#if you like thrawn. READ THIS BOOK. there’s not a mention of him or any chiss but

[thrawns-backrest]

Listen, what do you think about how the fandom perceives Ronan? This may be a strange question, but I saw post here about how Thrawn is an ambiguous character, he does both good and bad things, he is not an innocent kitten, etc. And I completely agree with this. But it seems to me that in relation to Ronan, the opposite situation very often manifests itself. If Thrawn is sometimes too idealized by the fandom, although he is a more complex person, then Ronan often appears as some kind of universal evil in posts and fanfiction. And…I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me. He has a adverse nature, that's true, and his loyalty to Krennic sometimes pushes him to do not the best things, but there are enough moments in the canon that show his good traits too. At least he is really loyal man and not as stupid as he might seem. I just saw your post recently where you talked about him, so I was interested to ask your opinion!

Thank you for your attention and sorry if I disturbed you :c

please don't apologize, I love asks like this!!! If anything I should probably apologize because this is about to become ridiculously long :D I really like Ronan as a character, he's one of my favorites from Treason. He's entertaining, competent, somewhat churlish and has that posh attitude where you really want to ruffle his feathers to see what he'll do.

Those last two are part of the reason why it's fun to make him the butt of the joke and why the fandom does it so often. But having said that... you're absolutely right. I've also noticed that the fandom tends to be excessively antagonistic towards him (as it is with some other similar characters but more on that later).

And you're right to bring up Thrawn because he's the golden child here, him and Eli, and any character that disagrees with or doesn't like him automatically gets blacklisted. Which is odd to me since Thrawn is supposed to be controversial and Zahn does a good job of portraying that by giving us different characters' perspectives and reasons for liking/disliking him.

Sadly for Ronan he's very unfriendly towards Thrawn and Eli and ends up making a decision that goes against Thrawn's goals which now garners him a lot of hate. An interesting development given that Thrawn himself doesn't begrudge him for it in the books and even trusts him enough to send him to the Chiss. Which honestly means so much coming from Thrawn? It's as close to a stamp of approval as you can get from him, be it of Ronan's trustworthiness or simply his skills.

So if people really hold Thrawn in such high esteem, they shouldn't forget that his own assessment of Ronan was ultimately positive. No matter what role he plans for Ronan to play in the Ascendancy (even if that role is for Ronan to come to specific conclusions he can then take back to the Empire, ie feeding him some kind of information) Thrawn trusts him enough to, again, send him to his own people. People with lost of secrets that make them vulnerable.

And it's honestly a shame because as you say, Ronan has so much going for him as a character. The very idea of someone who's loyal to the Empire while being critical of Palpatine is so cool. It's literally something that can get him killed yet he's ready to face that danger if it means adhering to his principles.

Of course loyalty to the wrong party makes him pretty culpable but regardless, there is a good basis for him to grow as a character. As already mentioned he's loyal, he's competent, he disapproves of Palpatine and all the petty political games that dominate the Empire's higher echelons. He feels guilty for tricking Eli despite believing that he's a traitor. He even comes to respect Thrawn's skills by the end and modifies his answer when reporting to Tarkin so as to ensure Thrawn isn't accused of treason.

So very good foundation to build from. There's still his loyalty to Krennic (who is a pretty damn morally corrupt guy from what I've read) but an overzealous attitude like Ronan's understandably makes him liable to blind idolization so we can't really say for sure that he has a nasty motif for admiring Krennic.

From what Zahn tells us, Ronan seems to admire Krennic for his, quote, leadership, competence and brilliance and he does so to an excessive degree. He sounds pretty starry eyed is what I'm trying to say. Enough to cloud his better judgement perhaps.

Moral or immoral though, he's still a pretty cool character. Which is the same thing you can say about Thrawn. Funnily enough they're almost parallels of each other - Thrawn has honorable end goals that he pursues through corrupt means and Ronan (unwittingly or not) works toward a corrupt end goal but is pretty morally upright in the way he does it.

And come on you can't tell me he doesn't have one of the coolest descriptions (like Savit noting his eyes look older than he does) or some of the coolest inner monologue (like the "half a victory is still half a defeat" line). I also love how he hates politics yet ironically those political mental gymnastics are exactly what he's good at.

But I digress. My point is that you hit the nail on the head when you said the fandom idolizes Thrawn to the point of having a skewed perception.

Another character that I personally like a lot and whose standing in the fandom is very similar is Thurfian. Thurfian doesn't do anything overtly evil in the books and yet he's very often demonized as some kind of villain. Which I bet you is because he's in opposition to Thrawn and other fan favorites like Thalias (something that annoys me because people tend to victimize Thalias so much in their dynamic when she's actually a very brave and resourceful character. Who once held Thurfian at gunpoint might I add).

The thing is, people need to stop the whole pigeonholing characters into 'good' and 'bad' categories. Because especially with Zahn, things are rarely so black and white. Our prejudices as readers can be influenced by both limited and omniscient povs.

In Ronan's case, seeing him from the pov of beloved characters who he opposes is what paints him in an overly negative light. In Thurfian's we forget that these characters don't have the same insight into Thrawn's motives and logic as we do and that Thurfian is perfectly justified in thinking that Thrawn will one day overthink and overplan to the detriment of many. And if those words sound familiar it's because that's what Ar'alani herself says to Thrawn at the end of the book.

But to cut a long story short, I don't think Ronan deserves the hate he's getting. He's a very interesting guy - he's got a good foundation of principles, a quick mind and an amusing personality. Sure, he's prone to extreme bias, both positive (Krennic) and negative (Thrawn, Eli) that can cloud his judgement but barring that he's displayed an impressive amount of competence. Impressive enough to catch Thrawn's eye and we know Thrawn has a good sense for these things.

So basically love Ronan y'all, he's really neat. Even if he's not some paragon for moral goodness which honestly few of Zahn's characters really are.

(Thank you for this ask, I had a lot of fun answering it! If I get my act together, I'll hopefully finish my fic about Ronan where I plan to explore more of his motivations and how he could potentially find a place for himself in the Ascendancy. So fingers crossed for that!)

[shoulderholsterfreak]

So, I keep seeing people expressing how disappointed they are that Filoni is "going with legends!Thrawn," but to me this sentiment makes it clear that they've probably never read past the original three books, or even the Thrawn Trilogy itself.

Let me explain.

The Thrawn Trilogy is only three novels. There was also the duology (Visions of the Future and Specter of the Past); the stand-alone novels Survivor's Quest, Outbound Flight, and Choices of One; the short stories Crisis of Faith, Side Trip, and Command Decision; and a few other non-Zahn novels and a couple video games wherein Thrawn is present if not in a starring role.

In all Zahn publications after the Thrawn Trilogy, we see a character that, aside from the random political/social debuff introduced in 2017, has a personality and morality system that is nearly identical to the one in canon.

It's in legends where you get Thrawn saying "we do not make war on civilians" and "as civilized beings, it is our duty to minimize suffering" (from the short story Crisis of Faith which takes place weeks before Thrawn began his campaign against the New Republic, so any excuse of "oh he got worse as Palpatine's influence deepened" doesn't really hold water).

And just look at the Empire of the Hand. If you want to know what kind of man Thrawn is, look at the organization he himself founded. To summarize, this is what an alien refugee taken in by the Hand had to say about it:

“The Empire that Senior Captain Thrawn is carving into the evil that pervades our worlds is not the Empire you chose to leave. His is an Empire of justice and dignity for all beings. His Empire is one we gladly serve. One we are willing to die for.”

Basically think the group of aliens and Chiss brought together at the end of Lesser Evil, add Imperials, and multiply it by 1,000.

This was in legends. That’s the vision legends!Thrawn had for a more ideal society. Rebels!Thrawn isn’t even true to what was available to Filoni prior to the canon books’ publications.

Now we can argue if Thrawn was as morally bad in the Thrawn Trilogy as he was in Rebels or not (I say short answer: T3!Thrawn’s greatest sin—for which he was killed—was apathy toward suffering in favor of results, Rebels!Thrawn simply enjoys hurting people because he’s a Bad Guy), but even if they DID hold the same fundamental values, they don’t have the same personality. Thrawn in the 90’s trilogy was expressive, he was having fun, he smiled and shrugged and fiddled with things and pet his ysalamiri. He was sassy and sarcastic and dry-humored and irritable. He was charismatic and, dare I say sometimes relatable. Sure he wasn’t a good person but that’s not the issue here. Thrawn had life to him in the Thrawn Trilogy.

In contrast, Thrawn in Rebel’s personality could be summarized as “creepy evil smart guy who likes art.” He’s really nothing more special than every Saturday mastermind cartoon villain out there. He’s bland and dry and lifeless and he’s scary not because of his intellect or his willpower or ability to read people but because he’s tall and skinny and lurks in the shadows and he’s got cheesy pipe organ theme music.

TL;DR: (as something a friend of mine mentioned) Filoni’s the kind of guy who goes with the very first idea that pops into his head. He goes with his first impression and runs with it. He’s not basing this guy on legends!Thrawn—he’s basing the entirety of it on the very first paragraph of the very first book the character shows up in.

[mandalorianchronicles]

Thoughts on "The Convert"

Spoilers below the cut

Well, that was...different. I'll admit, it was probably the first time I was actually a bit disappointed by an episode of The Mandalorian. It wasn't that Dr. Pershing's story was badly written (though it could have been pared down), but I just didn't care to spend so much time setting up the next plot element when we were right in the middle of resolving the first one. I would have been okay with him getting his own bottle episode, rather than sandwiching it in between Din and Bo's moments. It was very jarring as a viewer, but I suppose that was the intent of the writers in the first place. Din and Cara had both commented that they didn't have much faith in the New Republic and now we see why. There is still a massive disconnect between the citizens of the core worlds and the Outer Rim, and it doesn't really matter who's in power, there always will be.

