Lit Books Thrawn: BOOK III: LESSER EVIL by Timothy Zahn. Nov 16th, 2021.

Not to jump the gun, but where do Zahn and Thrawn go after the end of this trilogy? My guess is that we wait for Filoni’s live action Thrawn to show up, presumably in the Ahsoka series, before we get another tie-in Thrawn book. But if that takes a while to come out, perhaps we get another prequel book?

 

Probably not going to know the answer until this time next year.

 

Has there been any news on a Goldsborough Books sprayed edges page edition? I bought the red pages for Greater Good, and was hoping for some more...

 

He'd make a nice Thrass... pity Faceapp does not yet have a Chiss filter that can turn skin blue and eyes red. Heck can nobody program a SW version of faceapp to turn folks into some GFFA species? I also still need an automatic Doctor Aphra tatoo appliance filter...

 

How easy was it to get that red Greater Good one? The blue first book seemed easy to get.

 

The first blue book was all first editions, so yeah, it was easy to get. The second red book was only available at Goldsborough Books in England (I had it shipped internationally - https://www.goldsborobooks.com/). But I don't see any announcement of the third one there yet. It can't have been a failure, since it sold out really quickly.

(Here's the link to the Greater Good one - out of print, sadly https://www.goldsborobooks.com/prod...-greater-good-signed-and-sprayed-edge-edition)

 

Rats, it was on my side of the pond, might have been possible to nab.

Oh well.

 

Marc Thompson’s Thrass is...not what I hear in my heard.

I know it had been mentioned months ago that the memories of this book would help to expand upon Thrawn’s character more but I never expected it would have been via Thrass. Makes sense though, and hopefully can lead to more Outbound Flight material sneaking into canon.

 

Outbound Flight was my first SW book, so I am excited about Thrass's involvement.

Am I the only one who think there are some deliberate parallels between Thrawn and Anakin in this trilogy?

 

Really looking forward to this one. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two and can't wait for the conclusion.

I am expecting and hoping that the conclusion of this book finally presents the massive threat posed by the Grysk (in why they are such a massive threat), the details of Thrawn's banishment by the Chiss Ruling Families and concludes at the point of the particular comics and the other novel where Thrawn encounters the Empire on some fringe planet - and is subsequently taken to Vader and ultimately to Palpatine. This will tie in nicely to the rest of his character arc as depicted in the other Thrawn novels when he served with the Empire.

I think the "Lesser Evil" title refers to Thrawn's choice in joining the Empire so that he can ultimately use them in some way to help defeat the Grysk. I feel that Thrawn will view the Empire as the "lesser evil" when compared to the Grysk.

And hopefully all of this feeds into his character arc further down the line in his role in the Ahsoka television show. I mentioned in the Ahsoka TV show thread where I hope that Ahsoka's journey takes her to Thrawn and Ezra in the Chiss Galaxy; where Ezra is training the young Chiss girls to retain their Third Sight (the Force) to help fight the Grysk.

If all of this is achieved, this would be one tremendous character arc for Thrawn; where his journey weaves in and out of a lot major events in the main Galaxy over many years. This is how to create satisfying and meaningful connective tissue in multiple media sources in one grand story.

 

Zahn is generally in the dark about things like that, so if there was some nice synergy with the TV show, the writers for the show would be doing all the heavy lifting (and of the two parties would be the one less likely to do so!).

 

I agree that the title of the third book might refer to Thrawn’s joining the Empire. But based on what I know, which is limited because I haven’t read the second book yet, I wonder whether it may actually be presented in comparison to the Chiss Ascendancy. If the Grysk at the end of the trilogy have already infiltrated and control the Ruling Families, or enough of them, then perhaps Thrawn’s exile is a long gambit by whatever loyalist faction remains within the Ascendancy to rescue their now-compromised society. That would certainly paint a different picture. But like I said, I haven’t read a good chunk of the established story, so I may be missing a big reason why that would or could not be the case.

 

However this may be referenced in TV, it'll be done in such a way that you don't need to have read the books. There may well be a bonus effect if you have.

 

I’d love to see Jixtus in live action, but it’s not going to happen.

If LFL’s idea is to keep Zahn as “the Thrawn/Chiss guy” and obviously everything with Thrawn is in a holding pattern until the character shows up on screen again, then I kind of hope we could get a Thrawn-less Chiss story after this. Maybe show what Ar'alani was up to between trilogies.

 

I'd like that, just have Zahn go nuts and just make new characters and just really go into the Chiss stuff.

 

Which, to be fair, is what these books have been. They’re selling it off Thrawn’s origin story, but it’s really an ensemble piece.

But I think at this point the SW brand and Zahn’s name have enough of a built-in audience that it could work without needing Thrawn or Anakin or whoever.

