Why the thrawn trilogy is GREAT.

I've been interested in the Star Wars Universe for a long time and have always been interested in the Legends and extended Universe something about there being a seemingly infinite amount of stories all taking place in the same universe with stories and characters that overlap and develop over decades has fascinated me in the past few years I've been actively reading more of the novels and comics from the Star Wars EU and recently finished the thrawn trilogy I had always intended to read these books as from my perspective they seemed like entral reading for the Star Wars EU I mean we all want to know what happens after this right we do have the Canon Disney sequel Trilogy which is controversial in its own right but what always seemed more interesting to me was the idea that there was already a sequel Trilogy one that more casual Star Wars fans might not even be aware of a hidden Trilogy a forgotten Trilogy one that spans three full novels and takes place just 5 years after Return of the Jedi a Trilogy written before the prequels re relas least causing it to tiptoe around and possibly have its own interpretation of the Clone Wars a Trilogy that first created one of Star Wars most iconic planets a Trilogy that created some of the most interesting characters in the EU a Trilogy that first revealed as arguably most anime villain ever a Death Note esque Master strategist with a deathly cold for professional demeanor a dece x marking a machine who was so brilliant they were forced to bring him into the cannon a character whose name holds so much weight that all he needs is one syllable to struck fear into any Rebel scum a Trilogy that created the thraw Trilogy consists of three books heir to the Empire dark force rising and the last command with the first releasing in 1991 and its success generally credited to starting what we now refer to as the extended universe or the EU the story of air to the Empire and the following books takes place during an era that I think most fans are especially curious about that being after the good guys have won what does a new Republic look like is it all positive what is the fate of the Jedi in this new civilized Galaxy because much like real life even when the bad guys defeated and the good guys win life goes [Music] on 5 years have passed since Luke Skywalker defeated the emperor and the second death star was destroyed exploding into a million pieces over the Skies of Endor the rebels have established a new government system in the Galaxy the new Republic one that hopes to reflect the positive values that the Rebel Alliance was built on and hopes to bring peace to the Galaxy the right way after the battle of Endor the Galactic Empire went into chaos fractured and crippled the remnants splintered generals became Warlords and carved their own territory still ruling through fear but ultimately being vastly outgunned and outnumbered by the much larger New Republic but in the past 5 years since then one of the last grand Admirals of the Empire has returned from the unknown regions and has quickly seized control of the remaining pieces of the Empire Gathering up a large Fleet strong enough to threaten the new Republic this is where we find ourselves and the book begins with a pens of Luke gazing out over the skyline of the capital planet of the new Republic [Music] corusant one of my favorite things about the EU is seeing What Becomes of the characters we all know since Endor Leia has been training here and there with Luke to develop her own abilities as a Jedi having her own lightsaber as well although she has been finding it more and more difficult to dedicate any time to training as she plays a major role in building the new Republic into a functioning government on top of that she's pregnant with twins Hans Solo is now a respected General in the new Republic slowly molding himself into a more legitimate hero disconnecting himself from criminal activity but using his influence in the smuggling world to help the new Republic when he can Luke is still discovering what it really means to be a Jedi and is trying to figure out exactly what a new Jedi Order would look like and is he even qualified to be teaching people which comes into play later when encountering one of our main antagonists in the story I want to give a quick spoiler warning I'm going to bring up some aspects of the stories that I really enjoyed and if you aren't very familiar with the EU then maybe you would be interested in what characters and ideas were introduced to the at the time Canon continuity of Star Wars I'm not going to spoil anything important this video is more about the Star Wars content that does exist out there and hopefully maybe convince you to check it out that being said I still want to give a spoiler warning in case you wanted to go into these books completely blind if you have been watching the latest and final season of Bad badge then you would know they introduced a pretty important location that being mount tantis an incredibly secretive base of operations for the Empire's most clandestine experiments functioning almost as a mix of alcatra and a mad scientist lab it was awesome and terrifying and this place is directly from the thrawn trilogy and reading the books provides so much more context about tantis