So...I Read The ORIGINAL Sequel Trilogy!

might want to fuckle up baby punch and I'm Jacob and welcome to light speed although I love them personally it's no secret that the Star Wars sequel Trilogy is pretty divisive when it comes to Fan reception not just as movies but as a continuation of both the original and prequel trilogies respectively but here's where things get interesting because what if I told you that the force awakens The Last Jedi and the rise of Skywalker are not the only sequel Trilogy flashback to the early 1990s after the releas of Return of the Jedi in 1983 new Star Wars content became pretty stagnant for the most part the original trilogy was still beloved by millions but the hype around the series wasn't as high as it was almost a decade prior I mean George Lucas himself also hadn't begun development on the prequel trilogy yet as the first draft for the phantom menace actually wasn't completed until 1993 but while George was considering revisiting the series to look back at what the Galaxy was before the Empire many fans couldn't help but Wonder what exactly happened after the events of Return of the Jedi how would the events of Return of the Jedi affect the galaxy moving forward as a new Republic and how would that replace a longstanding Galactic Empire all of these being questions that would be answered with the help of one man Timothy zhan see the story group at lucasfilm was pretty selective about the stories that could be told outside of the Star Wars films one of the key reasons being that George Lucas himself had always envisioned nine films for the Star Wars saga so stories taking place before and after the original trilogy were kind of left untouched so that George could fill in the gaps with future films or projects if he really wanted to stories taking place outside of the movies were ultimately called the expanded universe or the EU for short and as of 2014 after Disney's acquisition of Lucas film are now sold and classified under the Legends Banner because they wanted to make their own sequel Trilogy and new continuity but as it became more apparent the George Lucas had his eyes set on a prequel trilogy Lucas film ultimately granted Timothy Zan approval to write a continuation of The Saga after the events of Return of the Jedi in which Timothy Zan didn't just write one book he actually ended up writing three 1991 saw the release of air to the Empire 1992 had the second chapter with dark force rising and 1993 brought the trilogy to a close with the last command which all went on to gain critical Acclaim from fans and critics alike and selling a combined total of over 15 million copies the trilogy also helped to bring the expanded universe into the mainstream more than ever before with air to the Empire even reaching number one on the New York Times bestseller list and they even inspired George Lucas a little bit as well with the planet corusant in this Trilogy later making its cinematic debut in episode 1 and remaining a significant location throughout the entire prequel trilogy but how does the Thon Trilogy compare to the sequel Trilogy that we ended up getting in the mid to late 2010s there's a lot of debate as to which Trilogy is better but ultimately I feel like it comes down to your own personal opinion yes both trilogies follow the events of Return of the Jedi but despite some similarities I feel like they're almost too different to even compare in the first place and I know how that sounds but like just stay with me personally I feel like both trilogies work well for their respective continuities in a broader overview the biggest possible difference is the timeline as the thraw Trilogy takes place roughly 5 years after the events of Return of the Jedi whereas the sequel Trilogy takes place a whopping 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi resulting in our Legacy characters still roughly being around the same ages that they were in the original trilogy in the thraw Trilogy and them being much older in Canon by the time of the actual sequel Trilogy the thron trilogy mainly revolves around Grand Admiral thraw as he attempts to gain the resources necessary to stop the new public before it even really has a chance to begin all while Luke Han Lando chewy and more attempt to find the mysterious Grand Admiral and try to remain one step ahead and it goes without saying but Grand Admiral Thon is easily one of the best antagonists in all of Star Wars Timothy Zan created Thon to be more of a stoic military tactician type rather than another four sensitive villain which makes Thon a lot more intriguing right from the start and sets him visually and thematically apart from character like Darth Vader and the emperor I mean even losses for Thon are usually just kind of seen as minor setbacks and his leadership skills and calculations make him an extremely intense and worthy adversary there's also this big subplot about Thon trying to get these like lizards that can kind of repel the force like magnets that that doesn't really have to do with anything I just kind of felt like I needed to mention it because I thought it was kind of cool however there's two other antagonists throughout this Trilogy that play significant roles first is marij Jade a for sensitive user that acted as the emperor's hand throughout the events of the original trilogy uh as the creator of uh Mara Jade wait I am not the creator of Mara Jade and I want you to get out of this office right now I'm sorry Z way you brought it you brought it on yourself way I don't want you he I'm so sorry George I didn't think it would go like this she kind of fills in a gap with that missing Force sensitive antagonist but it's really her Dynamic with Luke Skywalker that adds a lot more emotional weight to her character I know that it's easy today to point to a multitude of characters that defect from the Empire or the dark side but at the time Mara Jade was really one of the first ones aside from like you know Darth Vader the other character is an insane clone of a former Jedi Master jorus Sabio I really hope that I said that right I always get confused about how to say that he's essentially insane and was created by Palpatine on Mount tantis through a cloning process of force users when which it's pretty cool that this is in this Trilogy as it was kind of our first look at the process of cloning within the Star Wars universe and if now tantis sounds familiar you probably recognize it because it was reintroduced in canon in the bad batch seasons 2 and three now I don't want to spoil too many of the key events