 

It would definitely be more from Filoni's perspective that he could potentially progress the Ahsoka/Thrawn/Ezra/Chiss/Grysk story to meet in with 10 and beyond. Where as Zahn lacks the clout to do anything too significant because of, as you mentioned, him being kept relatively in the dark about alot of upcoming Star Wars stories, Filoni would be well within the "purple circle" of the overall Storygroup and has the ability to connect with the stories that Zahn is doing in tying them to a future Trilogy; along with his own Ahsoka TV show. And given what he (and Favreau) has achieved with The Mandalorian, he appears to be very aware of the greater Star Wars story and the importance of the connective tissue that is needed in weaving all of these stories together.

For me, Ahsoka, Thrawn, Ezra, potentially other Chiss and the Grysk, its too good of an opportunity for Filoni to pass up in connecting with Zahn's work and building further upon a large and dangerous baddie group at the main Galaxy's footstep. For future movies going forward, I think the overall story needs a new group that is not Empire-related - to be the big baddies. And the Grysk are fast becoming the group to fill that void. So if Filoni uses Ahsoka's journey and connects in with the events that are occuring within Zahn's novels, Filoni goes from just being the creator of The Clone Wars cartoons and The Mandalorian TV show to someone who is laying the signification foundations and building blocks for the movie storylines. Although his Star Wars legacy is already cemented, something like this would almost elevate him in my mind to being the equal of Lucas; or almost Lucas's equal. So instead of being an important member of the Star Wars inner circle, Filoni becomes Star Wars as he his ideas set the tone for future stories.

 

If anything i could see maybe things like the Grysk be more of something being mentioned then a actual threat.

I'm still in the camp Filoni is doing Villain Imperial Thrawn.

But he might mentions Thrawn motivations about the threats in the unknown regions like the Grysk even if our hero's still have to stop him with...whatever Thrawn is doing.

Plus we have to keep in mind that for the majority of people watching this stuff this might be more their first interaction with Thrawn and if anything more people probably know Thrawn as the Rebels villain then a canon book character.

And that's not to add to the legacy of Thrawn being known for his trilogy and nothing much else.

 

I think Filoni and Favreau grew up in an era where Heir to the Empire was a big deal and held in high regard, so I think their mission statement with Thrawn is to adapt those books that they loved when they were younger. Though they probably will work in acknowledgements and concessions towards the newer stuff.

I think where Zahn comes in is that they’ll probably announce another trilogy of Thrawn/Chiss/Grysk novels that’ll coincide with Mando/Ahsoka and elaborate on stuff that’s only suggested and hinted at in the show.

 

That's my guess.

Like maybe the Grysk get named drop as Thrawn says "I'm doing this to protect the known galaxy from threats of the unknown" but at the end of the day the story being told will frame it where Thrawn is very much the main villain.

 

I assume so. And they’ll allow Zahn to do what he wants with the Grysk and the Chiss.

My impression is that this is Zahn’s sandbox and they’ll let him have fun with it. Thrawn (and I’d guess Pellaeon) are the crossover elements.

 

Now this is just a guess but if Thrawn is a even more hardened villain in his next appearance maybe Zahn will tell a story of what happened with the Chiss and Grysk showing like Chiss society collapsing or something.

IDK. Just my guess on what could happen.

 

I don’t think Zahn would have gone to the effort of creating an entire cast of new characters and a whole society just so that he could destroy them/it.

When we see Thrawn in live action, I think it’ll just be Heir to the Empire Thrawn: no better or worse than he was behaving in those books. Other than the aforementioned line of dialogue bridging his current actions with what happened in the canon books I don’t think any further explanation is needed.

 

I don’t think LFL will replicate Heir to the Empire to a large degree. Maybe there’ll be some events that parallel those of the books, but there’s no point in telling the same story again. After all, there’s probably no Thrawn could build a fleet that would be a threat to the New Republic in any meaningful way. This is a period of peace, and while his fleet could be a threat in the Outer Rim or to specific systems, there’s just no way it’ll get to galaxy-spanning threat levels.

Of course, the Galactic peace post-ROTJ is only really upheld by reference books and a few books. Perhaps they would let storytelling lead first and show a conflict that goes beyond what we’d think possible at the expense of that bit of canon lore. Or the threat could be contained or diverted before it can affect the history we know.

Either way, the Outer Rim and the Unknown Regions seem to be the best bets for where Thrawn might go. If the Chiss Ascendancy falls by the hand of the Grysk, they would not be destroyed. They would be enslaved. So all those characters would still be around, most of them at least, but they would be living in an colonized society. Which definitely could be interesting to read.

Not to rely too much on lore, but we do know the First Order will eventually defeat many if not all of the threats in the Unknown Regions. It’s possible Dan Wallace was told of Zahn’s or other writer’s ultimate intentions for that part of the galaxy when he dropped that info. Especially since the book that introduced the Grysks was being written at the same time. So I would not be surprised if Thrawn’s story ends up being tied to the early years of the First Order, which we know were quite eventful.