Concerning Pershing's plotline - I would be interested to know what he was working on specifically with Grogu and how it ties into Palatine's comeback. Between this episode and The Bad Batch, there is a LOT of focus on the Empire's cloning experiments, but I feel like we just keep scratching the surface without ever getting any real answers. But I'll be patient. This chapter seemed to be focusing on the fact that the Rebels defeated the Empire and established the New Republic, and it took all of 5-10 years for it become nearly as corrupt as the Empire. Okay, that's an exaggeration. The people on Coruscant looked happy and free (which is different from the mood in the capital planet in Andor). But there's a lot to be desired with this new government. No wonder Leia didn't last long as a Senator again, she'd have no patience for the BS. I liked how they casually mentioned in this episode how they had so many resources tied up in mothballing their fleet. And now you know how The First Order rose up less than 30 years later (if you didn't read the books).

I believe the "convert" is actually Pershing, not Bo-Katan. He genuinely wanted to help the people of the New Republic. It could also be referring to Elia Kane, but she wasn't really a convert, she was just making it look like she was so she could feed information back to Gideon or the Emperor, or whoever she is actually working for, because it clearly isn't the New Republic. I wonder if we'll ever see Pershing again after he got mind flayed (Count Rugen: NOT TO 50!). And yes, sweetie, it *was* a trap, baited with Star Wars Biscoff cookies. I can't believe that worked. Honestly, after he hijacked 40 minutes of this episode, they better be setting up a continuation of this story.

Which leads me to...the 20 minutes of this episode featuring people I actually care about.

First question: *who* sent those TIE interceptors? Is Moff Gideon pulling strings from prison? Or is this someone else? Bo said that was a lot of ships for an Imperial warlord and I'm inclined to agree. Gideon didn't seem to have anywhere near that kind of firepower. My guess is this is Thrawn. Why would Thrawn bomb Bo's castle on Kalevala, you ask? I assume that Sabine and Ashoka are putting pressure on him, and he's trying to draw them out by targeting someone with strong ties to both of them. Ahsoka has been all over the galaxy hunting for Thrawn, but Bo knew exactly where to send Din to go find her. Which means they are still in contact. Sabine gave her the Darksaber and endorsed her as Mand'alor, pledging allegiance to her. Assuming she's still with Ahsoka looking for Ezra, she also has maintained ties. Thrawn won't like being hunted, he'll want to meet them on his terms when he's ready. If those were his ships, I'd say he's ready.

I recently re-watched the Rebels episodes with Bo-Katan just to refresh myself on the tone and dialogue of those scenes. In summary, After Sabine found the Darksaber in Maul's lair and trainied herself to use it, she entrusted it to her mother to help mend their broken family, who in turn gave it to Gar Saxon as a bribe to keep her family safe. Gar claimed the Darksaber as his own, and interestingly enough, had no issues wielding it immediately. But Ezra gave Sabine his lightsaber and she defeated Saxon, earning the Darksaber by creed, which her mother and others from Clan Wren witnessed. In 4.1 and 4.2, we see Sabine wielding the saber to save her father from the Empire, and Bo-Katan gives aide at Ursa Wren's request. Sabine immediately offers the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, but she refuses, saying she had her chance to lead and failed, referring to immediately after the Siege of Mandalore when the Republic made her regent. When the Empire. took over, she refused to bend the knee and was betrayed by the Saxon clan. "I am not my sister," she told Sabine, the pain of that loss brought the surface by the weapon that murdered her. Obviously, Bo's feelings for her sister had changed drastically. Later, when Sabine is torturing Tiber Saxon, Bo stops her and says "this is not our way". After that battle, Sabine once more asks Bo-Katan to take the Darksaber, and though she is reluctant, she accepts it with the support of clans Kryze, Rook, Eldar, Vizsla, and Wren and the Protectors. Contrary to the Armorer's very skewed narrative, Bo did not take the Darksaber because she believed it was her family's right to rule. She took it, because the most powerful clans on Mandalore were begging her to lead them against the Empire. They had already gathered to follow her before she even accepted the Darksaber. It was a symbol, nothing more. It was her actions and her steadfast devotion to her people that earned their loyalty, not the heirloom of House Vizsla.

History recap concluded, my next question is this: Did the Children of the Watch refuse to join Bo-Katan and the other clans in their fight against Empire because she didn't win the Darksaber in ritual combat with Sabine...or simply because they had another reason not to like her? The Darksaber was passed down through the Vizsla family line for years. Pre Vizsla didn't kill Tor Vizsla for it. It doesn't have to be won to change owners. That particular tradition only applied if the current Mand'alor was wielding it. When we see Bo and Din approaching the covert, Paz comes out to meet them. He's immediately surly toward Din (big surprise) and he doesn't believe him when he says he bathed in the waters. When Bo-Katan says she witnessed it, he replies with "Who are you, Nite Owl?" Are we really to believe he knows who the Nite Owls are but he can't recognize their leader? He knew damn well who she was. If Paz is closely related to Pre (and I believe he is, given the writer's choice to have Favreau voice him), might he be harboring lingering feelings of jealousy or resentment of Pre's former right hand woman? The Armorer certainly knew her on sight. We know she had no love for Bo when last she spoke to Din. And yet, she welcomed her with open arms.

Hence, question three: What does The Way actually mean to the Covert? Heretofore, I had assumed that the Mandalorians from Din's tribe were deeply religious and held a deep-seated faith in their doctrines. But even when Bo flat out tells them she does not follow The Way (not to be confused with the Mandalorian creed, which Bo-Katan has sworn herself to), The Armorer only cares about two things: which are actually one thing...the helmet.

Did you baptize yourself in the Living Waters to redeem yourself for not wearing the helmet? Yes? Okay. Have you removed your helmet since? No? Okay, you're in.

That's it. It doesn't matter if Bo-Katan actually follows The Way or has any faith in whatever else it teaches...the one (1) factor that determines if you are in or out is whether you cover your face at all times. Does anyone else find that incredibly odd? The Armorer never even asked Din why or for whom he removed his helmet when he admitted that he had done so. The circumstances and the who are apparently irrelevant. If you follow The Way, you can't even remove your helmet before your own clanmate, your own family. Ever.

I really hope that in the next episode, Bo-Katan starts asking these important questions. When it was known that Din removed his helmet, he was ostracized and shunned. No one touched him. No one acknowledged him. The Armorer didn't even thank him for saving them all from that giant croc - she just told him he wasn't welcome. But as soon as he was ritually cleansed of that most dire of infractions, everyone reaffirming him and welcoming him with physical touch and kind gestures. The contrasting behavior gave me whiplash. But seeing them touch Din and Bo's shoulders and being so welcoming is so psychologically powerful, it almost had me second guessing my reservations about the Covert. But then I had to remind myself, wait...real family doesn't shun their own loved ones for giving into the very basic human need to see and be seen by someone you love. The mandate to always keep their face covered is pure psychological abuse. It reminded me of that recent episode of The Bad Batch, "The Retrieval", when the corrupt mine owner had all those kids convinced he was being good to them, when really he was manipulating them with food and praise.

Question four: Did Bo-Katan just join a cult? This one we can answer, and it's most definitely not. It may not matter to the Armorer what Bo believes, but it matters to us. She is not a follower of the way, but so long as keeping her helmet on provides her with food, shelter, and some much needed companionship, she will cooperate...at least until it gets to be too much for her. I suspect she'll find ways around the rules before too long. But what of the Mythosaur? Does she now believe the legend? Right now, Bo-Katan isn't even sure she actually saw the Mythosaur. Katee's interview confirmed as much, addressing the concerns of fans that she was hiding it for nefarious purposes. Honestly, I thought it was obvious that she was uncertain - that's why she asked Din twice. She is second-guessing what she saw, and who wouldn't? I mentioned this in another post, but imagine if you were snorkeling at night and dove down in murky waters and thought you saw a plesiosaur...a creature thought to be extinct for millennia. Would you be telling everyone right away or would you second guess yourself? She was in a very dark place mentally, she had just visited her ruined home planet for the first time in years, she was remembering her dead father, and she had just read the plaque talking about how legend told that the mines were once the lair of the Mythosaur...she probably figured that all these things together might have triggered a hallucination. She doesn't know what to believe. And this sets her up for some amazing character development over the rest of the season.

There was a lot to unpack in this episode, and I am so very excited for whatever comes next.

[inkvvvells]

galaxy on fire - prelude (thrawn x original female character)

Title: galaxy on fire Pairing: Thrawn x OFC Rating: M (eventually) Warnings: violence, torture, blood (eventual mentions of past assault, slavery. eventual sexually explicit content) Other Things: Enemies to friends to lovers, SLOW BURN, both the Empire and Rebels suck, touched starved, competency kink… I don’t know what else lol Summary: Born into slavery on the Outer Rim, Celena thinks she finally has a surefire plan to buy her freedom from a Hutt crime family. But everything goes wrong when she’s caught by Imperials and accused of being a Rebel and just when she thinks things can’t get any worse she meets a certain Grand Admiral…

Note: This may or may not be the start of a longer fic. I’ve had this idea in my head for a while now and I haven’t posted fic in YEARS because normally I don’t want to post anything that’s not finished and I don’t finish anything but… idk. Here I am, lol. I like the idea of someone just trying to exist in this galaxy with no ties or love for either side. I know that most fic on here that people want is x reader fics but as I sometimes tldr introspection I don’t think I can pull that off for an x reader fic because I don’t want to tell anyone how to feel lol. So enjoy I guess, maybe I’ll write more. I might also rewrite this bc I’m not happy with it. I just wanted to bang this intro out and see what happens so… BASICALLY I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!!

Note 2: Also I realize that this is like confessing to sins but I haven’t read the new Thrawn trilogy. I am an expanded universe girlie and I have never emotionally recovered from them axing all of that. I’ve based this Thrawn mostly off Rebels with the EU in the back of my mind. Will I read those books? Maybe? I know Zhan wrote them and I trust him but I am a bitter, petty, salty bitch SOOOOO. There will likely be some references to things and characters from the EU (most likely Mara Jade and Thrawn’s reasons for joining the Empire). Sorry not sorry. If when I read the canon books I may incorporate parts of that. IDK.

Note 3: Also I pictured Deepika Padukone as Celena. But feel free to picture her however you want.

Note 4: I don’t really like this title so it will likely change.

—

PRELUDE

“I will ask you again, Rebel Scum,” Governor Pryce’s voice was cold as ice. “Where are the Rebels who sent you?!”

