
A horrible thought if that's the case... 😖
Especially the guard with the note, to think he was a father who probably got baited by a propaganda poster who just got eaten alive is terrifying.
I’m glad you made this comment.
well technicaly, the crew of the said star destroyer only has a 30 man crew, so technically, they wouldn't have the firepower or the strength to hold their line of defense for long
@@joshdiaz4500 the men who escaped into the shuttle were 30, the star destroyer seems to have been fully manned.
After reading this comment I’m not sleeping tonight
"The woke up. They just eat"
that's they scariest thing I've ever heard from from Star Wars considering Waste was talking about literal corpses AND the fact that Zahara, Han or Chewie didn't actually see it happen
I read this book it was absolutely amazing! Especially when you listen to the audio while reading the book it’s 100 times better that way. And if y’all have not read the book I highly recommend it.
That’s how I experienced the book and it freaked me out. Absolutely love the audiobook, don’t know how many times I’m going to listen to it though because it was incredibly unnerving.
Eh I don’t need the Book I have this Video.
@@bradley8575 you need the Audiobook, trust me. This video, while a good summary, does not capture the emotion the audiobook brings. I was legitimately terrified at some parts
"The first true Star Wars horror story before the sequels."
Damn. That's the sickest burn I've seen this side of the galaxy.
The sickest burn in a galaxy far, far away.
“I don’t care what universe you’re from, that’s gotta hurt!”
And that's even considering a planet with three suns.
*Huttese noises I dunno I’m not a obese discord mod slug*
What about galaxy of fear
It would be terrifying for a virus to kill everyone on the ship except for you and some others, and while you save a Wookiee and smuggler from the solitary cells, all the corridors once lined with corpses are empty, even the blaster you kicked behind you is gone. And when you head back to the medbay and find your smashed medical droid, all it says is “t-they woke up”
“they just-just”
“eat eat eat”
A damn shame this map - which looks like its in Gmod unless I am sorely mistaken - isn't available. Could make one hell of a horror game.
You must've missed the part where it was noted that all those renderings were from an old Star Wars mmo called Star Wars Galaxies
@@F0X_H0UND Wack.
But my point stands, I wish there was a map.
@@magosmarechferracioli1128 Star Wars Galaxies is still alive and servers occasionally run the Death Troopers event with the map. Think you could find more info in one of the top comments
Some folks also made Death Troopers mods for the old-gen Battlefront 2 games, I think. I just know that they existed at one point, can't tell you where or how to find them now.
@@thatguydonut6566 how do you play this mmo?
death troopers was always my favorite, every year around october i would play the audio novel or pull out the book and start reading it over again. it was interesting to me cause you always see all these zombie movies all the time. but, in the galaxy far, far away.......it was scarier than it was for being on earth in all the movies.
Yeah it's like one minute your having a 'fun', if a bit dangerous quirky SPACE weastern adventures with your bestest friends and the classic heroes journey to become the chosen one, magic SPACE wizards with cool laser swords then...BOOM, *fucked up secret experiments and terrifying bioweapons research that creates horrors that could doom an entire planet, no the entire galaxy if ever unleashed as all life is consumed by a tide of madness and never ending hunger as the undead gorge themselves on a cosmic feast of blood.*
This reminds me a lot of the Halo horror story, the Mona Lisa. Similarly, a prison ship had an outbreak of the parasitic Flood due to unethical experiments as an unlikely team of soldiers, corrupt officers and prisoners tried to escape.
Tried?
@@plutonianwolf6211, this is the Flood we're talking about.
@@plutonianwolf6211"One infected spore can wipe out an entire species."
Loved the vid, was always curious about this book, since it's mainly been memed as "remember when star wars had zombies?", but either way I think your editing and storytelling did it justice. Would love to see some sort of proper adaptation of this, especially as a game. Basically Left 4 Dead Star Wars edition
Bro you should listen to the audiobook. It legit scared me for a few days shits crazy
There is a significant Death Troopers mission area in Star Wars: Galaxies. Tough endgame content
Just play the l4d2 death trooper modpack
Star wars has had multiple instances of zombies. Remember Genosis in the clone wars?
