The Threads of Thrawn

Tomorrow is Star Wars Day already, which makes me a bit mournful of the fact that Hyperspace Mountain (the Star Wars overlay of Space Mountain at Disneyland) is at long last coming to a close at the end of this month. I had hoped that I would be able to ride it at some point just to be part of this moment in Disneyland history, but now it looks like that won't be happening. Anyway, let's keep up the Star Wars spirit with another Star Wars post, a book this time.

I had heard of Thrawn and The Thrawn Trilogy, though the first time that I encountered the character firsthand was in Rebels, where he instantly lived up to his reputation. And then I got around to reading his trilogy (I'll get to The Hand of Thrawn eventually) recently. Now with the publication of a new canon novel, Thrawn by Timothy Zahn, the scattered threads come together.

Though Thrawn's other books are non-canon now, the new book fits in with what they established about his character. And because of the Rebels tie-in, it makes sense for this book to take place between Episodes III and IV (and also because we have no confirmation that in the new canon Thrawn even survives into the timeline of the OT). That is, it takes place before Rebels, as well: this is the book that shows where Thrawn came from and how he started with the Empire.

So technically it's a villain book because it's all about the Empire's side. But it's nothing like reading Tarkin or Lords of the Sith or Catalyst. It's almost more like reading a Sherlock Holmes story (well, except that Thrawn is much more socially inept than Holmes). You don't have those questions of morality and good and evil and all that sort of angle. Not even motive, that much. It's mainly just a book about showing of Thrawn's ability to assess and analyze a situation and the people involved and to see the pattern and to achieve his mission based on those assessments. Yeah, he's working for the Empire, but strangely not in a sinister way. Thrawn is sinister in the way in which he can instantly see the heart of the matter, but he isn't exactly doing sinister things in this book. At least, not more than any character in a military, wartime situation.

Some of the story is also from the perspective of his aide, young Imperial Eli Vanto who really just joined the Empire with the generic purpose of just getting a good supply officer job. His perspective is there for the reader: he's getting to know Thrawn and trying to understand his technique just like we're trying to see what Thrawn sees. And we also see quite a bit of Arihnda Pryce, who has also been in Rebels. She starts off just as a person trying to make her way and her career, but by the end I almost feel like she is the one who becomes more sinister than Thrawn. So I suppose this book does offer an analysis on character motives and how a person's actions affect him/her.

You know, the way that this book finishes implies a sequel. I haven't heard anything about a sequel, but I definitely see that as a possibility. Or maybe Rebels is/will be the sequel.

The Thrawn Trilogy Concludes

Click here to read my thoughts on the first book in this trilogy.

I must explain that I felt about about leaving off (for months) in the middle of the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn while also admitting that I do feel like it was the best thing for me to just take a break. You see, it was very awkward to try reading this trilogy at this precise moment in time. As anyone who's going to be reading this whole post probably knows, the Thrawn Trilogy is part of the non-canon legends, as compared with the post-2013 canon books. And given that this trilogy takes place at some point after the events of Return of the Jedi, it was actually confusing at times to be reading the newer books (like Bloodline and the later Aftermath books) at the same time as I was trying to read the older books. There are similar events in each, just with different details. So I had to set aside the Thrawn Trilogy halfway through the second book, Dark Force Rising, in order to allow myself to read the new publications (and some non-Star Wars books, of course), awaiting the time in which I would be able to refocus on non-canon.

And then along came news that Thrawn was going to have his own book, which of course just came out yesterday. That gave me a reason to thrown myself back into this trilogy in a desperate attempt to finish the older, non-canon version of this character's story before this newer, canon version came out. Whew.

I must also admit that, whether or not it was because of my rush to finally finish this trilogy after such a long delay, my interest began to dwindle. I really enjoyed Heir to the Empire. But by the time I got to the second two books, I really only wanted to read the scenes with Leia, Luke, and/or Mara. I came to care less about the political situation (after all, if it isn't canon, then the politics seem like something to pay little attention to--it's the characters that remain interesting whether or not they're "real" anymore) or about characters like Karrde or even C'baoth or Thrawn himself. I was interested in how Luke and Mara would interact with them, but not in them themselves. So the last book, The Last Command, in particular felt like a lot of bulk with only certain storylines that I wanted to follow.