Celena’s ears were ringing and her vision was blurry. They had been like this for hours, with her strapped to a gurney and Pryce torturing her and yelling, demanding to know who sent her. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so painful, the fact Pryce was so convinced that Celena was with the Rebellion when in fact she hated the Rebellion.

Almost as much as she hated the Empire.

Celena had been caught trying to steal a weapons cache just outside of the Imperial base on Lothal. The most curious thing about it was she had been alone. It was daring to be sure but it raised the question of who sent her. She was human, late twenties with brown skin and long almost wild dark hair. She would have been beautiful if she hadn’t been strapped down and covered in blood and grime. 

“I already told you,” Celena raised her head to look up at Pryce. Her head was throbbing from the gash in it and she could feel blood trickling down her cheek. “I’m not with the Rebels.” “Do you really expect me to believe that?” Pryce leaned closer to her. 

“I don’t care what you believe,” Celena winces. “It’s the truth.”

Pryce sighs overexaggeratedly and takes a step back. “There are other ways of making you talk,” she gestures to the IT-O hovering in the corner of the room. “I simply wanted to give you the opportunity to say it on your own terms.”

“Wow,” Celena rolls her eyes. “How generous of you. With all the torture I totally missed how nice you are.”

Pryce’s nostrils flare and she hits the button controlling the shock treatment, sending another course of electricity and pain through Celena’s entire body. Celena tries to hold back her scream but fails and her scream seems to only make Pryce more excited. Almost like she was getting off on this. 

“I’ll give you one more chance or this is going to get very painful for you,” Pryce says menacingly. “Where are the Rebels who sent you?”

Celena can tell Pryce is getting annoyed and she can’t help but be amused by that. A smirk tugs on her lips one that seems to make Pryce even more annoyed. “Do your worst.”

Pryce snarls, she’s about to bring over the IT-0 droid when the doors to the room slide open. She freezes when she sees who has entered the room. “Grand Admiral,” Pryce tenses slightly. 

“Is this the thief?” Thrawn says, not even looking at Pryce, instead his attention is on Celena. 

Celena doesn’t say anything, she just looks at Thrawn. Her eyes narrow slightly as he moves to stand in front of her. She doesn’t seem impressed or scared of him. 

“I was just about to use the serum on her,” Pryce replies.

“You’ve been questioning her for hours Governor,” Thrawn is still looking at Celena. “And she has yet to break. Perhaps you are losing your touch.”

“I just need more time Grand Admi–” Pryce is cut off by Thrawn raising a hand to silence her. 

“You are done here Governor, you may go,” Thrawn says dismissively. Pryce bristles slightly, for a moment it looks like she’s going to protest but then she leaves. Celena chuckles weakly. “Ohh… she didn’t like that,” Celena muses. “No,” Thrawn says. He continues to stare at Celena, as if he’s trying to figure out who she is just from looking at her. “If you’re going to torture me I’ve had worse…” Celena winces as she raises her head to look up at him. She’s realizing now that unlike all the other Imperials he isn’t human, she makes a slightly confused sound. “Something amuses you?” “You’re …not human.”

“How observant of you.”

“And you’re with the Empire? …why?”

Thrawn raises a brow. It was curious to him that this woman would think to ask that when she was the one captive, she was the one being tortured. And yet she was curious about something that to him was trivial in this moment.

“What is your name?” Thrawn asks instead of replying.

It was a question that Pryce hadn’t bothered to ask her.

“Celena.” “Celena. No surname?”

“...no.”

“Are you a Rebel?” “Your friend seems to think so.”

“Governor Pryce has a tendency to be… overzealous in her methods,” Thrawn leans in closer to Celena, as if he’s studying. “Is that what you’d call it?” Celena scoffs slightly. She feels uneasy under the gaze of his glowing red eyes. She’s met Chiss before so it wasn’t his eyes that unnerved her it was something about the way he was looking at her. 

“Are you going to tell me your name?” she asks. 

Thrawn tilts his head. “Thrawn.”

“...your actual name.”

Thrawn pauses a moment. “Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”

“Mitth’raw’nuruodo,” she repeats. She doesn’t seem to struggle saying his name as most humans would. There is barely even a hint of an accent as she says it.

Thrawn is surprised but he doesn’t show it. He doubts this woman is with the Rebels. The Rebels wouldn’t have sent someone to do something so risky alone. Which made the question of who she really was all the more interesting. He moves to the side of the gurney Celena is strapped to and presses a button, the straps retract and the suddenness of it sends Celena falling to the floor. She hits the floor hard and groans softly. 

“Bring her to my office,” Thrawn finally looks away from her, focusing on the Stormtrooper standing by the door. “I will question her there.”

Thrawn leaves the room, leaving Celena on the floor. Every part of her body aches, now that she’s on the ground it even hurts to breathe. This hadn’t gone how she hoped it would. And inwardly she feels sick. She had been so sure her plan would work she hadn’t really thought of the alternative. Or maybe at this point, she didn’t care. Getting caught by the Imperials was no worse than what she had to go back to. The Stormtrooper yanks her roughly off the floor. “Get moving Rebel Scum!”

*** 

Thrawn watches Celena as she uses a damp cloth to wipe the blood off her face. When she got to his temporary office he had a cloth with a bowl of warm water waiting for her as well as food. There was something different about this woman, something he found intriguing. And since torture hadn’t made her talk, he would try something else - something less crass than the interrogation droid.

“Do you always stare,” Celena asks, lowering the cloth so she can fully look at Thrawn. “You aren’t a Rebel,” Thrawn says simply. “That much is obvious.” “To you,” Celena replies, her eyes going down to the food. “It’s not tampered with,” Thrawn tilts his head. “That would defeat the purpose of bringing you here.”

“Why am I here then?” Celena lowers the cloth. There is still blood on her face. It’s dried and it’s itchy on her skin but that feels like the least of her concerns right now. What she needed was a way out here. 

Thrawn doesn’t say anything right away. “I must say I’m impressed you withstood Pryce’s torture. Most would break under such duress.” 

Now Celena is the one who is quiet she looks at the plate of food - basic bread, likely from those portion packets she had gotten so accustomed to eating. 

“I take it you have met my kind before,” Thrawn says.

“Once,” Celena replies. She doesn’t want to elaborate on that. Instead, her attention goes to the few art pieces in the room. 

Even if this was just a temporary office for Thrawn before he went back to his ship he liked to be surrounded by art. He had made sure to bring a few pieces with him, after all if he was going to be here for any length of time he needed something. He had brought one of Sabine Wren’s paintings with him, it made sense considering the Ghost crew’s ties to Lothal. And it would give him more time to study it, to understand it – to understand the Rebels. 

Celena begins to wipe at the blood and grime on her face again, moving the damp cloth down to her neck. Thrawn watches her, he studies her. With some of the blood removed there really is no denying she is beautiful, it wasn’t attraction just a simple fact. He squints slightly as she wipes away the dried blood from her neck, there is a mark there…

“I know you are not a Rebel, Celena,” Thrawn stands up and moves to stand behind her chair. He leans down, putting a hand on Celena’s head to move her so he can get a better look at it. “What are you–” Celena tries to pull away from him. “This mark,” Thrawn stares at it. It isn’t just a mark, it’s a brand. “You belong to the Hutt Cartel.”

Celena pulls away from him, dropping the cloth and standing up. From the way she pulls away it’s clear she doesn’t like being touched. She crosses her arms over her chest as she glares at Thrawn. “And if I do?” 

Thrawn straightens and puts his hands behind his back as he looks at her. “The Hutts would not be foolish enough to send you to steal from us and considering how you still have that brand,” he pauses for a moment. “Did you think you could give them the weapons cache in exchange for your freedom?”

Celena moves her arms tighter around herself. “Does it matter?”

“I suppose it does not,” Thrawn takes a step closer to her. “At least not to most of the Imperials here.” “You’re Imperial.”

“Yes, I am.”

For a few moments, they stood there, staring at each other. Something about the way Thrawn looks at her makes Celena’s skin crawl and soon she has to look away. Instead of looking at him she turns her attention to the painting in the corner of the room. 

“You like art?” Thrawn asks.

Celena says nothing, she takes a few steps closer to it as she takes it in. The shapes, the colours, they all seem to have meaning and for a brief moment she feels a pang of jealousy. This artist had a story. A purpose. Thrawn watches her, her reaction to the piece makes him more curious about her. 

It was hard not to be curious. Besides… she could become useful later. Connections to the Hutt Cartel, connections to the Outer Rim.

“This was painted by a Mandalorian,” Thrawn moves so he’s standing next to her. 

“This is a story,” Celena says, still looking at the painting. “I doubt you’re supposed to have this.”

“I like to collect art from my adversaries,” Thrawn says. “It allows me to understand them better. Their motivations.” “I doubt the artist likes you have this then.”

Thrawn almost chuckles. “No, I doubt she does either.” 

Celena turns to look at him then, her brow furrowed. “So what are you going to do with me then?”

“I am going to give you a room, with a proper bed,” Thrawn replies. “You will stay here until I decide what to do with you.” Celena’s mouth opens to say something. “Do not mistake this for kindness Celena. I am merely deciding how useful you could be to me. Until then you will be locked in a room. I suggest you don’t try to escape.”

Celena stares at him, there is something almost menacing about the way Thrawn says that. She knows if she tries to escape he won’t stop whatever will happen to her. It also seems clear that he knows she has nothing to escape too. Go back to the Hutts or stay here and just wait and hope that she may have a better outcome.

She didn’t have a choice. So she forces a smile. 

“With Imperial hospitality, how could I refuse?”

Thrawn smirks.

[kitkatt0430]

So I'm interested in reading more stuff from Star Wars Legends - do you have any recommendations? Particularly anything with Mara Jade and Wedge?

hehehehe, why yes, yes I do :D

For Wedge specifically

The X-Wing Series I've mentioned this one to you before. It is a long series, but worth it. It covers a lot of the early years of the New Republic, including the battle to retake Coruscant, and also has a lot of the teething issues of a new government having to be built out of a Rebellion. Wedge is one of the main characters here, but so are Tycho Celchu and Corran Horn, both of whom I think you'll come to like. The series is ten books long so even though this is one entry on the list... it's also 10 whole books with Wedge in them. ^_^

For Mara Jade specifically

The Thrawn Trilogy Mara was introduced here, along with a number of other original characters (Talon Karrde and Grand Admiral Thrawn being stand outs alongside Mara) and it's definitely my favorite series for her. There's also a lot of thought put into the Clone Wars backstory here - contradicted later by the Prequel Trilogy, but a lot of Star Wars Legends books have that issue - that's pretty interesting. Leia is pregnant with the twins for much of the trilogy, but it doesn't stop her from being her badass self. (Wedge shows up in this trilogy and some of the other books below, but more as a side character than a main character.)

