What are your picks for the 10 most influential battles in Star Wars Legends?

Let's have some input, everyone.

 

I assume the movie battles still count? In which case Yavin and Endor are definitely in there (Yavin for signaling that the Empire wasn't invincible, Endor for killing the Emperor and thereby turning the tide). Geonosis kicks off the first war in a thousand years at least, so that probably makes the top ten as well. And Coruscant (ROTS) kills Dooku, which... is a lethal blow to the Confederacy as an idea, much the same way Endor with Palpatine was for the Empire. The regime is still around, but the writing's on the wall.

I'd say Naboo is a candidate as well, though not for the obvious reasons. The Thrawn trilogy tells us that losing the Katana fleet was one of the deciding factors in moving fleets away from centralized, automated, slave-rigged models... It also tells us that the fleet disappeared ten years before the Clone Wars. In other words, exactly the same year that an entire planet's worth of Trade Federation forces were brought down when a nine-year old slave from Tatooine accidentally blew up their droid control ship. It's not hard to imagine that that was one of the other biggest events that drove fleets to abandon the automation model. (Which has implications for several future wars, as by the Clone Wars you see the Separatists have already made their droids autonomous, while the Republic, and a generation later the Imperials and Rebels, mostly ignore droids altogether).

So that's at least five movie battles that are important. Other than that?

... well, Battles of Coruscant are always important in that they symbolize and officialize the passing of the power in the galaxy from one group to another (whoever controls Coruscant being generally accepted as the dominant faction in the galaxy, even if it's not uncontested). But man, there's a lot of those. The one that let Rogue Squadron take Coruscant and the one that ended the Yuuzhan Vong War would be my two picks.

Ruusan for ending the last of the Sith wars prior to the movie era, probably belongs on there too.

 

@Ackbar's Fishsticks The movie battles still count

Interesting tidbit on Naboo

I'll throw out my list: [Legends Only]

1. Endor: changed the course of the Galactic Civil War by fragmenting the Empire, starting the Alliance of Free Planets (which later became the New Republic), ended the Banite Sith Order.
2.Sixth Battle of Ruusan (1000 BBY): Changed the course of the Ruusan Campaign, which caused Kaan to use the Thought Bomb, ending the BOD and subsequently causing the Ruusan Reformation.
3. Battle of Yavin (0 ABY): Sparked the Rebellion.
4. Battle of Bilbringi (9 ABY): Ended Thrawn campaign, saving New Republic from Thrawn.
5. Geonosis (22 BBY): The reasons that you listed.
6. Assault on Odessen (3631 BBY): Ended the Eternal Empire's rule over the galaxy.
7. Invasion of Yavin IV (26 ABY): Sparked Jeddai Heresy (changed the course of the Battle of Yuuzhantar)
8. Battle of Coruscant (138 ABY): Ended Darth Krayt's Empire
9. Battle of Ossus (3996 BBY): Redeemed Qel-Droma -- changed course of Great Sith War.
10. Malachor V (3960 BBY): Ended Mandalorian Wars

 

I think one of the most influential battles would be the Mission to Mykr. If it hadn´t been done the Vong had destroyed the Jedi, and it had a lasting impact on the galaxy. It broke the Solo kids appart, killed Anakin and prevented any of the future apparently destined to him, Tahiri and the childs they have had, it had Jaina abbandon Jacen because she tought saving a corpse is more improtant, which lead to Jacen´s capture and teaching by Vegere. Lessons that would, eventually, be it deliberate or not lead him into the darkside and thus cause the second galactic civil war(or at least its escalation).
Also its when Raynar Thul gets kindapped and alongside the darksiders who did it ends up with the Killiks thus kicking the Dark nest Trilogies plot into action. Also it amongst other leads to the Barabells being more accepted into the Jedi order which defenetly changed them quite a bit(like murdering the Grandmaster to usurp his position is made an official Jedi tradition by them).

So yeah it basically sets up the entire Denningverse.

 

Endor, Yavin (Death Star), Yuuzhantar, Lehon, Ruusan, Malachor V, Coruscant (Great Galactic War), Byss, Coruscant (Yuuzhan Vong War), Coruscant (Liberation by NR forces) come to my mind.

 

I think people underestimate the importance of the Battle of Ord Cantrell. For me, the end of Palpatine's Empire coincides with that event.

If you consider accidentally blowing up Byss a battle...

 

The Galactic Empire never really ended. Well, for me, the timeline ends in 30 ABY with the NJO series and Battle of Yuuzhantar, when the Empire still existed as the Imperial Remnant, which fought the Vong together with the New Republic as part of the Galactic Alliance.

Uh, well, I actually had everything which happened between the Empire and Republic on Byss during Dark Empire I, II and Empire's End, in mind.