Its been memed?
Click read more for a Bible verse
Romans 8:37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
I actually am running my own Star Wars Zombie campaign currently. It's an evolution of Project Blackwing that's been enhanced by different parts of the bioweapons from Project Starscream from the Galaxy of Fear books.
Whole campaign is structured like Resident Evil 2 and 3, complete with them having to complete puzzles. Party has strict inventory management, and blasters are set to the highest power setting to actually kill these things so they're having to keep looking for power cells as ammo. Shit it really tense, and the party is made up of Imperials and Rebels.
Damn, you mean like a table-top Star Wars game? How does it work? I've heard there was a DnD esc. game for SW before, but I had no clue what it was called or how it worked.
@@commanderjason7786
I'm using Fantasy Flight Games's RPG. Good game, but has weird custom dice. Takes time to get used to, but they work well
@@CamelotGaming I shall leave a comment here for future reference.
@@deathfromthedepths
Aye?
@@CamelotGaming If you run the campaign again you could run it in dnd for the easier dice use but homebrew some things such as giving the zombies very low armour class and health. Then again, you seem to know what you’re doing so if this didn’t help then don’t worry. Good luck and have fun!
In all my 38 years of life, with 32 of those years being a devout sw fan, I never thought I’d see and hear Chewy having a fever dream trip out about eating flesh and singing life days songs in reference to the notorious holiday special, but here we are.
Next week: Vader smokes a death stick, trips out, takes his helmet off, and flies through the corridors of the Executor using two mouse droids as skates while screaming “I won mom! I won the pod race!” as officers and storm troopers shit themselves in reaction
Vader tripping balls isn't the Star Wars content we need, but it's the Star Wars content we deserve.
Listening to this video actually made me feel uncomfortable/anxious. It's such a terrifyingly well put together story. Imagining a virus developed to be sentient and to create a sort of hive mind that can slowly evolve its way of thinking so that it can function at the same level if not a better one than a normal human. Pair that with just the general standard characteristics of zombies and it's just a frightening concept.
Plus just imagining the sheer size of a Star Destroyer and all 10k+ of the crewmembers being slowly infected or slaughtered in the most gruesome ways possible is a picture to put together in your head. Though it was just condensed to a single Star Destroyer, the apocalyptic scenario this creates is amazing.
The Flood
The Flood
Oh no the flood was bad, but these things were far worse. The flood could be blown to pieces and die while the Blackwing zombies could continue moving even as just an arm and such. A great example would be when the kid I think it was Trig emtered the room the crew of the star destroyer had stored the chopped up body’s of the zombies. A literal mountain of limbs started moving and attacking.
@@camman1562 these things are not worse lmfao
@Pico Newton. The flood was left to gain biomass and grow among places with ships and technology they could use to spread throughout the galaxy. The death troopers did not. All of the ships and whatnot were lacking the ability to pilot. If they were capable of getting the ship to fly? The virus would have easily destroyed the galaxy as it would simply have to land and let the airborne pathogen do the majority of the killing while they themselves finished everyone else off.
This is a book Disney would NEVER let happen. Thank God for Legends!
Yeah because it has rated R themes. Star Wars was always family-friendly this is more adult. It would be interesting if star wars had legends movies and this was one of them.
You act like there is a slew of these books , they didnt even have it as canon in the EU either
@@GazingTrandoshan Deathtroopers was Canon to the EU good sir. It took place shortly before A New Hope.
Dave Filoni would. If it fits what he has plans for the saga.
@@multicreativeartist6579 Filoni is the LAST person I'd want to lead Star Wars or Lucasfilm in general. He's contradicted Lore so many times it's not funny.
There actually was a sequel to this story. Kind of. All the survivng characters returned in the game Star Wars Galaxies, where it's revealed that the Empire continued the Blackwing experiment on the planet Dathomir.