The Corellian Trilogy The focus of this trilogy is on the Han's home world (and home system) Corellia and the political climate being less than ideal (of course) when Han, Leia, and their three kids go to visit. The first time Han's been back in a very, very long time. For a change, his side of the family is part of the overarching problem the Skywalker-Organa-Solo clan is smacking face first into. However Mara gets brought into things about midway-ish in the first book and she's her own boss at this point and I'd say she definitely gets her moments to shine throughout the trilogy. (I could do without Lando's side quest to marry for money for so, so many reasons, but at least it gets him and Luke into position to be useful later.)

The Hand of Thrawn Duology This duo is the reason I strongly read Luke as aro and his marriage to Mara being queer platonic in nature. The two of them team up to dig into the rumored return of Grand Admiral Thrawn while Thrawn's former protege is on the verge of bringing peace between the Empire and the New Republic. It's never romantic between Mara and Luke they just... kinda realize they fit together and want to be life partners.

Survivor's Quest Luke and Mara (now married) discover what happened to The Outbound Flight, a Jedi expedition from the Clone War era that was destroyed by Thrawn. It's not my favorite of the books on this list, but it's an interesting look at the Luke and Mara as a married couple as well as what three years of peace between the Republic and the Empire looks like.

Other books

I, Jedi This one is in first person PoV so it can be a bit hit or miss. I actually read it before the X-Wing series, so it was my introduction to Corran Horn as he trained as a Jedi before heading out to save his kidnapped wife, Mirax. I had already read the Jedi Academy Trilogy that the book is concurrent to and is a bit of a fix fic for and... I like I, Jedi a lot better than The Jedi Academy Trilogy. Luke was not at his best in that trilogy, so Corran calling him out on a few things was rather satisfying to me.

Children of the Jedi This one had some interesting backstory for the Jedi and introduced a Jedi Knight of the Clone War era, Callista, who has survived in spirit form and aids Luke throughout the book, though she gains a physical form at the end in a somewhat... polarizing manner that is examined further in two follow up books. I found Callista to be a very interesting character... but I never bought her as a love interest for Luke so I wasn't too sad when two books later she headed off to go rediscover the Force on her own.

Dawn of the Jedi Set long before the birth of the Old Republic, on the ancient world of Tython, Lanoree of the Je'daii Order - precursor of the Jedi - is tasked with defeating a fanatical cult bent on traveling beyond the reaches of known space at the risk of destroying the entire star system. There's some call forwards that don't necessarily make sense, but overall it's got some fascinating world building going on.

[kenobireads]

Revenge Isn't Just for Sith

As promised, a chapter from the sequel to Attachments Aren't Just for Jedi!

Note: this isn't the first chapter. It has not gone through my final draft stage, so pardon any errors!

“Agent Kallus,” Ar’alani said from the head of the small conference table when the door opened. “How is Lily?”

He sighed and plopped down into a chair with a nod to Eli, who looked up from the questis his nose was always buried in. It was no mystery why the admiral was asking about Lily first thing. The Vigilant had returned to Ascendancy space a week earlier, and Kallus and Lily received orders to join them for the next leg of the journey. Except, she has not left her room since boarding five days earlier. Actually, he wasn’t sure either of them have truly seen Lily in almost a month.

Without a doubt, Lily has achieved impressive things in the four months they’ve been in the Ascendancy. But since the syndic hearing, she has become reclusive. He didn’t think she was depressed, rather, it reminded him of the time she wrote the study on Palpatine and his insane religion. Lily had disappeared for three weeks; even Thrawn had seemed concerned.

Ironic, really, how the restless woman could become so focused on something, she ceased being restless altogether.  

“That bad?” Eli asked, still with the appearance of being prepared to look back at his device at any moment.

“On the surface, she’s fine.”

“And in reality?” Kallus wasn’t sure how to put it, but he gave it his best shot.

“Thrawn took care of her, and I think she’s struggling to find a routine because of it.” It was more than that. It was as if the only thing she knew how to do was work—so that’s all she did.

“You mean like, he tucked her in?” Ar’alani asked dryly. He gave her a matching look back. Kallus might be willing to get advice from the woman, but he wasn’t willing to mock Lily behind her back. That, he saved for teasing her to her face.

“He fed her. Anytime she was working with me at least, Thrawn ordered food brought to her. It irritated her at first, but I think it became her routine; she didn’t have to think about it.” Kallus ran a hand through his hair, something he seemed to do a lot lately. “I have a sneaking suspicion he helped manage her schedule as well. She double booked herself twice last week.” She worked like mad, but it was as if outside of work, she was lost.

“She has attention hyperactivity disfunction,” Eli said casually, focused on his questis once more. Kallus looked over at him, shock rolling through him. It would explain so much.

“How do you know?” Kallus had known Lily for almost a year now—how could he not know that? And, how was she so successful if it clearly impacted her? He’d looked up her net worth once when she first came to the Empire—it was multiple times more than Thrawn’s, which was quite high. The man seemed to spend very little money, and has been in an Admiral salary for a decade now, making his worth just over a million credits. Though it appeared Lily donated a huge amount of her money, she clearly worked her ass off. Large quantities of legally made credits were deposited into her account almost weekly—until Thrawn found her. Kallus didn’t understand how someone who needs help eating could achieve all that she had. He must ask her about it. Perhaps he could help.

“Thrawn sent her medical records with the other data.”

“What is that?” Ar’alani asked.

Eli scratched his head. “Ah, I had to look that up for her paperwork. There isn’t a diagnosis for your people. The closest disorder is based on attention; nothing is mentioned for hyperactivity. It’s called attention deficit disorder.”

“Ah, yes. Chiss usually grow out of that.”

“Yeah that’s what I read. It seems Lily was medicated up until she joined the military. My guess is, Thrawn simply tried to ease some of the symptoms. She just needs time to find her groove.”

Kallus’ questions were answered, perhaps. “Why did she stop medicating?”

Eli shook his head. “That wasn’t in her file, I’m afraid. Technically, the Empire doesn’t restrict the drug, though it is a stimulant, and most militaries don’t allow you to take them.” A stimulant? She was energetic enough.

“I suppose I’ll try to pay more attention,” Kallus mumbled, his hand on his chin. Maybe Lily just needed some reminders throughout the day.

“If Thrawn wanted you to take over for him, he would have said so.” Kallus gave the man a small, rueful smile. Thrawn did not exactly communicate well.

“Maybe. But my only purpose for being here is for Lily.”

Ar’alani raised her eyebrows. Yes, she understood why Thrawn had kept them together—and did not think it was so Kallus could be her secretary. “I don’t believe that is correct. Thrawn had a list of suggestions of what you would be good at doing here. His only request was that you two work together.”

The door slid open and Lily rushed in with notebooks filling her arms, her stomach beginning to round. Kallus stood, surprised to see her.

“You’re not going to fucking believe this,” she said in Basic before dropping the notebooks to the table. “I found them.”

“What?” Kallus asked, aware that she was practically buzzing with excitement. So excited she couldn’t be bothered to speak Cheunh.

“I found the Grysks,” she said as she began flipping through notebooks.

“How?” Ar’alani asked, her voice dark.

“I analyzed ancient maps,” she said—as if they haven’t had experts doing that for decades. She glanced up at Ar’alani, sensing her hesitation. “Your databases have been altered in the past. The maps aren’t complete,” she found a page and pushed the notebook to her. “This isn’t completely accurate, but I believe it is close. My father and I came across a map the same place we found the Chiss chains. He sold it, but I had drawn a copy. The copy was lost, but when I was in university, I tried to redraw it from memory. Of course, I transferred it to my master document years later.”

Kallus leaned over and looked at it. “And you cross referenced it,” he said distractedly.

“Yes.” She looked between the three, barely contained excitement on her face. “There is a point in space that has been largely considered empty of life. Asteroid fields, unlivable planets. A dangerous place to go.” Her eyes focused on Ar’alani’s, and she took a breath. “I think it’s a two thousand year old conspiracy.”

She set two notebooks in front of them. “These are from two separate maps. What do you notice?” Eli smiled to himself, feeling like he was with Thrawn again. A more manic, attractive Thrawn.  

“There are similarities. Are they of the same part of space?” Kallus asked before Ar’alani could answer.

“They’re the exact same sector.”

Kallus shook his head. “But they’re too different.” He looked back at her first drawing. Then his eyes widened. Lily grinned and pulled the two notebooks back and ripped the papers out, and held them up to the light, pressed together. Then she added a third paper.

“They’re all incomplete,” Ar’alani said quietly.

“Correct. But if you put them together, they look exactly like the map I found so long ago.”

“No Chiss would have altered our maps.”

“No, I doubt they would. They were altered before they fell into Chiss hands.”

“So we need to get scouts there,” Ar’alani muttered.

“No, I wouldn’t.” The fleet admiral’s eyes flashed up to hers.

“Why?” she challenged.

“If this has been occurring for thousands of years, they probably have plenty of safeguards. All nearby systems will be watched. Even if you used the sky-walkers, you’d probably have to do a twenty hour long jump to avoid any scouts.” Her face went a little distant, blinking fast as she had an idea.

“That isn’t possible,” Ar’alani said. “They would collapse from exhaustion.”

“Yes,” Lily muttered. “We cannot ask that of a child…”

“What are you thinking?” Kallus asked her, beginning to recognize the look. She stared at him for a moment, her face turning dubious.

“A Jedi could do it. They can use the Force to sustain themselves, essentially keeping themselves awake and alive without food or water.”

“Jedi?” Eli asked skeptically. They were gone.

“Yeah…” she said, still mumbling, lost in her mind. Her eyes flicked over to Ar’alani. “How do you contact Thrawn?”

“A communication device.”