 

The siege of Borlais was important, following the Vong conquest of Coruscant. The delaying action at Borlais bought the scattered and demoralized New Republic time to gather itself together by diverting the Vong's attention. Decisions made on the ground at Borlais led to new thinking both about how the war was to be fought and about how the government of the galaxy should be re-shaped - going on to become the GFFA.
It was the first major defeat for the Vong, including the loss of a worldship and one of their senior and most experienced warleaders. It marked the point when the invasion ceased to advance, and gave a valuable morale boost to the New Republic after the loss of Coruscant.

 

Number one for me in actual importance is probably The Raid on Dromund Kaas at 3641 BBY (The end of the Jedi Knight Story in SWTOR) the galaxy would have ceased to exist if Vitiate's ritual wasn't interrupted.

With later Galactic History in mind, this might not look that important, but this wasn't merely important in a political sense or in the story of the Jedi vs the Sith, but it was a battle in defence of the existence of the Galaxy itself, and preventing Vitiate from becoming a Force God, wich would change the Universe forever, i feel those go beyond what the Jedi vs Sith war was about, probably one of the Old Jedi Order's greatest acts in the protection of life.

At least for now, i might change my mind on this.

 

I would say the entire Thrawn Campaign is significant: it was probably the time when the Galactic Empire stood the most viable chance of returning, at least in a pre-Endor form. Clearly, Palpatine was unable to properly control his Empire: he was facing revolt across the entire 150,000 inhabited star systems, and 25,000 measly Star Destroyers weren't going to cut it in interstellar policing.

Thrawn nearly brought the New Republic to its knees: major shipyards damaged, Coruscant blockaded without a single Star Destroyer etc...Now, imagine Rukh doesn't kill Thrawn, and Palpatine shows up a year later with his World Devastators...and Thrawn to command them!

Even though the Thrawn campaign ended in strategic failure for Thrawn and the Empire, he only lost due to what would at best be bad luck: there was no real coordinated effort by "the party" (Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, Chewie, R2 and 3PO) to have Thrawn assassinated. Even if Thrawn doesn't win outright at the Battle of Bilbringi, he doesn't have to: in a year, the Emperor will show up, turn Luke Skywalker (taking the Republic's greatest war hero) and assuming Thrawn is loyal to the Emperor, Thrawn crushes the New Republic with massive fleets built by world devastators and probably keeps the "dumb side" of Palpatine's Dark Side arrogance from getting too out of hand.

Thrawn was worth a dozen Vaders and an entire Academy of Sith Apprentices and Lords. Only the fact that he was not alive to take advantage of Palpatine's legitimacy and world devastators saved the Republic (in character, obviously the writer's pen).

 

Totally forgot about the Battle of the Floating World.

 

Hmm...

The Battle of Lettow:
The concluding battle of the first great schism. That ended Xendor’s legion and his dream.
The Battle of Corbos: Defeat of the exiles and their exile.
Battle of Coruscant Great Hyperspace War: Naga Sadow defeated and the Sith retreat. Sets the tone for Jedi/Republic-Sith conflict
The Defeat of Exar Kun and his imprisonment.
The Battle of the Star Forge: Revan completes his redemption and Malak dies.
The Battle of Mizra-greatest Sith victory in the new Sith wars, disconnected the republic from the outer rim. Long lasting consequences.
The Battle(s) of Ruusan: Conclusion to the new Sith wars and the defeat of the Sith that used armies and fought the Jedi and republic conventionally on a large scale.
The Battle of Endor: Emperor Palpatine’s first death and Vader’s death. The empire begins to fracture.
First Battle of Yuuzhan’tar: Height of Vong success and the nadir of the galaxy’s civilization(arguably).
Second Battle of Coruscant: Vong are defeated and GA solidified.
Battle of Uroro Station: Caedus defeated, and the GA weakened.
The Battle of Coruscant Second Imperial Civil War: Krayt slain, the one Sith go into hiding.

Not 10-but arguably 11-13(to 19 if you count all the Ruusan battles separately or one if one great battle).

If I had to subtract a few-I’d say Endor, Lettow, and the conquest of Coruscant are less significant than the rest. But I wasn’t keeping good count of numbers so I overdid it.

 

I feel that if Thrawn had still been around when Palpatine had come back these two would have fought. The reborn Palpatine was far unhinged for Thrawn to still consider following, especially after his faith in the emperor had shattered when he heard of Endor. On the other side Palpatine would have seen a victorious Thrawn likely as a rival and demand total obedience wich Thrawn probably wouldn´t give him. So either Palpatine has him assassinated by one of his Dark Apprentices or there would be an imperial civil war.