and also the planet that it resides on finding tantis is a major plot point of the story much like in the bad batch the experiments on tantis ultimately result in one of the main villains in the trilogy when trying to perfect the cloning process of force users the emperor produced an incredibly powerful being a clone of the prequel era Jedi jorus Seth jorus Seth was a Jedi master during the Clone Wars who led the outbound flight project saath is a character obsessed with power but more specifically control whether due to his own personality or the Clone Madness that resulted from him being cloned far too quickly or and an amalgam of both he firmly believes himself to be the most capable individual in the galaxy to rule be it Village New Jedi Order or Empire when first discovered he is on Wayland the planet that mount tantis resides on in the book we hear of a guardian that was meant to protect the dark technology the Empire had kept on tantis and one of the other characters assumes when finding Seth that he must be that Guardian as he has complete control of a small town beneath the mountain but we soon find out that Seath was never the guardian of tantis he simply killed the original guardian and took leadership and control of the Town through Unstoppable Powers with the force initially content with having complete domain over his subjects on Wayland he's only persuaded to join the Empire when he hears that there is another Jedi in the Galaxy actually another two and one is pregnant suddenly a new vision of power and control captures sas's mind one of a new Unstoppable Jedi Order completely subservient and loyal with himself at the top his desire for power and control makes this possibility a necessity and agrees to joining forces with the new Grand admiral of the Empire allowing them to use his battle meditation force abilities to command hundreds of ships at once in exchange for Luke Skywalker Leia Orana solo and her unborn twins this leads us to the other villain of the story who is much different from the dark Jedi jorus Seth while Seth desires control this character epitomizes [Music] control Grand Admiral thwn is the Undisputed leader of the Empire after the death of cus rumors of a new grand Admiral leading the remains of the Empire had been swirling around the corners of the Galaxy for time and had eventually made their way to the new Republic although at this time in the story they aren't fully convinced thrawn is a mysterious character from the book we know that he was stationed in the unknown regions and had an impeccable history as a leader winning many important victories for the Empire and proving himself to be a terrifyingly intelligent opponent an important aspect of thon's character is his species he was a chis a near human species with pure blue skin and striking red eyes this wasn't just important as it proved to be a legendary design for the character but specifically because of how the emperor structured his leadership in the Empire the emperor clearly has a bias for humans you'd be hard struck to try and find an alien species almost anywhere in the Empire let alone in a position of authority this is why thn's species is important thn's sheer capabilities as a leader and strategist made him rise to the coveted rank of grand Admiral which the emperor only chose 12 to become despite not being human despite the emperor's Prejudice and this Prejudice isn't just fan speculation it's fact it's even referenced directly in the novel here a detail that makes any allegories of the Galactic Empire all the more real if I was to describe thraw as a villain it would be as a chess player nowadays thonn has been depicted in mainstream Star Wars content such as and recently in live action in Ahsoka played by the actual voice actor as well L melson and I really like this betrayal but I do want to point out to those unfamiliar Thorn's first appearance as a character in air to the Empire and the rest of the trilogy does come across different in the novel's time and time again you presented with moments where you think that the heroes have gotten ahead that they've gotten one past thrawn but every time we see the thrawn is 10 steps ahead of everybody but the best part is we see how he has done it by using thon's second in command officer palen as a standin for the audience we get to see how Thon perfectly dismantles disorganize and defeats his enemies time and time again thrawn is cold calculating and confident but not cocky and this is key a major piece of Thorn's character is his fascination with art specifically the art of his enemies when conquering a planet he will fill his office with hologram replicas of the most famous pieces of Art the enemy species has to offer and he studies it finding out what these people cherish and fear finding patterns and holes and ultimately strategies and sure you can criticize this you could say that this is a bit of a stretch and a bit silly which it is but it's also badass I think thrawn is summarized well In this passage from the book when the character Mara Jade is speaking to layia about their newest enemy from the words of marade herself there isn't anything not with thone he has no patterns no favorite strategies no discernable weaknesses he studies his enemies and tailor his attacks against psychological