“Is he the only contact you have in Lesser Space?”

“For the most part, yes.”

She let out a little huff and rolled it over in her mind. Thrawn likely wouldn’t be working with the Rebels yet, as long as he hadn’t altered their planned timeline too much. That meant he was not the best option to ask this of, but it was apparently her only option. “I need to speak with him.”

The admiral shook her head. “That isn’t how it works. You can send a message, but you will not be able to speak to him. It just isn’t possible.” Lily raised an eyebrow at her. If a message could be sent, so could a call. It was probably time to reveal more of her skillsets to her Chiss allies anyway.

“May I see the technology?”

“You’ll have to go to a communications triad if you plan to work with it, but Naile, we have expert engineers.”

“I understand Admiral, but if I may, I’d like to try.”

Eli raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “You believe you can what, slice it?”

Lily gave him a guarded smile. “Perhaps.”

And, scene!

I might post another with one of Thrawn's early chapters, but I haven't decided yet! Hope you enjoyed this little teaser!

[seikilos-stele]

This is one of those questions that I want to ask a lot of authors, because I curious how many answers will be the same (if any)

The the basic premise is Do You Control Fic or Does it Control You?

What I mean by this is broken down into a few sub questions

Do you watch a show or read a book & fic ideas just pop into your head?

Are you watching/reading something and you are unsatisfied with the plot, but love the characters, therefore, set out to fix it?

Do you intend to write fic from the start, so you go in search of inspiration?

Have you ever completely lost interest in the canon, but still love the characters/fic (therefore, no longer revisit the original source of the fic?)

As is usual, this is just a guide. Answer any which way you would like - long answers are always welcome!

Wow, I think all of the above, multiple times!

The first type, where fic ideas just pop into my head — that’s the most difficult to write. I mean, it’s the most difficult to follow through 😆 sometimes I’ll write the ideas down, but once I’ve moved on to the next episode or book, I lose interest. So out of all these, statistically, this is the one you’d see the least.

#2 — setting out to fix it. Of course! I’ve probably written like, hundreds of post-Bilbringi fics and fics set in-between the Legends Thrawn trilogy, where I wished there was more character development with Thrawn and Pellaeon.

#3 — intending to write fic from the start, going in search of inspiration. This, probably more than anything else. When I first started writing on AO3, I made a kind of arbitrary goal to write a fic for everything I read or watched. Luckily when the stakes are that low you can basically just open a blank document and write whatever comes to mind, and it turns out okay — you’re like, “This ain’t my fandom, I’m just strolling through.” You don’t care if people even read it, so you don’t stress about prose or characterization 😆 it’s very nice!

I do this for fandoms I actually like too, because I usually want to write every day, but don’t always have a current idea. So I keep lists of interesting prompts and ideas, that way I never run out of material. Some of them get so stale that I never end up using them, but it’s still nice to have them there!

#4 — this happened with Once Upon a Time. I thought it was a bad show straight from Episode 1, but I loved Robert Carlyle’s character, so I watched it for him. All the way up until Season 3! At that point, Mr. Gold’s character arc was taking too many exhausting dips and turns, and the show wasn’t up to the task of explaining why. I stopped watching, but I kept up to date with the show’s shenanigans, read tons of fics, and wrote somewhere around 40 or 50 myself.

(It’s funny — I did write a few tiny fics BEFORE the show went bad; but it’s only the fics I wrote AFTER that I saved)

There are some great fix-its for that fandom btw 😆 I was also a huge fan of SwanQueen (main character Emma Swan x main villain Regina Mills) but in S3 they introduced a straight romance for Emma that I couldn’t STAND, so I read lots of fix-its for them too. My own fics weren’t really fix-its; they were AUs, almost always hurt/comfort. The show offered us plenty of material for that!

* * *

Maybe also worth mentioning:

1) when you’re reading a nonfiction book, but you’re thinking so hard about your favorite show that you end up with 7 plot bunnies all stemming from that single nonfiction piece that has nothing to do with Star Trek or Gargoyles or—

2) the private fanfics that you never bother to write down but replay in your head with minor tweaks each night before you go to bed. All of them are write-able! Many people would probably like to read them! But they seem somehow off-limits to me 😆 like, no, I’m only allowed to write fics based off stuff I think of in the shower, or at my desk — in bed??? That’s blasphemy

[space-blue]

okay first of all how does anyone bear to do asks i need to keep switching between two tabs trying to figure out what questions i'm trying to ask, there's got to be an easier way-- BUT right, Behind the Scenes asks: 1, 5, 12, 18 PLEASE, and 23. (PS am i supposed to ask so many? prob not. screw it, i'm greedy (PPS am i supposed to be anon rn idk if that's correct etiquette)) THANKS!

I jot the numbers down somewhere if I'm getting overwhelmed. You did great though! And no, there is no etiquette on how many to ask, don't worry. If there's a double I'll just send you to the other ask. More means I get to talk about fic more, which is great! :3

What was the first fandom and/or pairing that you wrote fic for?

Star Wars, Thrawn x OC. I was pretty sauced. I think I have some great moments in there, and I was free to create all the banter I wanted, etc. But it suffers a LOT from me being completely new to multi chapter work. I go into meandering tengeants and don't know when to stop on the world building. It had its fans and really dragged me into the whole fanfic universe though. Maybe one day I'll finish it, but I had no idea which way to go. I feel like I wrote myself in a corner, somewhat haha

5. What is the perfect environment for you to write in?

I don't mind loud spaces like cafes or pubs, so long as the music isn't obnoxious and I can hear my own. I just like places where nobody is going to come to me to interrupt me. Sadly I live and work in a backpacker hostel, meaning I have 50 odd housemates at any given time, without counting the 250 guests. I get interrupted a LOT. So right now, hidden in my bed or hunkering down at my fav cafe, would be my answer.

12. Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

Yes! There's this Tarkin & Ahsoka fic I mentioned in this ask. It focuses on the amnesia trope. I really, really like to write sort of mind fucky things from character PoV. So Tarkin struggling with shattered memories and having to rebuild himself while trusting this total stranger… Hard. Especially when WE all know she's lying to him to try and use him for her side, because the rebellion just needs the help that badly. I do need to make better research on real amnesia before I apply scifi logic to it... And I need to not be hyperfixation on Quaritch's blue ass. His own trope scratches a similar itch, since he's a clone with implanted memories. So identity crisis as well...

18. What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

OK ok I have this entry from my Hannibal ficlets that focuses on a secret inside the "mind palace" Hannibal Lecter has. I've read all three relevant Hannibal books, watched the films, all TV series… And then I read the book Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It's excellent and I recommend it. It focuses on a man living inside an enormous house that has three levels going in all directions, with clouds in the top level and a sea with rushing tides in the bottom. There are statues everywhere… And birds… And it's very WTF and it takes you a long time to understand what's going on. It's in this man's pov too which thickens the mystery.

I love the works of Piranesi. He's an italian architect and archaelogist who once got sick. 22 yo and delirious with fever, he sketched a series of 'infinite prisons' which you can see here!

So I'm writing this tiny daily ficlet, trying to stick as close to 200 words as I can, and I was folding myself into a piranesian pretzel trying to FIT THE DAMN EXPRESSION in. Making Hannibal's mind palace into a piranesian thing.

There is a corner of his mind always plagued by snow. It is a torturous journey there, through labyrinthine passages, down echoing stairwells and across bridges arcing over the piranesian landscape of his palace. It is easy to lose one's way, to be distracted by the vaulted ceilings of a chapel, the confines of well used hideouts, or the familiar outlines of his Baltimore office. But if he keeps walking, fingers brushing against all the door-frames of all the halls of his mind, eventually they alight on damp wood, cold and brittle. 

[he's off to visit his baby sister, who he keeps in there. He was forced to eat her by soldiers as a child, yeah it's dark]

23. If you had to remix one of your own fics, which would it be and how would you remix it?

I'm not super hung up on this idea. I write and move on. I have 151 works currently and I've been on ao3 for not even 3 years. So as you can imagine I have a tendency to create a new work rather than worry about remixing.

This being said I'd probably completely retool my very first fic, as per answer 1. I'd change the OC, shorten the plot by A LOT, get the action started sooner, completely drop a lot of worldbuilding… It's a slog, which can be very sweet in a fanfic when you're enjoying the slog content, but dear lord, it makes for awkward re-reading. I'd make the OC an alien instead of a human raised by aliens. Too much going on.

[crackinwise]

can you share why you don't like mara jade? personally i was sick of how the fandom worshipped this character and leia was done dirty in the eu to prop her up.

I'm gonna preface this by saying I was in 6th grade when I was first introduced to her via Heir To The Empire and a lot of my memory besides emotions has been involuntarily incinerated by adhd.

I remember being very bored and even skipping later chapters of her story. (Doing that didn't make me miss out on anything at all storywise, which is a big clue how vital she was.) I was invested in characters we knew: Luke, Leia & Han, Chewie, the droids. And the book kept taking me away to have--what seemed like--longer and longer pointless chapters devoted to telling me how great Mara was. The mixture of a 1-dimensional Mary Sue and femme fatale who sucks at her one job of being a fatale. She was supposedly Palpatine's hand, right? Some enforcer of his that adored him? So her last job was to kill Luke for revenge, and you'd think that'd be super suspenseful for any interaction in the book, but nooo. As far as I remember, it was just her failing a bunch before endless talking and the dullest flirting ever put to text. I'd say it was Timothy Zahn's fault as a writer, but I recall being invested in all his other chapters.

I'll also put a biased disclaimer that long before I knew what aroace was, I wanted Luke to be that. Focusing on being a master, training a new gen, keeping his growing family together. Attraction? Romance? Piss right off. Especially with someone this shallow and boring. If you're gonna make me endure that, at least make it worthwhile. The hero of our saga can't have someone just as interesting to join up with??

Leia was force sensitive and being trained while also working/fighting and taking care of her kids. I wanted more of that. I lived for that. (I followed her kids' stories into other book series too for a while.) But Luke kept being pulled away from his family thru the rest of the Thrawn saga to be paired with Mara's bullshit.