Oh hell no The empire can't learn from their mistakes blow up the entire experiment and hope to God you killed everything
Why 😭 didn't they learn from their mistakes *THE FIRST TIME?!*
good golly-
I remember hearing of this book growing up like yea that could make a solid zombie mode for a new battlefront or republic commando. Also the geonosian deadworm would work. Of course being a boy growing up in the 2000s-2010s, anything sounds good with zombies in it.
Okay but there's a hint of truth in the statements
In fact, the republic commando mission where the delta squad has to find out what happened to a missing republic cruiser gives that feeling of terror and mystery with clues, the state of the ship, deceased clone troopers, cut communications and the disappearance of some members , but all that feeling is lost when you see that those responsible were mercenaries and droids. But imagine that instead of trandoshans and droids you have a zombie plague like this one having to fight clones, officers and prisoners to survive and reunite with your squad if it's not too late.
@@JoaquinEduardo-gt4sm exactly dawg
Lol
5:15 I love it when zombie stories start with some kind of seemingly derelict/abandoned or stranded ship that later turns out to be a full blown infected ship
the "they woke up. they just...eat" from waste always set me off since i've had the book but with the addition of hearing it with a robotic and laggy voice, the creepy music, and the creepy photo, makes it 10x more horrifying.
My favorite part of the book is when the Imperials are in a small room malnourished and starving cannibals and I imagined its so small all 15-30~ Imperials had to crawl around in that tiny room and then this big guy just starts picking up dudes and throwing them to the zombies
Imagine darth Vader and emperor palpatine facing off against these monsters. Sure they’d prob win assuming they were also immune. But those screaming sounds? And they aren’t stupid they’d be able to correlate destruction of the virus with screams of the infected. That would terrify anyone, even those two
Maybe, and it's a big maybe, Vader. Sidious probably would chuckle to himself.
Vader: "Really master? Zombies?!"
Palpatine: "I told you the Dark Side led to powers some consider unnatural. Though shambling corpses wasn't the immortality I had in mind." *Casually fries some zombies with Force lightning* "Looks like I need to go back to the drawing board..."
If I was Vader or palpatine, I’d immediately order the Death Star to fire on the Vector
@@xxiSHTAr9000xYs
Vader being mostly mechanical and having armor would probably help his case, I could see zombies trying to bite his mechanical limbs and shattering their teeth in the process as he beats their face in
This story is basically dead space meets star wars and I love it. Plus, Zahara Cody is really cool character I'd love to see get reintroduced into the canon. Good work on the video by the way, you made zombies scary for me again. You get 100/10
When my brother was in rehab, he checked out this book when I came to visit him so we could read it together cause I loved starwars as a kid. This brought back so many memories I’ve made myself forget.
The thing about so many zombie novels, from what I’ve seen, is that they’re not just about surviving the undead. So many of the authors write in a tone that adds a layer of psychological or even eldritch horror to their stories. Some, you have to put down before continuing to read. Others, you wonder what’s reality and what isn’t. Still others that are meant for worldbuilding, like Death Troopers, you have to wonder if this is even same fandom anymore.
It’s such a contrast from a lot of zombie-themed movies today. That’s mainly because you aren’t seeing in with your eyes, just picturing it in your head.
At the local health club, a lady had a bag full of Star Wars novels. Some hardback, most paperback. I had never been able to buy books during the beginning of my “work” period. She gave them to me. “Death Troopers” is a hardback. I know what to read during October now!!!
"They woke up. They just...eat..."
That gave me chills
I wish Star Wars did more stuff like this and did stories in a lot of genres
“Any story can be a Star Wars Story”. That’s what I loved about Clone Wars. It covered every genre under the sun.
Hard agree. I’ve had a horror idea for SW for awhile.