Basically I just wanted to see more of Mara Jade, I guess. As I mentioned before, she quickly won me over, living up to her reputation. So it was fascinating to watch the direction that she moves in throughout this trilogy, especially in this last installment. Her "problem" resolves well, setting up a rather nice theme that complements the Luke/Vader/Emperor confrontation at the end of Return of the Jedi quite well.

I am only disappointed to see that Luke and Mara's story only just started here. I don't even know which books to read next in order to hear the rest of it; thankfully, there are plenty of online sources to help me out when I'm ready for more. That is, I would be quite ready right now if I didn't have other (once again, non-Star Wars) books (well, plus the new Thrawn, of course) to read. It's funny because I was excited to read this trilogy to find out more about Thrawn, but I lost much of my interest in his character along the way and now the only one I can think about is Mara. I kind of miss her already, and I really feel for the people who had to experience her becoming non-canon after they had gotten to know her simply as a character.

Ah, well, I guess this all just goes to show that, even if you're new to Star Wars books and even if most of them are now non-canon, it's still worth delving into the legends/expanded universe.

The Beginning of the Thrawn Trilogy

At last, it begins. As you know, I am currently trying to keep up with the main new releases in Star Wars novels and have been trying to do so since the whole canon/legends thing started a couple years ago. It's been fun--but I am at last able to stretch out even more and read my first non-canon book. I've written down a couple of titles I want to read, but I had to start with the Thrawn Trilogy given how much I've heard about it. Ahsoka. Thrawn. Mara Jade. All these names I used to hear, knowing they were important but without knowing what they meant. I met Ahsoka in The Clone Wars and then Rebels and eventually in her own novel last month. I had a brief encounter with Thrawn when he showed up in this season of Rebels as a character full terrifying enough to justify his reputation. So, you know, I was pretty excited to read more about him in the first book in this trilogy, Heir to the Empire.

And then, as I read, I stumbled into Mara Jade. Aaaahhhh! I knew basically who she was (or turned out to be?) from when I was reading a couple of pages online several years ago to find out how old the main movie characters were. Since then, I've wondered so much about who she is and what she's like. I wanted to eventually read some of the books that feature her; I just didn't know which ones she was in. So it was quite a welcome surprise to find that this book contains quite a bit of Mara Jade. It may sound funny, but I felt privileged to be reading about her.

The thing is, she just lights up the pages, bounces off of them in full realization. She's one of those characters who instantly become iconic, who so quickly take and hold your interest. And the scenes between her and Luke were probably my favorite out of this book: their banter is more fun than Han and Leia's and greatly entertaining to watch. I now feel for everyone who was heartbroken that Mara Jade was made non-canon.

Mara Jade aside, this was still a great read. Timothy Zahn knows just how to balance out all the elements of a story and all of the different characters. Drama sits alongside action, and the right amount of humor accents the right amount of suspense. And so on. This is one of my favorite Star Wars novels so far--not unsurprisingly given that, out of all the legends books, it's one of the ones that's apparently still talked about so much.

I have only one more note to make. Some people compare events from Episode VII to the plots of the legends books, trying to see if the legends give hints about what will happen next in the movies and also seeing how certain themes or images remain. Likely this one has been pointed out already. In Chapter 11, Luke has a vision of Mara Jade catching the lightsaber that he is reaching for. Does that sound just like Rey catching Kylo Ren's lightsaber (well, Luke's lightsaber that Kylo is reaching for) to anyone else? The similarity may be potential evidence that Rey has or will have a dark side and that Rey and Kylo Ren are connected on a personal level.

Unless I find I have a great deal of comments after reading the second book, I'll probably wait to do a post on both the second and third installments of the trilogy. I'm hoping to finish off both of those before I get around to buying the new Rogue One novel because I know I'll want to start that one as soon as I have it.