Lit Books Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising

I'm not asking for a quote, just a sentence for each one about what makes them unique? The wiki articles only say they exist.

 

Well I might not, I haven't bought a Star Wars book in about 3 years (or whenever Bloodline came out) besides the Visual Dictionaries. I was just interested with people commenting on the worldbuilding and new cultures. But if the book doesn't have anything more than what's in those articles, which is hardly anything, then I know to not buy the book. Posts here just made it sounds like there was dozens of pages of information for each new culture.

 

Judging a book by a wookipedia articles contents isn't necessarily the best way to go.

Contex is key.

 

Which is why I was asking, but I was told to just go there.

Whatever, didn't need this to turn into a discussion, I was just looking for a little more info.

 

Hmm, alternative plan - buy the book.

Alternative reason - by most accounts here, it's Zahn writing SW in the style of Zahn writing SW, so on that basis, it's pretty much a known quantity, which would extend to world-building.

Come to think it, inferring how the new work will be based on inferences drawn from the previous work of the same artist is a methodology Thrawn would likely approve of.

 

Spoiler

The main factions that come to immediate mind (running off 4 hours sleep at that)

The Chiss Ascendancy- I assume they need no other introduction, they’re also the faction given the most detail.

The Nikardun Destiny-They’re something akin to the Mongols with more than a fair bit of modern Russia thrown in. Their leader is a charismatic general named Yiv the Benevolent who alternates between smooching up to worlds and outright planting his boot on their necks.

The Vak Combine- a collective of worlds run by the Vak, whose society is based around a strange hybrid ideology of profound individualism and hive-mind.

The Lioaoin- kind of a dodgy affluent lot who encourage piracy and criminal raids against other neighbouring worlds within the chaos.

The Navigators Guild- Basically they’re a group of Force sensitives that live in the Chaos and get hired out by various governments and groups to use their abilities to help hyperspace travel.

There are almost certainly more I’m forgetting, but I need my caffeine dose and I’m not about to summarise the whole book.

 

Hmmm

Spoiler

I think there is probably a connection, but at the same time the Navigators have a pretty firm stance about staying neutral. You come to the Guild and you hire a navigator to find your ship a pathway through the Chaos.

The Attendants seem a little more active. They’re sticking around to help Snoke, and from what Treason mentioned, they’re actively helping the Grysk kidnap force sensitive children in order to train new navigators.

 

The problem with my struggle to visualize what I am rrading means I don’teven know how that imagery was given in thos book

 

To be honest, the first time I saw the twisted snakes painted on Chimaera I thought it was pretty naff. Just another over-done Rebels visualisation so the viewers could identify Thrawn's star destroyer. Not something I assumed for one second would actually happen if we had stayed with book-only Thrawn. It's not as if he had the ship built & designed for himself.
I really don't see this as his style.

So while I read that reference in Chaos Rising it did not click at all until someone pointed it out here. To me, it's still a naff idea.


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Spoiler

Thrawn gets given a ring by one of the Paccosh people so that some aspect of their culture will survive the genocide that awaits them from Yiv. The ring has the Chimaera imagery on it.

I could see Thrawn having the Star Destroyer redesigned when he assumed command. Especially with how the scene in Chaos Rising basically

Spoiler

recontextualised his entire art collection habit. If you were to just read the Legends stuff or watch Rebels the assumption would be that Thrawn is keeping the various cultural artefacts as trophies of former victories. But the scene with the Paccosh paints it as the start of Thrawn in his own way, genuinely trying to honour the dead.

 

I never assumed Thrawn keeps trophies (another thing that rubbed me the wrong way in Rebels ). I just never assumed he was someone who would need that for his ego. Keep it to analyse or appreciate it, yes. Show it off as proof of his victories, no.

Spoiler

As Samarko says, Thrawn doesn't strike him as the gloating type.

I found the scene with the Paccosh very moving, though, and took Thrawn at his word when he promised to keep it in a place of honour.

The thing is, like many of you, I have been "living" with Thrawn for 30 years and I honestly cannot say any more what my first analysis of his character was. Other than that I really liked his portrayal as a charismatic leader who inspires loyalty.

Over the years and with more background to his story added, I am sure my view shifted quite a bit. So I now see him as a lot more "grey" than just a villain. So much so that it would really annoy me if he ended up being just "the bad guy" once again in whatever follow up there will be with Ezra.

So yeah, the scene you pointed out was maybe small but very well done I thought. It had quite a lot of depth to it.

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Well, the thing is, the morbidity of his art collection is not even a Rebels specific element. The comparison with the Nazis stealing paintings and such goes all the way back to Heir to the Empire when Zahn had that moment of Thrawn somewhat casually mentioning how he owns the last piece of a culture he wiped off the map. It’s always been an element to the character that people have occasionally pointed out. (If anything Rebels went a little bit easier on the character than they could have, with Thrawn showing genuine regret at having to destroy the culture of Lothal)

This moment though, I think addresses that meta element somewhat And kind of adds a more humane meaning behind it.

 

It is not stated, however, how Thrawn came by this sculpture (it's acquisition could have been entirely innocent).
He had it to understand the species - destroying their world was not his intent at all (whereas the Nazis were very definitely stealing and then exterminating by design because of their warped ideology. I resent putting Thrawn in the same box as them. That doesn't mean he is nice, innocent, caring etc.).

My apologies, I didn't want to open decades old discussions, though.

Back to Chaos Rising... Really looking forward to the next installment and what else we discover about this fascinating region of space.

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Got my copy - with blue pages.

 

A couple of questions:

Spoiler: Spoilers

1. Are the Attendants also called by that name in this book? If I recall, that’s how they were referenced in the earlier Thrawn books. But I can’t recall why that name would make sense, considering they’re not really attending to anyone.
2. Does Zahn describe any of the new alien species? If so, any theories on Legends analogues? I never really got the Grysk-Vong connection from what I read of Allies. Their description just Made them seem like a regular humanoid species. Then again, Zahn has mostly not described species in the past, so it’s notable that the grysks got a description.

I’m always curious about the reasoning (if any) an author might have for introducing a particular species and what goes into deciding their look. Mainly I’m often curious about whether it’s a reference to something else or primarily there to create a general aesthetic for that species. Same goes for ships.

 

heh, that interview has so much bait for the second book. I can already feel where they are going with things... regarding a certain family member of Thrawn's.

 

Spoiler

-The Attendants don’t appear in this one, just the Navigator’s Guild which is comprised of a few different species. I suspect there is a connection somewhere with that though, maybe it’ll be in book 2.

- Zahn keeps physical details pretty basic. We know the Nikardun are big and humanoid, with a bifurcated jaw that opens weirdly when they smile but not too much else. It’s that way for most of the aliens- the main Navigator POV character is described as having winglets on his cheeks that flap and flutter when he’s nervous or excited, and one of Thrawn’s old allies Frangelic of the Garwian Unity has massive fangs...it’s mostly small stuff, nothing too descriptive or visual

 

I don’t suppose there’s any hint that the Vong are in the unknown regions is there?

 

I don't know what "naff" means but I'm assuming from the tone that it means "neat."

@SyndicThrass - Thanks! I'm going to have to keep an eye out when I reread it next year.

None that I recognized, but

Spoiler

Outbound Flight is hinted at briefly, and since with part of that, Obi-Wan & Anakin are looking for Vergere and the Far Outsiders...I guess you can say the Y.V. are even more vaguely hinted at, in a roundabout way.

 

So the opposite of "neat"

And that makes sense. I could understand arguments on either side about where a chimaera-type animal should/would exist or at least be known of.