Idk if it was in that Heir trilogy or in later stories where Mara is super special enough to be Force sensitive too and Luke trains her. Eventually she becomes a knight then master. Like, I don't remember Leia ever getting Master status in the EU, but a cardboard Mary Sue who was under Palpatine's thumb gets it? What a surprise. I refused to read any other books with her, so by the time I found out they'd married and had a kid, any secondhand mention of Mara gave me gas. My biggest condolence is knowing she's not canon and only fanboys that were turned on by her were her stans. Unless that's changed over the years, but it still wouldn't make me care.

Ya know, typing all this out now is pretty funny because the sequels did sorta the same thing to Crylo, didn't they? He even dragged Rey, Luke's proxy, down with his tiresome life of cringe. Woof.

I'd like to hear your opinions and reasonings for disliking Mara too, if you like.

[rosheendubh]

“REVIEW: Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy – Chaos Rising…”

—

Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one who reads Thrawn’Alani in the Ascendency series. Not to mention, that quote at the end of ‘Thrawn:Treason’, where he tells Ar’Alani his actions ‘may be commanded by the Emperor, but his heart belongs elsewhere…’ (paraphrased). I don’t think you have to squint very hard to read Thrawn’s OTP here (okay, in my AU crossiver between the Keltiad/and FireFly-Serenity, Rhyanon becomes the frenemies lover of Thrawn, and Luke, after a very convoluted history. Ar’Alani develops a thing for Jayne, or rather, indulges Jayne’s infatuation with her initially, b/c she’s found Jayne ‘as Brawn over Thrawn’ a little less complicating and infuriating than navigating Thrawn’s suppressed emotion-beneath-extreme-cerebralism…)…

…Also, Derrial Book/Shep—I SWEAR—is JorgCar’das—right down to the damn monastery retirement…before he’s killed…

—Anyway, even official reviews saw Thrawn’Alani—

—

“There’s a beautiful love triangle in between the lines of Chaos Ascending; Thrawn and Ar’alani clearly have a deep affection for each other born from their shared experiences and mutual respect; they become so close that Ar’alani invites him, a  Mitth merit-adoptive from an obscure family, to her ancestral home. Thrawn is her constant companion at work and in pleasure, and all of their off-work interactions read like dates: an art gallery on a rainy day, a visit to an exotic planet, a boozy celebration, and a sneaky trip to the capital where someone off-handedly mentions that the Chiss need to have more children.

On the other hand, Thalias infatuation is just as powerful, but her interactions with Thrawn mirror one of his deepest –if not his deepest – family traumas. In the hands of any other author, this incredibly unbalanced relationship would have become a parody of itself – particularly as it plays on well-known fanfic tropes as “fake captive” and “trapped together in a closet for hours” but instead we get growth, depth and subtle complexity. Thalias might not be an action amazon or an incredible military genius, but she’s pure heart and one of the best additions to the Star Wars universe.”

[elivanto]

I FINISHED SHADOW OF THE SITH AND GODDD YOU ALL NEED TO READ THIS BOOK

[teagrl]

Hey! If you're not busy, I'm still somewhat new to the eu and I'm curious. Would you recommend reading all the books after rotj and before njo? What are your favourites and least favourites in that time period (in terms of luke characterization because i love that guy) and are there any books you'd advise a new person to skip?

Aaaa I'm sorry for the delay. I actually think I have a post somewhere laying out what my Luke faves are, but tumblr being tumblr, I have no idea if it's findable.

I think to answer your question, nah I don't necessarily recommend reading all the books after rotj and before njo unless you're a completist although there are some you kind of have to hit to be in the know.

I myself have not read quite a few (*cough* the X-wing books, I know, they're amazing, just I need Luke, man), though I have skimmed them all.

My Luke faves are Truce at Bakura (immediately post RotJ!Luke, so adorable, so impulsive, and his mooning over a Senator chick is great).

Obviously Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (the best Luke book in the EU).

An honorable mention would go to the unpublished Heart of the Jedi, which as @blue-mint-winter told me kind of connects the dots between Bakura and Mindor.

Following that would be the Thrawn Trilogy, which is what everyone likes. Luke there feels kind of post RotJ even though technically it's five years since then.

I actually like Children of the Jedi's depiction of Luke, tragic romance aside, but people hate it so grain of salt.

I also love Courtship of Princess Leia A LOT, but I understand that Luke's characterization isn't rock solid. There's just so much other delicious stuff going on in that book (Force witches! Matriarchies!) that I can be persuaded to look away.

Least faves go to The Crystal Star which is bizarre.

I also was very disappointed by the Jedi Academy trilogy, which goes hard with the whole Jesus!Luke thing, but I feel like the trilogy is hard to avoid if you're doing the EU. If you want something more palatable (KINDA) then you can try I, Jedi, but Stackpole is only a few notches above KJA. His Luke is overshadowed by his Gary Stu, Corran Horn. Srry2Say.

Darksaber is laughable too, KJA just doesn't get Star Wars, I don't think. Planet of Twilight follows Children of the Jedi, but is less effective imo and forgetable from a characterization standpoint.

The New Rebellion is incoherent. Luke comes off as such a weak character who can't really stand up to (you guessed it) another one of his apprentices gone rogue.

I don't have specific beef with Bride's Corellia Trilogy, but I found it kind of low stakes and boring. The Luke side of it has him joining Lando to help Lando search for a wife, eh. That's where you're going to put Luke? Really?

Black Fleet is boring too and (like New Rebellion) incoherent. In this one Luke is on a wild sheep chase to find his mother, like a whole decade after founding the NJO. He falls for some rando lady telling him his mom was part of some pacifist Force sect. A LOT of weird characterization errors including Luke being flippant over his destruction of the Death Star

That takes us to the Thrawn Duology. Again, you have to hit this one to close the pre njo EU, since big things happen i.e. Luke and Mara get together, but I think the Luke characterization is kind of lazy and unpersuasive.

So to summarize off the top of my head:

Truce at Bakura

(Heart of the Jedi)

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

Thrawn Trilogy

JAT (no good, but I think it's worth a skim) or I, Jedi

Children of the Jedi

Thrawn Duology

Am I forgetting something? I probably am. But this is a good starting list, I think. Do ask away whatever and/or share what you find as you read! The EU needs new blood. Thanks for the ask!

[doctorwenqing]

I read every non-Zahn book with a Thrawn appearance

okay so there are a few books listed on wookieepedia as featuring thrawn, so to be thorough and because i am probably unhealthily obsessed, i bought them all and i read them. so here’s my guide on whether or not these are worth your time:

Galaxy of Fear: The Swarm

thrawn is in this book quite a lot! this one is definitely geared towards children (it reminded me of the magic treehouse books) but it was still pretty fun.

if you enjoy things like thrawn trying to solve a murder, thrawn wandering around in the woods, a force-sensitive little girl sassing thrawn, botanical gardens, and thrawn being mean for no reason i would recommend this book! if you hate bugs i would not recommend this book.

the thrawn characterization in this book is kind of fun honestly. he’s not really like zahn thrawn (his dialogue is WILD) but they also don’t make him completely into the bad guy, which is what i expected them to do for a children’s book. for most of the book he bregrudgingly works with the protagonists.

here’s some quotes i found very funny:

also there’s a typo around the middle of the book where he suddenly becomes “general thrawn” which was pretty amusing.

all in all i would probably give this book like a 7/10, it’s very childish and there are some random things that are never explained, but i enjoyed it and it was only like 120 pages so it was a quick read.

Star Wars Rebel Force: Target

this book technically has thrawn in it. but it has thrawn in it in the same way chewbacca is in revenge of the sith. if you’re only interested in it for thrawn, i’ll save you the time. here’s the only parts that mention him:

the rest of the story mostly focuses on the OT trio and a winter soldier-esque guy named X-7 who “befriends” them. it’s also a children’s novel but this one seemed slightly more mature than The Swarm. X-7 was kinda interesting but honestly after i realized thrawn wasn’t really in it i lost interest. 3/10

Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire

this book was… not good.

as far as thrawn content goes, there’s not much and his characterization really isn’t great. he doesn’t feel much like thrawn at all and i don’t really understand why they felt the need to make this particular officer him? they really could have made him any imperial captain and it would have worked just as well. here’s his appearances:

there is a stormtrooper-in-training in this named dobbs like thrawn’s tie defenders captain, so there’s that?

also the writing in this book was not enjoyable, it got a little better once the main character was introduced and it stayed with one consistent storyline. but the first chapter in particular it would randomly switch pov’s every few paragraphs, and some of the word choices were bizarre. the story was just kind of meh. i almost gave up three quarters of the way through reading it. 1/10.

Tattooine Ghost

okay finally an adult novel! i thought for most of this book that thrawn was going to essentially be the titled “ghost” because it seemed that it was going to continue to vaguely mention a “new admiral” instead of actually showing him. but then he made an appearance!

because this takes place before heir to the empire and han and leia don’t know thrawn’s name in that book, his name is never mentioned. also in his appearance he’s disguised himself as a stormtrooper for some reason. but chewbacca tries to rip his head off which is fun and then you get a glimpse of his face so it was definitely thrawn. you also hear someone who i suspect is thrawn giving direction to the stormtroopers a few times later.

the plot of this book was pretty fun. basically han and leia go to tatooine to buy a alderaanian painting that has a secret rebel code hidden in it. the chimaera shows up because thrawn also wants the painting (although it appears he doesn’t initially know about the rebel code). the auction decends into chaos, han tries to blow up the painting, and thrawn realizes if there’s rebels trying to destroy the painting it must be more valuable than he thought. kitster, anakin’s friend from TPM rescues the painting from being destroyed and so the rest of the book becomes kind of a race to find kitster.

the most interesting part of this book (besides when thrawn in disguise hits a stormtrooper over the head for being mean to an alien lady for no reason) was leia finding shmi’s diary. the worst part of this book was definitely han’s insistence that leia and him need to have kids, the awful portrayal of the tuskens and the amount of excuses made for anakin murdering them, and the huge amounts of time they spent just wandering around in the desert.

all in all i mostly enjoyed this book, although i think they could have cut out most of the desert scenes and made it a novella. 6/10.