blind spots he doesn't overcommit his forces and he's not too proud to back off when it's clear he's losing which doesn't happen very often as you're finding out something I find really interesting to look at is the parallels between Vader and thrawn they both occupy a similar role in the story being the main antagonist and the icon of the evil empire the heroes are trying to destroy but you can find interesting differences between how the two choose to run their army and specifically how they lead while Vader's strength relies on fear I would argue that thrawn's strength as a leader is in respect Vader is a vessel for pure dark side power ruthlessly ruling any space he occupies with the inherent threat that your very ability to breathe is a choice that he decides a terrifying idea of a leader one that works great as a villain but thraw is a different kind of leader let me give a few examples from the books themselves without getting into too much detail at a certain point in the story a character without thron's knowledge uses his troops as porns in a plan to successfully get undercover as a double agent which works pretty well but require the death of those Imperial troops in the plan under Vader's tyrannical leadership this wouldn't be an issue and the character who enacted this plan assumes the same and is expecting a great deal of congratulations at his successful execution but thrawn is a very different person and reacts accordingly so you were directly responsible for the deaths of four Storm Troopers and 32 Imperial Army troops also for the destruction of two Chariot command Speeders and their Crews I am not the Lord Darth Vader I do not spend my men recklessly nor do I take their deaths lightly what's important to point out too is that without spoiling too much at this point the Empire's military force aren't necessarily short on troops so while you could assume that this importance associated with the death of his men is purely from a dependence on numbers it wouldn't make sense there's something else at play here and we can see that from this next section too at this point in the story one of thon's men has a lock on Luke Skywalker's ship when it seems like all hope is lost Luke performs a difficult to counter maneuver that is rarely seen and manages to barely Escape recognizing that Luke is attempted this almost impossible to counter maneuver the Imperial officer in charge of the lock tries his best to prevent it switching the tractor beam into a different mode and trying something completely unique in a last ditch attempt to catch Luke before he makes his Escape which doesn't work and of course Luke gets away under Vader's rule we know what would have happened next we've seen it countless times before but Vader isn't there thraw is there to personally speak to the officer in question it did work a quiet sigh slipped through methel's lips no sir the target lock system couldn't handle it it froze up completely yes Thorn cocked his head slightly you've had a few moments now to consider your actions on sign can you think of anything you should have done instead the young man's lips twitched no sir I'm sorry but I can't I don't remember anything in the manual that covers this kind of situation th nodded correct he agreed there isn't anything several methods have been suggested over the past few decades for counteracting the covert shroud Gambit none of which has ever been made practical yours was one of the more Innovative attempts particularly given how little time you had to come up with it the fact that it failed does not in any way diminish that a look of cautious disbelief was starting to Edge into Mel's face sir the Empire needs quick and creative minds on sign thonn said you're hereby promoted to Lieutenant and your first assignment is to find a way to break a covert shroud this is unexpected from the Empire especially from a person in such high command but it is practical and an example of just why Thorn is such an effective militaristic strategist this idea is summed up perfectly in the last section of that passage yesterday the chimer crew had trusted and respected the grand Admiral after today they would be ready to die for him like in the show Rebels Thorn has a bodyguard Rook is an assassin but specifically a Noe and man do these books go deep into the Noe you'd have no idea from this relatively small appearance in Rebels but these guys play a major part in the story of the books and they delve deep into their species and culture and history they are so much more than what is presented through the character of rook and Rebels who I think most would agree just kind of comes off as annoying which is a huge shame because these guys really were one of my favorite things about all three books I want to say more but I won't as the story of the nree is hard to discuss without delving into pretty big spoilers so I'm going to leave it at that but please do know that there is so much more to these guys than this they go hard I promise I also got to say they did my boys dirty with this design I know the depiction of characters from books are a bit subjective and that this is part of the fun I love when a character or species has few or no Canon art and you really get to conjure an appearance in your mind yourself but man we did have Canon art