I’m not sure where this all comes from I don’t think Bane I ever portrayed Bane as someone who wanted to hide in the dark and steal the fresh bodies of his unsuspecting apprentices so he could live forever even if he didn’t deserve it. (That is NOT what I was trying to imply, but a lot of readers went there.) Yet somehow people made the jump that Bane not only took over Zannah’s body, but was then hiding the fact from Cognus in order to later take over her body… possibly in a line all the way down to Sidious himself. Bane WANTED a stronger successor to overthrow him the only reason he learned the ritual was because he needed to prolong his life if Zannah proved to be weak. And I honestly don’t know where people get that impression from. Yes, it could be part of “tricking” Cognus, but that assumes Bane would *want* to trick Cognus. First, Zannah is asking Cognus questions that Bane already knows the answer to. I guess I can see it, but you’re making a lot of assumptions to come to that conclusion. Still, some people interpreted the scene that way. But I never wanted people to assume Bane had taken over Zannah’s body successfully. How much – was he still “alive” in some way, or is it just a small part of his identity imprinted on her – was supposed to be the ambiguous part. The whole thing with Zannah’s hand twitching was only to show that some part of Bane had passed through to her. I am Darth Zannah, Dark Lord of the Sith and your new Master,” I thought it would be pretty clear.

I wrote the scene from Cognus’s point of view to keep you guessing to the last instant, but when Zannah proclaims “Darth Bane is gone. I’ll be honest I thought it was pretty clear in my writing. So, who won the final confrontation between Bane and Zannah? Yet some readers are still confused, and I feel I owe it to them to provide that closure (even though I know some of them will be angry at me for killing off their personal favorite). I wanted to provide a definitive answer… and I thought I did. But I didn’t want to take the easy way out and dodge the question. I knew that no matter who won, Bane or Zannah, I would have people angry at me. But the truth is, I never intended this to cause so much confusion out there. You might think this is strange – an author “spoiling” his own work. Disclaimer: DO NOT read this unless you want the ending of Dynasty of Evil SPOILED!

Drew karpyshyn darth bane