[not-the-tie-youre-looking-for]

Something that's been bugging me for years since the Legends finale. If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do you think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out? On the one hand, from Legends Thrawn's portrayal I imagine he would without a second of hesitation. On the other, Canon Thrawn has been much more... restrained? And on a third point, there's the fact that Legends and Canon Thrawn seem like they really could be the same person just at different points of time. cnt in next

...I'm just curious if anyone else was curious if Zhan agreed with that direction taken. Which, on that note, did Zhan ever say anything about his thoughts on how Rebels handled Thrawn? Both from a writing standpoint as well as an acting and musical one (Thrawn's various leitmotifs)?

Oh man. Ohhhhhhhh maaaaan. My friend, you have asked exactly the right person this question, because not only have I wanted to talk about this multiple times before, but I also have ~receipts~. 👀

⚠️Spoiler warnings for Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian, the canon Star Wars novels Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, Thrawn Ascendency: Chaos Rising, and Thrawn Ascendency: Greater Good, and the legends Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, and Outbound Flight.⚠️

Oh man. Where to begin.

Lets start with who Thrawn is, because depending on who you ask, you're gonna get different answers—whether you're strictly a Legends fan, Dave Filoni, a guy who's only seen Thrawn in Star Wars: Rebels, Timothy Zahn, or just a writer/artist fan like me.

To Timothy Zahn, the man behind our favorite chiss, Thrawn is a character that is constant in both attitude and personality throughout all of his content. In multiple interviews, ranging from Thrawn's debut in Rebels to the latest about the writing of the Ascendancy Trilogy, Zahn states that Thrawn in canon and Thrawn in Legends are indistinguishable.

And so I present the receipts:

In a 2017 interview with The Verge on writing the first canon Thrawn book Thrawn, Zahn is asked the following question and responds as such:

How do you navigate bringing back a character who already has an extensive backstory and audience expectations, with telling a new story that fits in the new continuity?

Actually, I didn’t find that to be a problem. I’d never written Thrawn in this part of the Star Wars timeline, so it was simply a matter of bringing him into the Empire and chronicling his rise through the ranks. It’s still the same character as in the 1990s books, just a decade or two younger and in a very different military and political environment.

In another interview with The Verge in 2018 (a few months after the finale of Rebels aired) about writing Thrawn: Alliances, he repeats this sentiment twice:

Thrawn feels like if it had been written before the canonization purge a couple of years ago, or if you squinted a bit, it would serve as a perfect setup for Heir to the Empire.

Oh, I don’t think you need to squint at all. I wrote him in these two books to fit in with everything else I’d done. So if someone at Lucasfilm snapped their fingers, and suddenly all of my other books were canon, and there would be no real retrofitting that would have to go in. It would all fit together.

Thrawn: Alliances feels more at home in the new canon, especially because Thrawn has been fleshed out a bit more in Rebels. Was there any adjustments for that?

Not really. I’m getting to play with more canon characters like Vader and Padmé and Anakin, but the character himself, I still see him as the same person. He’s got goals, and he won’t necessarily share them with you, but he as long as you’re going the same direction, he’s happy to cooperate and assist along the way.

...and this is referenced again in a 2020 interview with Polygon about writing Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising:

Along with Thrawn’s appearance in Rebels, Zahn would pen a new novel, Thrawn, that chronicled the character’s early days as an Imperial officer. Zahn didn’t have to change anything with the character, telling me in 2017 that “he’s like an old friend who I understand completely.” While Heir to the Empire was no longer canon, a reader could easily read Thrawn as a precursor to that classic novel. Thrawn went on to become a major presence in Rebels, and Zahn continued to explore his origins in Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason.

The next day, an interview with IGN was published on the same subject:

Thrawn is an especially unique case because Zahn has been able to effectively continue the work he started way back in 1991 with Heir to the Empire. That novel may not be a part of official Star Wars lore any longer, but as Zahn explained, Thrawn himself is basically the same character regardless of continuity.

[....] The closest comparison between Chaos Rising and Zahn's earlier EU work is probably 2006's Outbound Flight, which is set during the Clone Wars and details the first encounter between Thrawn and the Galactic Republic (while also retroactively laying the groundwork for elements of Heir to the Empire). That novel is no longer canon, but Zahn told us he prefers to operate as if it were. He's making a concerted effort not to retread the same ground as Outbound Flight and to avoid contradicting the events of that novel as much as possible.

So yeah. In Zahn's opinion, Legends Thrawn is Canon Thrawn is Book Thrawn, and there is no difference whatsoever between Thrawns in, say, Outbound Flight, Heir to The Empire, Alliances, and Chaos Rising. I wholeheartedly disagree, but lets move on.

Now that the books are out of the way, its time for Rebels.

In July of 2016, after the trailer announcing Thrawn's canon debut aired, Dave Filoni had the following to say about Thrawn's character in regards to Timothy Zahn:

“I was pretty adamant with a couple of people saying, ‘Listen, we need to have Tim sign off on this. This is kind of a waste of time [otherwise],'” says Filoni. “We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns, but without Tim’s okay, what does it mean? That’s not going to be good. Once we had some stuff, we wanted to do what we thought was right and make the character. Then we brought him in. We had the production fully prepared. I said, ‘Look, if there’s something that Tim says that I think is really valuable, even if it changes something dynamically, we need to be ready for that and see what we can do.’ I wanted to make sure we did this right by everybody. We brought him in and we didn’t really tell him why. We just flew him up to Lucasfilm and sat him down in a theater and said, ‘Hey, we’re bringing Thrawn into the show.’ He was like, ‘Wow.’ and I said, ‘Yeah, wow. And I’m going to show him to you right now and you let me know what you think.'”

(Before we continue, keep that first highlighted sentence in mind for future reference. I'm going to come back to that later.)

Fortunately, Timothy Zahn was delighted at the show’s approach to the Empire’s imposing blue-skinned Chiss.

“We showed him some of the scenes with him,” Dave Filoni recalls. “He looked like a kid in a candy store. I think it meant a lot to him not just because it was his character, but because you have to imagine what he went through when it was announced that everything is Legends now, not Expanded Universe. I get that and I’ve always appreciated the work that goes into the Expanded Universe… For Tim, I think it was us saying, ‘No, no, no. We really like your character. We want him to be part of the real thing. The canon universe.'”

So in 2016, before we even saw Thrawn in action beyond a trailer, we were told that Zahn gave the OK, and he was chill with the way Thrawn was created in the show. In 2017, he gave a little more of the background of this process in an interview with FANgirl Blog:

The events of Thrawn dovetail closely with Rebels and shed light on some of Thrawn’s more seemingly surprising actions on the show, like when he appears to lose his temper and yell at Lieutenant Lyste. What was it like to see Thrawn come alive onscreen? Is he how you’ve pictured him in your head?

I don’t see my characters in terms of voice or appearance, but rather as personality or attitude. That said, I very much enjoyed the way the Rebels team brought him to life, in his appearance, voice, and actions.

I also appreciated the freedom I had to tweak certain incidents, such as the one you mentioned, and give additional or alternate explanations for the viewers who may have thought those were somewhat out of character for him.

He doesn't really elaborate on this, but we can assume he had SOME creative input on Thrawn's character, and he was overall pretty happy with the choices made in the show.

But then, we have this from that earlier 2017 the Verge article:

When did you learn that Dave Filoni was intending to bring Thrawn to Rebels, and did you have any input into how the character would be handled?

[...] I didn’t have any real input into how Thrawn was going to be handled, mainly because the lead time of an animated series is so long that much of season 3 had already been finished. But I trusted Dave and the team to do the character right. After all, why bring him into Rebels if you were going to drastically change him? Having seen the entire season now, I think we can agree that my trust was completely justified.

So... he didn't have "any real input," but was satisfied with it in the end? I guess? I don't know. We're getting into some contradictions now.

The last thing I've got in regards to Rebels is an interview Zahn did with the YouTube channel Star Wars Explained after the finale aired, where he responds to the following:

“So, maybe let's jump over to Rebels for a little bit. Now that it has wrapped up, how do you feel Thrawn was represented in Star Wars: Rebels?”

“They did a really good job—they not only understood the character and how to write for him, but they also understood the meta around how you defeat him. The only way to defeat Thrawn is to throw something at him he can't control, or can't anticipate. Given perfect knowledge and control, Thrawn will always find a way to win. But they understood, this is how you defeat him, these are the things we can use against him... so his portrayal in general, is very good; he's smart, he's anticipating, he's a step ahead of everybody, he's looking at clues and picking up on them, so I was very pleased with how the Rebels team handled the character."

I think these quotes answer many of your questions, so to answer your initial question: If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do I think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out?

Yes—but ONLY because at that point, the only established™️ Thrawn content was found in Legends, where Thrawn was a ruthless and calculating warlord.

However!

I do believe that if given the chance to re-write the Star Wars: Rebels finale using his now-canon novels as a solid background TODAY, Zahn would choose to not let Thrawn bombard Lothal's Capital City.

I believe this because he made one single very interesting creative choice when writing Thrawn that completely overwrote Thrawn's pre-established Rebels character: Thrawn was not responsible for the civilian deaths on Batonn—Pryce was.

And that's that on that.

A few months ago I would have ended it there, but today, Thrawn's story is no longer just contained in the novels and Rebels, but also in that of The Mandalorian.

This is where I will proudly say I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Before The Jedi aired, I was 100% sure that the next time we saw Thrawn, it would be nowhere NEAR the Empire, because Zahn was pretty adamant in the novels that Thrawn was only in the Empire to help. His. People.

So now he's apparently doing fuck-knows-what in fuck-knows-where and is STILL associated with the Seventh Fleet and Imperial Warlords???

Huh??? Despite the fact that he held no true loyalty to the Empire or to the Emperor??? It's been months and I'm still confused as fuck. Add to the fact that Zahn also doesn't know what the fuck is going on to the equation and we get a big fat question mark with one pretty clear answer that Filoni said himself that we have to keep in mind:

"We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns."

So I don't think Zahn has much control over Thrawn as we would all like to think. We can hope he gives us the crazy Thrawn and Ezra Space Adventure™️ novel all we want, but ultimately, Thrawn's fate does not rest in his hands.

If you guys have more to add please let me know!!! This is, obviously, a topic I am very passionate about, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[fallenrepublick]

omg that Thrass post is HILARIOUS and I would read a whole book on it and also a sequel with the same situation starring someone and Maul LOL except Maul would be PISSED and jealous af cause who is this PERSON his crush seems so enamoured with, fucks sake!! LOL I just love your ideas they are all so good!!!!

