#Heir to the Empire trilogy

[asteroids-and-tractorbeams]

The Thrawn books more like Five Times Thrawn Was Secretly Wearing Body Armor and One Time He Really Should Have Been

[mayhaps-a-blog]

I know a lot of people are worried about Thrawn’s appearance in the new Ahsoka show! While I also hope he’s done well, I admit I am less worried about whether his character follows Canon/Legends.

To me, his Legends characterization is the continuation of his Canon characterization - he’s gotten some character growth over the years, with the result that he is now Worse. He was always ruthless and prized efficiency and effectiveness over mercy and enemy lives, and could easily be taking that to extremes with no one holding him back.

Characterization aside, I can see several reasons he may have stayed with the Imperial Remnant rather than return to his people:

1) He stayed to rebuilt the Imperial Fleet to oppose the Grysk, by way of conquering the New Republic to turn the whole galaxy into a vast military engine OR to galvanize the New Republic into reversing their decommissioning of their fleet by proving the necessity of a military, by being the villain if necessary (lose or win, he achieves his goal regardless);

2) He couldn’t reach the Chiss Ascendancy for whatever reason, or not with the forces that he had;

3) The Chiss didn’t want him, especially at the helm of an alien fleet;

4) The Chiss have already fallen to the Grysk and there’s nothing to go back to (darkest timeline).

Here’s how I would write it:

Thrawn heads the Imperial Fleet (for whichever of the above reasons). Assuming the New Republic is too weak to stand against the Grysk, he sets out to create his own Empire to build a military strong enough to survive.

Season 1 is Ahsoka tracking down the Imperial Remnant and developing the various threads, such as those Darksiders (C’baoth plotline? Force I hope not, that was the weirdest part of those books. Painfully 90′s with the clone nonsense).

Season 2-x is the fight against Thrawn. It ends with a dramatic death scene, where Thrawn congratulates them on their victory, compliments them on their tactics, and warns them they will need all of that and more for what’s to come.

Season x-whenever is the fight against the Grysk! For bonus punches to the gut, bring in the Chiss (surviving warriors or the Ascendancy as allies) after Thrawn is dead. It’ll be fun!

Will this happen? Who knows! I continue to hope for a good story and plot regardless of whether Thrawn is “redeemed” or not; he’s always been a villain to me, if morally grey in a way that makes me go “but what if...”, and I don’t trust Disney with a meaningful redemption arc. I’d rather see him die a villain than become a milquetoast nothing of a character.

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

James St. Clair- Dark Rise Series by C.S. Pacat

Shuos Jedao- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Jack Alston/Lord Hawthorn- The Last Binding Trilogy by Freya Marske

Alastair Carstairs- The Last Hours by Cassandra Clare

[phoenixkaptain]

Luke’s biggest character flaw isn’t impatience or arrogance… it’s reckless optimism.

Like, Luke doesn’t actually think he can beat Darth Fucking Vader in a fight. He wants to get revenge, yeah, but he doesn’t think he’s a better fighter than Darth Vader, he thinks he’s luckier than Darth Vader.

Luke isn’t actually suicidal, despite how little effort you’d have to put in to provide evidence that he could be. He thinks, no, he knows he’s lucky. He’s used to being lucky, even. His survival tactics all sort of depend on Luke being the luckiest person in the room at any given time.

And he isn’t actually all that lucky, that’s pretty obvious, but he really just thinks “If I stay alive long enough, things will eventually just work out.” Like he believes in the Force before he even knows about the Force, almost. Some thingd are just supposed to happen, and his own continued existence as a free man is one of those things, so if he waits long enough, an opportunity will eventually show itself and all Luke has to do is grab it.

He is stupidly optimistic about his chances. But, he’s also not wrong? Like, he doesn’t win his fight against Vader, but he’s also one of the only people who have fought Vader twice and not died either time. He went and rescued Leia without a plan beyond “rescue Leia” and he made it out relatively unscathed. He got captured by a wampa and hypothermia, one right after the other, and he only has to spend a bit of time floating in space jell-o that isn’t quite set. He goes to Dagobah and gets the training he requests from Yoda, despite Yoda not wanting to train him. He rescues Han from Jabba the Hutt, and he doesn’t get fed to a sarlacc in the process.

But really, just look at his final fight with Vader. Luke just honestly believes that everything will be fine. He really thinks he can just ask his dad to please chill out and Vader will. Luke tells the literal actual Emperor of the entire fucking galaxy “No. I will not become evil. And I won’t be evil because I’m not actually angry at anyone.” Luke is the luckiest man alive, because he is still somehow alive.

Heir to the Empire really has him thinking “If I stay alive long enough, an opportunity will present itself” on the planet Myrkr. As in, the planet covered in ysalamiri that cut him off entirely from the Force. As in, Luke doesn’t feel the Force telling him to be patient because it’ll all work out. Luke just believes that.

And it only really hit me as I read that novel. Luke is aggressively, stupidly, recklessly optimistic at all times about his chances of survival. Like, he is one meta joke away from just being actively aware that he is a protagonist and therefore can’t die in the middle of a plot. He’s optimistic about his own life, his dad’s life, his sister’s life, his droid’s life; Luke is the most optimistic man alive.

