Books Aftermath: Empire's End (book 3) by Chuck Wendig

You know, somehow I don't know the answer to this question: Jello, do you have similar opinions about Thrawn that you do for Rax? Or is Thrawn a loyal servant of His Imperial Majesty?

 

Judging from what I've seen of him so far in Rebels, he appears to be losing patience with the rebels in the Lothal sector and perhaps in the rebellion in general. Each look, however calm, seems to have an undertone of 'Everything is falling into place much too slowly, we need to shake things up' in my opinion.

 

Wasn't it?

"Have a care Jade. I rule the Empire now, not some long-dead Emperor."

It may not be pure disloyalty but it smacks of disrespect for the presumed-deceased Ruler of the Empire. And in Zahn's other books Thrawn had a very annoying habit of talking to the Emperor as if they were equals. He always acted as if he was using the Empire to achieve his own goals instead of being a loyal servant of the Emperor. Not a sign of a loyal and devoted servant.

 

Any details on who was killed in the Liberation Day attacks?

According to Wookiepedia, Hostis Ij was killed but what about General Madine? Was he short-changed by the EU (again)?

 

Has madine been mentioned at all in the Aftermath trilogy?

 

He appeared in Aftermath (although weirdly, he was described as having a long white beard - but was still a special-ops guy, so I don't think he was meant to be Dodonna) and was rumored to have been killed in the Liberation Day attacks in Life Debt. But the rumor isn't necessarily true, since another person rumored to have been killed was Krysta Agate, who was injured but survived.

I've been wondering about this too, honestly. It would be a pretty tough break for Madine if he died ignominiously in both continuities.

 

Do we think that the Aftermath trilogy provides evidence that Snoke/the First Order is going to be revealed to be some kind of plan by Palpatine?

 

True. It would have been nice to see Palpatine put Thrawn in his place once. Just to show the arrogant Grand Admiral just how clever he really was and how his vaunted intelligence measured up against the power of the Dark Side of the Force.

 

The First Order perhaps, Snoke? All bets are off.

 

The implication seems to be that the First Order very much WAS a part of the Contingency: if the Empire fails, destroy the weak and disloyal elements within it, destroy the Rebels, and then go off and start over elsewhere. It fits with Palpatine's mentality.

 

Again, assuming that was Palpatine's plan all along. I may not be a fan of the Empire, but it doesn't make sense that he has the mentality 'if I die, I'm taking you with me'. His determination to get Luke to turn to the Dark Side makes me think he was more looking for a proper successor worthy to lead his Empire. Besides, why wouldn't Palpatine keep Mas Amedda around for 20+ years if he didn't trust the Chagrian (an alien no less) to run the Empire if something did happen?

Rax seems pure stupid and insane with a Superiority Complex.

 

I got the impression that Palpatine's contingency planning was for defeat - but not necessarily death. I think he was planning to start over somewhere else after burning the galaxy down behind him. When he died Rax hijacked the plan (just as, one suspects, Snoke in turn will hijack it from him).

Incidentally, the part of me that likes to look for points of divergence between the canon and Legends timelines is now wondering whether Rax killed the clone on Byss as one of his first post-Endor moves...

 

Because the Sith mentality ISN'T Darwinian? I don't see THAT at all...

What was the Dark Empire in Legends, if not at its bare essentials the same thing as the First Order: a contingency of Palpatine's to let the old Empire that failed him at Endor burn down AND replace it with a new one, established in secret in a hidden enclave a significant distance from the old one, staffed with new, obedient young cadres led by the proven examples kept from the old one? And if we had no trouble believing that contingency to be Palpatine's will, what stops you in this case - apart from your shtick where you wear the New Order-colored glasses?

It's hard to read Palpatine's intentions for the Dark Empire, as related in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, and NOT see how he could have had similar intentions for the First Order. In both cases, the value of starting over after burning down the old is that he gets a version of the Empire that he thinks DOESN'T suck.

And didn't Darth Bane get the same thing out of letting the old, failed Sith destroy each other and then starting over? And is it therefore so bizarre to assume that Darth Sidious, himself the heir to Bane and his legacy, could also think in these terms, and for the same reasons?

And finally, IS Gallius Rax so unreliable a narrator; if so, why?

I've seen that plenty of people here have been willing to believe what Rax or Tashu said about Palpatine thinking there was some dark force out beyond the Empire that only he could sense when they believe it supports this or that Snoke theory of theirs. But on this, we can't take Rax at his word?

 

Palpatine institutionalized speciesism just to remain in power. He made it so that his own race, the human race, would be seen as the crown of creation. That's like the epitome of Social Darwinism imo.

And lets not forget the TCW episode about Palpatine brainwashing children. Rax just followed in the footsteps of his mentor.

 

Legends went back and forth, but the new canon overall has been indicating that for Palpatine personally, Imperial humanocentrism was just a divide and conquer tactic. Everyone was inferior to him, humans and aliens alike.

Honestly, I don't think Palpatine was really a Social Darwinist, because that would require he actually care about society.

 

Even if Palpatine didn't personally believe in this policies, Gallius Rax still only continued what his mentor started. And to any outsider they would both count as Social Darwinists. So it seems a bit disingenuous to defend Palpatine's racism while being harsh on Rax. They're both horrible people who are responsible for countless deaths and widespread subjugation of non-humans.

On the other hand, it's Jello being Jello.

 

I mean, sure, it's Jello being Jello. They're both monsters. But I do think there are differences in how they're monsters that are worth considering when examining the question of how much of what Rax did was really following the Contingency.

 

This is what I saw too. Palpatine, if defeated and he didn't die, was going to go into the Unknown Regions and start over there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

But that's definitely not what the book says. And I don't mean just what the characters say, but the narration too.

That's not a POV, this is the omniscient narrator talking.