and plot elements within this Trilogy as I honestly really recommend reading it for yourself I read the books in middle school and I thought that they were awesome growing up and I ended up reing the series a couple months ago and revisiting the books just kind of proved to be a lot of fun though I will say that sometimes the amount of knowledge that we have with Star Wars today can kind of contradict certain decisions and elements within this story it's mainly very subtle things like cloning the Clone Wars and the time before the Empire so it's really not that big of a deal to worry about but if you put yourself in the mindset of a kid in the early 9s reading these books after watching the original trilogy I think that they work even better again it's kind of far and few between whenever it comes to elements and situations like that in this story and if you don't like the sequel Trilogy that we got and wondered what it could have been like with our heroes still in their primes you might find yourself more captivated in this Trilogy plus if Zan does one thing exceptionally well with these stories it's capturing the feeling of the original trilogy it really comes down to personal preference or maybe you enjoy both Believe It or Not despite what people tell you online you can but this is obviously a a much different storyline than what we saw beginning in 2015's the force awakens however I do want to say that although both trilogies are different and distinct enough from one another they do share some striking similarities including Luke trying to build a new Jedi Order Leia and Han being married and eventually having children a mysterious seemingly Unstoppable Fleet that has not been mentioned before that is highly destructive and filled with a bunch of starships and a massive emphasis on cloning and I almost forgot to mention there's also a casino Planet Han and Lando literally go gambling in the middle of like a Galaxy defining situation and quite honestly that might be the most in character thing I've heard for both of them I guess it's Justified because you know what they say 99% of gamblers quit before they hit big again in execution the thraw Trilogy and the sequel Trilogy handle these Concepts in different ways for the most part but personally I find it really cool that a lot of theide ideas that the Thon Trilogy introduced found their way to be eventually be reintroduced into the new Canon it's just like Ahsoka says I mean there's always some truth in Legends and with thraw being a prominent part of rebels and more recently the Ahsoka series it's clear that Dave filon is planning a big cinematic event inspired by the events of this Trilogy which would also fit perfectly in the timeline as a key moment for the new Republic era as well as to hint as to what's to come by the time of the force awakens I wanted to talk about the thraw Trilogy one because I reread the books and honestly were pretty captivated by them two because although they are ultimately drastically different I do feel like there are some similarities between both trilogies that ultimately isn't talked about enough and three to prove all of the people in the comments that are always like um actually I feel like he hasn't read any Legends books before yeah I was getting tired of it so call me crazy but I wanted to prove those people wrong whether you prefer one Trilogy or the other I think it's safe to say that both have absolutely had a significant impact on Star Wars as a series and have inspired numerous artists authors and other creatives to tell even more stories set within a galaxy far far away the thron trilogy wasn't just the answer to a lot of fans questions for many years it was actually the defining start to the Star Wars expanded universe upping the standards to the types of stories that really could be told through books Comics games and more including massive multi media projects like Shadows of the empire in 1996 but that's another story for another time I know that a lot of people get up in arms and are extremely defensive over the Star Wars projects that they enjoy over other projects one of star wars's biggest strengths is just how Limitless and imaginative it feels it's a galaxy of endless possibilities and the fact that we have two distinct timelines Canon and legends makes it feel even more expansive or at least that's just how I see it so do I recommend reading the thrawn trilogy in 2024 and Beyond honestly absolutely whether you're a fan or not of the new projects it's a great look back at '90s Star Wars even before the prequels and you'll probably enjoy or at the very least appreciate this alternate telling of what comes after a Return of the Jedi as well as will most likely open the door to exploring future stories set within the expanded universe I feel like a lot of EU fans act like their stories were abandoned and wiped off the face of the Earth but that's really not the case at all if there's one thing that I feel like Disney has done extremely well with Star Wars as a brand it's still making stories prior to their acquisition of the IP extremely accessible you can still find a massive variety of Legends books right alongside new canon books at almost every major bookstore and even online they're also still making action figures off the thron trilogy and other EU projects so that's pretty cool too Timothy Zan himself even came back to write two more separate thraw tril to fit within the new timeline needless to say it's definitely worth your time especially since a lot of elements from these books have been reintroduced into the new Canon but what do you think of the thron trilogy do you love it are you not a fan let me know down in the comments below also if you do enjoy talking about Star Wars I have a link to my Discord server down in the description below that all being said don't forget to like subscribe and share the video and if you want to watch more I have plenty more videos on my channel until next time May the force be with you [Music] [Music] y now

Channel: Lightspeed

Views: 7,565

Keywords: lightspeed, lightspeed star wars, star wars, jacob star wars, jacob lightspeed, heir to the empire, grand admiral thrawn, the thrawn trilogy, expanded universe, star wars expanded universe, star wars eu, star wars thrawn, grand admiral thrawn ahsoka, ahsoka, heir to the empire book, heir to the empire legends, legends, star wars legends, star wars canon, sequel trilogy, star wars sequel trilogy, rey, luke skywalker, leia, han solo

Id: fYKjX868YNg

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024