and it looked good too it was sick but now our Canon ogre look is yeah I mean it could be worse but for sure I am going to more what could have been hopefully if we get future appearances we can get more of a combination of the two designs who knows but yeah anyways Justice for my boys another character these books are responsible for introducing into the Star Wars ethos is Luke Skywalker's love interest the four sensitive human Mara Jade Mara Jade much like thraw has gone on to appear in lot of other content in the Star Wars Universe with her story getting much more fleshed out and developed but I'm only going to talk about her first appearance in the EU which is in the thrawn trilogy Mara Jade's character goes through a lot of development throughout the books and manages to become one of the most interesting characters in the story which is fantastic as creating a love interest for Luke Skywalker is a difficult thing to achieve Mara Jade is not a Mary Sue at the start of the story marade is working with a band of Smugglers under the leadership of Talon one of the few things that we know about her from the start is that she appears to have some underlying force abilities a mysterious past and that she has an unwavering burning desire to kill Luke Skywalker it takes some time to figure out exactly who she is and why she is so hellbent on murdering Luke but by the time of the final book the last command her story really comes to an incredibly satisfying conclusion I won't say too much as getting into too much detail does spoil her story and that would not be doing it justice I'll just point out one thing in this scene in Return of the Jedi she was here and it's pretty important and I love it having an author at even more context and layers to existing moments in the cannon is just great I really hope we get to see a live action Mario Jade at some point in Star Wars it seems unlikely but hey who [Music] knows Talon card is The Smuggler who Mara is working for in the books and also has to be a favorite he's definitely most similar to a Han Solo type character but they do a really good job of showing you who he is as an individual and that he doesn't fit the 2D typical Smuggler archetype he's charismatic influential and capable but I think what is mostly shown in his story is that he values loyalty by choosing not to pick a side in the Galactic Civil War he's able to play such an interesting role in the story but over time you get to see here and there that maybe he does have a moral compass but anyway character like Han Solo CAD Bane Jango Fett and the like are just an awesome part of Star Wars that is great to see delved into in an epic tale of Jedi and Sith and wars that span several errors it's always satisfying to see sometimes there's just a wise cracking guy with a gun and a ship No Force powers or great Destinies just simple men trying to make their way in the universe also I want to point out that card's ship is called the Wild Card like wild card [Music] nice the thrawn trilogy introduced a plot device that I'm surprised is yet to be used in current Cannon one that has the power to strip any Force sensitive being of their force abilities simultaneously opening up new opportunities for stories set in the galaxy far far away the Salam were relatively small lizard-like creatures that resided in the Trees of the planet Mia something important about the Salam is their natural Predators the vau skia which were canine likee beasts that happen to have some amount of sensitivity to the force they used the sensitivity to hunt and so in response the Salam over time developed a defense mechanism to counteract this the Salam could naturally repel the force by creating a force neutral bubble and when grouped together the Salam would expand their bubbles sometimes even spanning kilometers neutralizing the force around them and making it more difficult for the vau skia to hunt them I'm sure you can see how this could be an incredibly useful tool for anyone wishing to negate the abilities of a force sensitive individual light or dark side so did thrawn these little creatures provide so much opportunity for storytelling and the fact that they have a realistic in Universe law makes them just perfect while they haven't been fully realized in the current Star Wars cannon they have appeared if you looked closely in th's office in Rebels season 3 you can actually see two sculptures of the Salam further cementing their connection to thraw as a character also something of note I want to mention that I've yet to see discussed there is a relative mystery revolving around the live action of sooka show during the show and especially featured at the end we see a key part of thrawn's plan is to transport a specific cargo we never really get any clues as to what this could be but are left to assume that it must be of great importance it seems that the general theory that fans have settled on is that these are nightsister corpses to be resurrected with nightsister magic and in some way be used by Thorn and the great mothers this does make sense especially considering they seen flying towards damir the home planet of the night sisters in the final episode but I'd like to posit another idea that seems also entirely possible Thorn is transporting Salam Thorn has probably the biggest