Basically it’s some early-imperial relay station on the outer rim. Poorly funded, Clone War era tech repurposed for the space boonies. It’s a small crew, who are relatively new to the place. They basically stumble upon an old set of commando droids, and accidentally re-activate them, with the droids trying carrying out their orders from the war, “kill all the inhabitants of the base”
It’s so easy to come up with new concepts for such a vast galaxy. And personally, the Clone Wars show made me absolutely terrified of commando droids, so they deserve some time as horror villains. They’d work so well in that sort of role
I had a horror idea an alien made up of dead wookie s and EWOKS which all have their own mouths all they say is join us in a croaky yet angry voice
Free bird, you say?
*pulls off some insane aviation maneuver*
The content, the visualization, and the effects are just so good, this is one of my favs as far as Star Wars books go, glad to see someone creating some excellent content from it man! Keep it up!
i remember reading this in middle school and being absolutely enthralled by how dark it was. after i returned it to the library, i regularly checked back to see if they'd by chance picked up Red Harvest because i was so ravenous for more. never did get to see it, though. :(
That’s unfortunate. Red harvest is just as good and is just as if not more visceral.
@@Garry503 yea with the sith zombies
I was such a relief when the sentence “ your scaring chewie “ was said
I find it amusing that Halo also had a story about (space) zombies on a damaged prison ship. The short story, The Mona Lisa.
Prison ship zombie equals scary
@@slin2903 a spaceship with zombies in general is scary, see Dead Space
The ones where ONI did flood experiments on sangheili and stuff?
@@mmnnnghgdgzgccx yeah
The audio book for this is one of the best I've listen too. Really well narrated with a fresh sense of dread everytime the chapter title was read.
Thats a big problem with the Red Harvest Audiobook, the voice just doesn't seem to fit the story for me.
Bruh, I remember reading this with the audio book, loved hearing because it immersed me into how scary it was. I didn't get to finish because they removed it from UA-cam, and I forgot what chapter I left off on, I know I was halfway towards the end, but still one of my favorite stories from Star Wars.
I think found it audible but I don't remember. Ps I knew I wasn't crazy when I was randomly searching for the audio book on yt Wondering where it went
"Death Troopers is the first true Star Wars horror story before the sequels."
sick burn aside but isn't Galaxy of Fear series the first horror books based on Star Wars.
What about the Holiday Special? :P
@@minicle426 fucking Lmao
Everyone forgets Galaxy Of Fear. It was Lucasfilm Publishing's attempt to ride the Goosebumps wave. I think I remember one book I had that had Vader fighting himself and I thought it was awesome at the time.
@@Webshooters1 it’s also where we learn about the brain cult living in Jabbas basement
What about the star wars galaxy of fear book series
The fact that I had re-read this whole story just weeks before this video was uploaded makes me happy, considering that I thought no one would remember this story!
Very happy to have found this. You really gave it the best explanation it deserved (and a little more).
I remember hearing the audio book of this as a kid and it scared the shit out of me. So much detail was laid out on everything especially the gore and grotesque undead roaming on the ship. One of the best books I've read
First and only Star Wars novel I ever listened to. The audiobook narrator did this rather low-monotone voice that seriously helped portray the horror/scares of the novel. It was seriously great. Still one of my favourite pieces of star wars media that I hope gets a game/movie/show/mod adaptation.
For the original Battlefront 2, there is a Blackwing mod that places Stormtroopers on that one cruiser level where if one of you die to one of the zombies that person in turn will join the infected. I'm not sure if there is a dedicated server for Online zombies, but it is still a horrifying experience by yourself
I have listened to the audio book multiple times!
The wet meaty noises when they were trying to cut out the infection always got me.
Dude this literally terrified me. It's great to hear some dark or scary star wars stories Every once in a while. I love to hear stuff like this, sometimes I just want to have a good scare.
I like how that one Stormtrooper is canonically an active Twitter user.
wait what
@@LordCrate-du8zm 32:17 the promo account thing
@@ic0nic707 Oh thanks
This was a lot scarier than I thought it would be. Your editing did it justice!!
