Other Emperor's Hands?

In TTT, Thrawn tells Mara that she was not the only Emperor's Hand, and most people on this board seem to believe it. How do we know he's not just lying to try and break Mara's spirit? Are the other Hand's mentioned in other EU sources? Are they all females? All humans? Any still alive (besides of course, Mara)?

 

LFL created more Hands based on that statement and made people like the character in TIE Fighter and Shira Brie Hands.

Zahn says Thrawn was lying as you said.

 

Hello everyone, first time poster and avid EU fan.

In "Children of the Jedi" I think there was a character that also claimed she was another Emperor's hand. Its been a long while since I read it though, so I'm not sure whether that turned out to be false (don't have the book with me at the moment to varify).

- James

 

Didnt Abel do an article on the Emperors Hands?

 

I believe so. And I'm still POed about that article.

Guri, That would be Roganda Ismaren. She was Palpatine's concubine and she claimed she was a Hand.

 

Thou shalt not mention her name in my presence. COTJ *shudder*.

And why are you PO'ed about the article? (Ive never read it btw)

 

Thanks for the correction, I've only read it once several years ago and wasn't sure about the info. TT everyone later.

- Guri

 

Wasn´t Blackhole a hand too...

 

And why are you PO'ed about the article? (Ive never read it btw)

Because it solidified LFL's stupid Hand claims as canon.

 

I think it makes sense for there to be other hands, to be honest. Screw what Zahn thinks, it's an awesome article.

 

I think it makes sense for there to be other hands, to be honest.

Well I found it to be stupid. Esp. in the case of Steele and Brie. They were never Hands to begin with. Why go back and make them Hands just for the heck of it?

And I think they should respect the authors creations. Esp. people like Zahn who have a plan and a large scale story worked out.

 

>>"And I think they should respect the authors creations"<<

But that gives us nonsense like the DS taking years and years to build, rather than the one in RotS being either a prototype or a flash-forward, and requires many messy fixes.

 

For the record, Maarek Stele, Shira Brie, and Arden Lyn were first referenced as Emperor's Hands in the original Essential Chronology.

I generally go out of my way to respect author's intentions. In fact, I make a point of talking about that almost every time I discuss a major retcon. However, every author must understand when writing in a shared universe that his or her work is subject to other interpretations. If folks read this interview with Brian Daley, they'll find that one of the earliest, and many say one of the best, Star Wars authors was not happy with the way Tim Zahn interpreted some of his contributions.

Best,
Abel

 

I think Palps was up to nine Hands at last count. What I never figured out was, is this type of "Emperor's Hand" the same as the Secret Order rank of the same name, or are they completely unrelated? Considering that Blackhole and Maarek Stele were both Hands and members of the Secret Order, I'd assume that the latter is the case.

But then, since TNEGtC states that the Secret Order and the Prophets of the Dark Side are the same organization, the questions are begged: a) is this the real Prophets or the fake Prophets? and b) are the titles of Lower Prophet, High Prophet, and Supreme Prophet outrank the standard Emperor's Whatever designations of the Secret Order, or are the "Prophet" levels a separate ranking system from the "Emperor's" levels, while both are in the same organization?

I've always wonderd about these things . . .

 

I personaly don't see what harm having other Hands does. Thrawn did say there were others. And it kind of makes more sense to have more then one. What if one dies?

 

Not to change the topic of this thread, but upon reading the interview with Brian Daley...

...man, that guy's awesome.


BD: It was about politics, not money. When Ronald Reagan was elected, he slashed NET and NPR- National Educational TV and National Public Radio. NPR began laying people off immediately, by the dozen. For Jedi there was not a penny.

Reagan of course went on to personally champion the S&L ripoff and waste defense money like a drunken generalissimo (we're still servicing the debt he ran up). But by thunder he kept us from frittering away a few bucks on any more godless, socialist radio serials!

 

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...And some cats 'round here get all hot 'n' steamed whenever I say stuff like, "As dead as Reagan's concern for the poor."

Amen.


Was looking for his Zahn comments while reading that (remember Martin Thurn's newsletter quite fondly from back in the day), although, damn...some tough words about Raymond Velasco in there.

Wouldn't've thought it coming from him; be curious to know how much of the '84 GTTSWU 1st edition's aesthetic success was due to peer-review oversight by folks like Brian?

 

Abel, just so you know I'm not ranting at you or claiming that it's your fault for the extra Hands. I just get frustrated at this extra stuff that LFL piles on top of Zahn stuff. The Hands, the Empire of the Hand, the Chiss, etc. I read these messes that they make of continuity and the way they don't talk to authors like Zahn and it just really makes me POed.
Esp. since I hate continuity messes and a lot of this stuff could be avoided if they would just pick up a phone and have talk to Zahn before giving people the go-ahead to write with the Hands, Chiss, EotH, etc.

The errors between Survivor's Quest and Force Heretic are a prime example. The books were being written at the same time. But we got 2 completely different versions of the Chiss. Personally I stand by Zahn's version because he gave them to us and I like his version better anyway.

Sorry. I'm getting carried away and taking this thread off-topic.

BTW I didn't notice any Zahn comments from Daley in that interview. I probably just didn't read it closely enough.

 

We're cool, Rogue_Wookiee. I'm certainly not trying to limit anyone's right to express their opinion, just clarifying. What's more, Wizards of the Coast already had intentions of further broadening the ranks of the Emperor's Hands with the Rebellion Era Sourcebook even before I pitched the Emperor's Pawns.

Best,
Abel

 

It's true. The Emperor's other hand was Mara Jade, whom Luke falls in love with towards the end of the book I beleive, and trains her to become a Jedi. It's been awhile since I read the book but Im sure this info is correct. Someone please correct me if Im wrong.

 

While, that sort of thing provides more material for us fanboys (and girls) to fight over.

 

I personally think the idea of other Hands' lends itself much better to Zahn's transformation of Mara. The idea that she was in fact a deceived egotistic assassin (for whom, the only thing actually special about her relationship with Palps was that he could use her at long distance) rather than a coldly evil person makes her sudden redemption a lot more feasible to my mind.

 

Children of the Jedi made a slight mistake.

Jade expressed anger at finding out other Emperor's Hand-class agents, but she had already done so in Dark Force Rising some 3yrs earlier.

 

Or she was in denial most of that time.

Can anyone please PM me with a listing of ALL the Hands, and a brief description? Thanks.