He is not the most cheerful person. There’s a difference between optimism and happiness, and Luke is a character who is constantly doubting himself, but he also just fully believes in his own ability to stay alive. Like he thinks “As long as I’m in mostly one piece, that’s a success :)” He thinks “wow I’m a terrible Jedi. I don’t know what a Jedi is, but I’m pretty sure I suck at it,” while at the same time being the character who believes in and listens to the Force more than Qui-Gon Jinn.

All this to say, I really hope that one day I can be as optimistic as Luke Skywalker. That man felled a galactic Empire with enthusiastic optimism and familial love alone, I wanna be like that.

[leahikol]

The Grand Admiral, leading a lecture about the Chimaera symbol

Huge inspo for me was the Last command cover by Rich Kelly and by the amazing @02png (i love their art sm)

<ig>

[incorrectstarwarslegendsquotes]

Talon Karrde: What are your concerns? Luke Skywalker: Well, you’ve kidnapped me. Talon Karrde: Hmm, noted. Go on. Luke Skywalker: And you threw me in this dungeon. Talon Karrde: I see. Anything else? Luke Skywalker: Uh, no. But... hmm. No, I guess those are the main two. Talon Karrde: Thank you. Your feedback is a gift.

[cambion-companion]

[klazje]

if eli shows up in any potential sw projects post thrawn getting stranded space whale style i think he should get to stab thrawn. eli deserves to partake in a bit of violence.

[purringysalamiri]

shh he's angy

[traegorn]

So Ahsoka is completely opaque to folks who don't know anything about Rebels, huh.

Like anyone who's only watched the live action stuff is going to have no idea what the fuck is happening or who these characters are.

As in most people who watch these Star Wars shows

[asteroids-and-tractorbeams]

Does anyone else sometimes just randomly remember that in the Heir to the Empire trilogy Tim Zahn started casually throwing around the fact that the Emperor was directly mind controlling a bunch of Imperials at Endor or is that just me

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

The Thrawn Trilogy’s Brazilian Printing Cover Art by Marc Simonetti

[legendscon]

Please join us in wishing a very happy birthday to legendary writer Timothy Zahn! Best known for bringing Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn into life as we know it today, he has become one of the franchise's most important creators.

[phoenixkaptain]

Luke and Mara’s relationship is SO FUNNY. Literally everyone else is like: “What are you doing? Why are you concerned? Luke, she threatens to kill you every time you speak with each other, please-“

I love the Luke was so concerned when he sensed that Mara’s ship lost power in the second book. Han describes it as Luke acting like Mara is his best friend rather than the woman who has repeatedly threatened him with murder. And after it’s all over, he does save her! He gets them to pick her up and they take her to Coruscant to heal and none of that would have happened without Luke’s influence.

Luke is so fond of Mara, despite having met her all of three months ago. All of their interactions involve murder threats and dangerous situations, literally none of them have been postive interactions, but Luke is so pleased to see her! Just! All the time!

Luke agrees to break Karrde off of Thrawn’s ship because Mara asks (no further requesting necessary). Luke breaks Mara out of her house arrest on Coruscant because he wants her to go to Wayland with them. Luke defends Mara constantly whenever Han (very reasonably) questions whether or not they should trust her. Han and Mara and Luke himself all ask “What if this ends in Luke’s death?” and Luke’s answer is always “¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ Guess I’ll die then.”

(Luke is basically like “If I die, I die. The Force wills it.” I think he and Qui-Gon were soulmates-)

I like that Luke finds out about Mara’s past in the first book but only ever brings it up in the third. And Han is like “She was the EMPEROR’S HAND, and you didn’t think that was worth mentioning???” and Luke just: “The past is in the past.”

Leia and Mara also have a fun relationship though. Leia speaks to Mara for the first time and Mara, right as Leia is leaving, is like “I’m going to kill your brother. Did he tell you that?” and Leia just: “No, he didn’t mention that. May I ask why?”

Leia consistently is like “Well. Luke trusts this person. I trust her too.” Which is almost exactly like Wedge “Luke vouched for them so I trust them with my life” Antilles.

Leia 🤝 Wedge

“If Luke trusts them, I trust them.”

Leia is always like “I know you’ve said you want to kill my brother. But, from what he’s said, you had a lot of opportunities to kill him. And he’s still alive. Are you sure you want to kill him?”

And Mara is just like: “Shut up.”

Han is the only one who is like “I don’t think we should trust this person who wants to kill Luke” and Luke is always like “Why not?”

But really what gets me is the final scene SPOILERS when Luke gives Mara Anakin’s lightsaber. And I know Mara thinks it’s him not-so-subtly telling her that they can both move on from the past, but all I can see it as is Luke seeing Mara like he saw Anakin. He sees them both enslaved to the Emperor and brainwashed and hurting and he ultimately saves both of them. But, Anakin never got to use his lightsaber again, after he came back to the light. So, giving it to Mara, who was in a very similar situation as Vader was, is such a good way to honour Anakin’s memory and every time I think about it - two people manipulated by Palpatine who find their way back after years and years of abuse, both using the same lightsaber at opposite ends of their life - I kind of want to cry.

And maybe I’m looking too deeply into it, but I love this scene. I love Mara asking why Luke is giving it to her and Luke saying “I want you to have it.” I love Anakin’s lightsaber finally being used in the light again, I love it I love it I love it- I’m crying again

[machetelanding]

[incorrectstarwarslegendsquotes]

been re-reading the thrawn trilogy