Death troopers is one of my favorite books outside of the Dune universe. I've read through it about 4 times now. It's a comfort book for some reason. Glad you covered it, and the extra bits were cool to learn about.
Man, your coverage of content is so in depth and well edited / researched, I hope you make much more in the future! Can’t wait to see what else you cover!
i love the idea of spin off movies like this. everyone knows this is in the starwars universe, but has nothing to do with the overall starwars story, or the characters. with stream services i really hope companies start to make movies/tv shows like this cause its a really cool idea
I think this was my first star wars book that I read. I loved it and I was a bit bummed but at at same time amazed that they made death troopers an actual thing of sorts.
Zombies in star wars is something I think is cool. Since well, it's a galaxy, science fiction can do whatever they want.
And the galaxy is massive zombies existing as an experiment, coming from the unknown space or just lying dormant is a possibility.
DUDE, Death troopers as a movie would be amazing!!
It would sell well for a halloween special specifically for star wars fans.
This story was amazing and I absolutely loved it.
27:40. Sounds kinda like The Crossed. The zombies actively/intelligently find ways to spread the virus. I love that. Much better than mindlessly biting people.
It always baffles me on how the stereotypical zombies (eating brains, limping, etc) end up causing the apocalypse, especially when their weaknesses are similar to normal people, with special emphasis on beheadings
@Creativeguy1 Martinez Because very few, if any, people in these types of scenarios have never heard of the dead coming back to life only to infect others..... that and terribly written stories.
Dumbass: "Hey folks, I hear some unnatural groaning behind this door. I'm gonna open it! AAAAARRGGHHH!!! WHY DID I OPEN IT!?!?!?!?!?"
@@creativeguy1martinez693 That wouldn't be very fun if zombie apocalypses in movies and games ended that quickly 🤭
@@keztannis6848 it'd be interesting if it was containable, but not easily eradicatable. It would be a constant looming danger that you need to constantly keep watch
@@keztannis6848 That's why World War Z novel is probably the best piece of zombie media out there. It details the economic, political, psychological, and social ripples throughout society and the repercussions that came with them
I've read this book and listened to the audiobook so many times. I wish they kept making the Legends books.
Same but disney has to go and ruin everything.
I bought the audiobook and listened to it late at night alone in my room. And I loved how it had sounds, like during the amputation you would hear menear being cut, blood squirting, blasters, and screams. Nonstop screaming
Man they really don't know how to have fun anymore. The Freedom for writers to make stories like this, and the little promotional ARG of the Stormtrooper Twitter. Nowadays everything has to fit within their small restricted "canon"
Don't get me wrong, Legends is Hit and Miss, but I think it generally has more Hits. While Canon is Hit or Miss but i'm finding more Misses because of its more restrictive nature.
This would make an amazing immersive sim, all the metroidvania stuff you could fit in, that allows more of the ship to open up. Minimal resources, survival horror.
Oh yes indeed.
This is one of the few zombie/apocalypse scenarios that scares me for one reason
Committing “slippyslide” doesn’t spare you or your corpse from becoming a zombie. Even with half a brain you can still become one of them
this book and the second one are sooo damn good. the event they had in Star War galaxies around this book was amazing as well.
I read Death Troopers in one day last year. It was a pleasant read. I loved how they named the chapters. The author has wonderful descriptive language needed for a good horror novel. The inclusion of Han and Chewie was my only major complaint. Having them there gave the story a lot of plot armor and really derailed the pacing of the book. Overall, I'd say it was worth it. It was a quick read, well-paced, and definitely one I would recommend.
This was a really well made book. Like, very atmospheric, very creepy and, since most of the characters aren’t canon, it felt like they could die at any moment.
I think the lack of Force users also helped a lot. Everyone was kinda helpless. Good times.
This was an story i discovered years ago in my twenties and i remember listening to the audio of the book that somebody had uploaded on to UA-cam and listened to it at night...kept making me look over my shoulder, lol. Great story, can't wait to hear about the Red Harvest story!