connection to the Salam out of any character in Star Wars and this entire plan of transporting mysterious cargo from an unknown Planet almost perfectly mirrors the plot used in the book A book that was released in 1991 we've seen this story before in the cannon thrawn has experiened dealing with Force users and from the Easter egg sculpture we see in his office in Rebels we know he's at least somewhat aware of their existence so why would he not capitalize on this incredibly powerful secret weapon whether they turn out to be nice sister corpses Salam or something no one else has predicted I am really interested to see what becomes of this secret cargo and hope that they use thrawn well and showcase his fullest capabilities as a [Music] villain before diving into the thrawn trilogy there was not much I knew about the story but one of the few things I knew was that in the EU after the battle of Endor and Return of the Jedi and Leia begins to train as a Jedi this was always an idea that captured my imagination I mean it makes so much sense Leia is a twin and is technically a Skywalker she is the daughter of arguably one of the most powerful force users ever but just happens to play a different role as a hero in the story I firmly believe that if Luke and Leia's roles were switched if a baby Leia was taken to Tatooine and eventually met with an old Ben Kenobi joined the rebellion and trained on De goar with Yoda that she could very well be exactly what Luke is now whether a baby Luke taken to aldron raised by bana and train to be Senator is able to fill the same role as Leia is a lot harder to argue but nevertheless Leia as a Jedi works and seeing this begin to be fully realized is great seeing her juggle Jedi training from her brother attempting to relay what he learned from Yoda while Leia simultaneously being in a position of responsibility trying to form a new good system of government upholding the beliefs that the original Rebel Alliance was built on don't get me wrong this isn't a story of Leia becoming a Jedi far from it but it is a continuation of the original Star Wars story of what happened next to the story of the Jedi and in its own way it's a [Music] beginning George luk writing dialogue is a contentious topic and almost certainly his writing of romance and love I'm not going to make an argument for either side on that topic however as that is not what this video is about but what I want to show is how the author of the thrawn trilogy Timothy Zan took the structure Lucas had created specifically in reference to Han and Leia and used his writing as a tool to really show us how these characters feel about each other perhaps in a way that we don't see in the original trilogy I do love seeing Han and Leia realize the feelings for each other in Return of the Jedi I mean this scene is just golden to me I dig it it gets me and it works perfectly in my opinion but a different medium can give a different experience altogether in the books we see Leia and Han as a fully formed couple Leia is pregnant and Han now has a new priority Above All Else and every so often Timothy Zan gets a chance to Showcase how the couple really feels about each other and it's done masterfully I'm all for more context detail and backstory it's one of the primary reasons I was so drawn to the extended Universe in the first place there are some things you can only get in writing I want to end this segment with one of my favorite paragraphs from the books and he remembered too the wrenching realization he' had at the same time that no matter how much he tried he would never be able to totally protect her from the dangers and risks of the universe because no matter how much he might love her no matter how much he might give of himself to her she could never be content with that alone her Visions extended Beyond him just as it extended Beyond herself to all beings of the Galaxy and to take that away from her whether by force or even persuasion would be to diminish her soul and to take away part of what he'd fallen in love with in the first place this video ended up being longer than expected but also ended up being really fun to me make I tried to be careful about not giving away too much of what Timothy Zan wrote here but also hopefully shed enough light on what the trilogy has to offer and I suppose that is a key message I'm trying to get across that there is more a lot more there is stories that exist in Star Wars that deserve to be told so if you are interested in more I highly suggest you check it out because the thrawn trilogy isn't just some of the EU at its best it's also some of Star Wars at its best so yeah give it a chance there's a whole world out there or a whole galaxy far far [Music] away hey guys this was a new kind of video I hadn't done before and tried to put a lot more effort into if you enjoyed it let me know and also tell me in the comments if there's anything I missed out or maybe a video you would want me to make next if you did enjoy then consider subscribing as it really makes a difference but yeah anyways thanks guys

Channel: lawdog

Views: 48,116

Keywords: star wars, thrawn, star wars legends, star wars eu, noghri, cbaoth, jorrus cbaoth, mara jade

Id: haBxgD3vJ4c

Length: 27min 48sec (1668 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024