Why thank you! I've gotta say... Thrass having the Common Sense Braincell, but not the Romance Braincell is 🤌🏻 peak blue boy-

He might be a dummy, but he's our dummy

I can see him sitting with his two friends, one of which is his literal brother, and he's just agonizing over every little thing you say, trying to decide if it's romantic or only as a friend.

"I highly doubt anyone would truly propose marriage to someone they only saw as a friend..." Thrawn will sometimes drone, doing his best not to sigh despite the fact it's the fifth time he's said it this week. It's Monday. "They very likely are simply dropping hints, hoping you will... take the situation into your own hands."

"Okay, but you say that! You don't know what they're thinking," Thrass insists dreadfully, "If I bring it up? And they say they were only joking and are truly in lov with someone else?? I'd entirely ruin our friendship... I'd rather suffer like this for eternity than risk them hating me..."

"You can't actually be this dense, right? Please tell me you're not this dense." Ziara pinches her nosebridge.

-

And then there's Maul. It's not really up for debate that Maul struggles with being able to identify affection in his path, even if he's being clung to on a daily basis. It simply... does not process whatsoever. Yet on the other hand, he can pick up on your mentioning of any "romantic" interests on your mind.

This mystery man... who could it be? Who could possibly be so worthy of your admiration... Of course, he's very aware that he is not worthy of it, yet there are few who are. He must find out... He must ensure they are good enough for you, at the very least.

Your descriptions are vague. A fierce personality, eyes that you find yourself "lost" within, a brilliant colour to his being that only makes your day that much better to see.

All of that... it can't be... no! It must! There's only one possibility!

Savage!!!

[mitthsyndic]

Here is my second attempt at writing Thrawn, much longer this time! Again if you have any criticisms or feedback then please feel free to share!

Read on AO3.

Summary: Lieutenant Thrawn meets the reader (gender neutral) at the Ascension Week celebrations on Coruscant, and she offers to show him around her art gallery. (Based roughly on the 2017 Thrawn book). 

Pairing: Thrawn x Reader (gender neutral, Thrawn is still a Lieutenant at this point).

Warnings: None.

Word Count: 1,715.

A Keen Eye

If you'd learned at least one thing from your meeting with Lieutenant Thrawn, it was that he was passionate about art. 

He wasn't simply an admirer or even a collector; he'd told you in detail about how he used an enemy's artwork in order to anticipate their tactics in battle, and ultimately defeat them. From what you could gather from his companions, this proved to be effective far more often than not. Your own companions scoffed dismissively at these claims, and not so politely ushered your group away from Thrawn towards more powerful, influential partygoers. 

However, you believed you could understand where Thrawn was coming from, and you felt compelled to see his analysis in action. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be an inconvenience to you, as he could simply meet you at your own art gallery here on Coruscant. Furthermore, it didn’t take a keen eye for art to notice Thrawn’s strikingly good looks; his dark blue skin and illuminating red eyes caused him to stand out among the other guests, and he was what drew you over here in the first place. If he didn’t appear to be interested in any romantic prospects, you figured you could at least have some fascinating discussions about the pieces in your gallery. 

"I had best follow my companions. However, Lieutenant Thrawn, I'd like to observe your analysis of artwork and the military conclusions you draw in person. Please, take my comm details and contact me to arrange a meeting at my gallery - that is, if you have any spare time." You smiled at him as you offered him your comlink.

His eyes flicked briefly between your face and the comlink, as though he was unsure how to proceed. You tried to read his face; it was unwavering and unreadable. Well, almost. You could have sworn you saw the corner of his mouth slightly upturn into a smile.

Taking your comlink and quickly inputting his details, he responded coolly, "That would be most pleasant. Allow me to check my schedule for my remaining days on Coruscant, and I shall respond with my availability." 

As he handed you back your comlink, your fingers brushed for a brief second. The fleeting contact was intoxicating, yet his expression remained unvarying. It was almost impossible to tell how he felt about the momentary brush of your hands, or if he could tell that your proposition was identical to that of a date. 

"Of course. It was delightful meeting the three of you, and I hope to see you again soon." Politely smiling at Ensign Vanto and Colonel Yularen, you reluctantly trailed after your friends, leaving you with the rest of the evening to reflect on your meeting with Lieutenant Thrawn.

**

It was late; with your thoughts consumed by your encounter with Thrawn, you had left the celebrations and gone to bed at your apartment on Coruscant. Awoken by the faint alert of your comlink, you drowsily sat up and picked it up, allowing the incoming transmission through. 

“Apologies if I woke you. This is Lieutenant Thrawn.” His smooth voice echoed out of the comlink. 

“No, not at all. And, please, there’s no need for titles when we’re alone.” You boldly suggested. From what you could gather, Thrawn was exceptionally good at reading body language and tone, so you tried to convey your desire for a more informal relationship, in case he hadn’t gathered the implications behind your invitation.

“Of course.” You were certain you could hear a smile behind his voice. “This may be of short notice, but I will only remain on Coruscant for another day. There is a lapse in my schedule tomorrow evening, and I leave the following morning. I would like to see the works in your gallery, and hopefully demonstrate my... abilities to you then.”

He was incredibly difficult to read -even more so when you couldn’t see him in person, but you were sure that you could detect a hint of flirtation in his tone.

“Tomorrow evening works for me. Allow me to send you its location. If you need any directions or your schedule suddenly changes, then feel free to contact me. I’ve got my comlink on me at all times.” 

“Thank you. I look forward to meeting you again soon.” Your comlink clicked off, and Thrawn was gone once again. 

You laid back down and allowed your mind to drift off to sleep, thoughts consumed by the mysterious Lieutenant Thrawn and your ‘date’ tomorrow. 

**

You’d spent all day debating on whether or not to close the gallery and give Thrawn a private tour, and, eventually, you decided against it. It was never busy at this time of night anyway, and you didn’t want to appear too forward if you had in fact misinterpreted his intentions, and he really was here to only demonstrate his analytical abilities. Then came the matter of your outfit; he’d provided a rough estimation of his time of arrival, so you couldn’t exactly run off and change into something more ‘date-worthy’ before he arrived, but if you dressed in your regular work clothes then Thrawn may believe that this meeting was strictly business. After much deliberation, you’d settled on an in between that appeared professional, yet a little flirtatious.

Once that was sorted, all you had to do was wait. Many admirers came and went, as did the occasional interested buyer, yet the minutes passed by slowly as you anxiously anticipated his arrival. Normally, you would consider yourself a fairly confident, collected individual, if somewhat an overthinker, but in comparison to Thrawn? You felt almost neurotic. 

Although he’d spent almost a full day now preoccupying your mind, all coherent thoughts dissipated out of your head once he finally stepped into your gallery. He was precisely on time, and wearing simple black garments that had presumably been issued to him by the Empire upon his admission into the academy. From what Colonel Yularen had said, Thrawn had been practically discovered by the Empire, as his home planet was not in a region familiar to you. He also hadn’t mentioned what species he was; at first guess he appeared to be Pantoran, yet his glowing red eyes suggested otherwise. You made a mental note to ask him at some point this evening. Furthermore, you realised he actually hadn’t told you his last name -or maybe he hadn’t told you his first name? As your lack of true knowledge about the man who stood in front of you became more and more apparent, it began to feel like an incredibly stupid idea to invite him here.

Though, it was too late to do anything about that now. I guess I’ll have to make sure I learn everything I didn’t think to ask, you thought as you approached him. His expression was indecipherable, as, you began to suspect, it always was.

“Welcome, Thrawn. May I call you that, or is that your surname? I didn’t think to ask yesterday.” You bit the bullet and chewed your way through the awkward question. 

“It is Mitth'raw'nuruodo. My native language is Cheunh, and Chiss is the name of my species.” He broke eye contact and looked around at the gallery, and you did the same. Currently, it was just the two of you in there. “May I ask how you came to acquire the gallery and its pieces?” 

Though, Thrawn didn’t appear to find it awkward at all. Your eyes locked, and that same small smile you identified the night before appeared on his face. “Yes, you may call me Thrawn. That is my core name, as Chiss names can be difficult for many species to pronounce.”

“Ah, I understand. May I hear it anyway? And, is Chiss the name of your language then?” You asked delicately, although Thrawn appeared unbothered by your questions. 

“Well, I’ve had a passion for art since I was very little, both painting and admiring it. I practiced as much as I could with every bit of free time I had, and I took any even remotely artistic jobs. If a neighbour wanted their walls painted, I’d do it for free and they’d let me keep any leftover paint afterwards. All of my money went towards buying canvases, sketchbooks, paint, brushes, even spray cans. Sometimes I’d even spray paint murals, though I think everyone else saw that as graffiti and vandalism rather than art.” You paused, and the two of you locked eyes again. He was listening intently, so you decided to continue on. “Anyway, as I got older I’d sell my paintings, but it didn’t provide enough money for me to live on, so I begged Zena, the old owner of the gallery, to give me a job here. I did small things at first, like sweeping floors and cleaning picture frames, but eventually I got to lead tours and meet with other artists. When she retired, she left the place to me, and here we are now.” 

Thrawn paused for a few moments, as though he was fully taking in and understanding your words. “How fascinating. Do you still paint now?” Thrawn began to walk slowly towards the closest painting on display.

“Yes, whenever I have any inspiration or time.” You followed close behind, intently watching his focused stare on the painting in front of him. 

He then turned back to you, and stopped just before the painting. “Is any on display? May I see it?” He questioned. 

“No, it’s all in the back in our studio. Plus, I’ve never fought any kind of battle in my life, so I doubt you’re going to be able to observe any military tactics from my paintings.” 

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Many do not realise exactly what their artwork can reveal about themselves or their culture as a whole. So, although you may have never fought before, I could look at your work and anticipate your possible movements and strategies if we were to engage in battle, whether that be in a ship or in hand to hand combat. I have demonstrated it in this particular way once previously with a friend.” 

He noticed the slightly apprehensive look on your face, and smiled. “Of course, we do not have to fight. That would not be very typical behaviour on a date, would it?”