Books Thrawn - New canon Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn (Spring 2017)

It would be interesting to see the interactions, for sure.

The thing about Thrawn is that he had a very particular vision of the Empire which was different from that of many Imperials (including the founders). He embraced its military and technocratic side, as a force for order and stability. He didn't seem to have much time for the power-mad lunatics like Pestage, Carvin, Isard and most of the Imperial court, and he also seemed to be wary of the mystical side of the Empire. He respected Palpatine enough to serve him and Vader enough to work with him, would never have challenged them openly, but his respect wasn't without reservations, and once he got a turn at running things, he tried to make sure the resident Force user (C'baoth) would be under his control and not the other way around.

I don't see that mentality fitting in too well with either the First Order or Rax's bunch. If anything, I feel like he would've tried to maneuver so that he and not them would've been the new leader of the Empire. I'm only halfway through "Life Debt," but it's interesting to hear Sloane's musings about how much she resents the personality cult that Rax is setting up - it's not hard to imagine that she would've identified with Thrawn and Pellaeon's view of the Empire. But the interesting thing about new canon is that it's doing a mirror-image of the old EU, and taking place in a world where Pellaeon's pragmatists and law-and-order types lost the battle for the future of the Empire, while the mystics and fanatics won it and got to define the Imperial Remnant/Empire of the Hand instead.

So I'm curious to see where Thrawn fits in with all that. I don't think it would be as simple as happily accepting Rax's leadership or going to the Unknown Regions to help set Snoke up.

 

I saw this before I heard that he'd been confirmed for Rebels, so this was my first thought as well.

 

I'm guessing (for both Rebels and Disney) they brought Thrawn back because they were running out of recognisable villains, since with the exception of Pappa Palpatine himself they've pretty much used all of them and Thrawn was the most famous EU villain.

 

Wow, I didn't expect they would get Zahn to write another Star Wars book, much less a nuEU Thrawn book?! Although I have concerns about how they could fit Thrawn into the current canon (with post-RotJ being set-up for TFA mostly), but still, yay, this is great news!

 

On the one hand, it's genuinely cool that they decided to have Zahn reintroduce the character to the new canon in the Literature. If there's a classy way of going about things, this is it.

On the other, I can't help but think it's kind of lame that they're bringing EU characters across to the NU. Especially so early on. The odd reference and allusion here and there I'm down with . . . wholesale reproduction? No so much.

That being said, at least this will allow for a more consistent characterisation from the getgo.

 

So, Thrawn.
Apart from being a Sherlock Holmes figure with awesome eyebrows, what made him special as an antagonist IMO were two things:
-- his outsider position within the Empire because he's a nonhuman
-- the fact that he was trying all along to protect the galaxy from an outside threat, and joined the Empire because he saw it as the best bet against it (at least in retcon)

Now, I'm not sure about the current state of anti-nonhuman sentiment in the NEU Empire; but as I see it, it can't be as bad as Zahn described it before the Prequels came out, what with Mas Amedda and all. Right?
And the YV, well, I don't see them coming back.
So what remains that justifies bringing back Thrawn? Especially since we already have one clearly Thrawn-inspired Fleet Admiral with artistic inclinations already, and are going to get an iconic Grand Admiral come December? Hell, the Vader series even gave us a literal Spacelock Holmes. So... why?

This is not to say that I'm not looking forward to this novel. And I'm keeping my hopes up that Zahn will do something interesting with the Unknown Regions, maybe prepare the ground for the eventual First Order homeland setting. But right now, I'm mostly confused... and extremely curious to see what sort of Thrawn the new canon has room for.

 

Obvious solution is obvious... Thrawn gets kicked out of the New Order and returns to known space in 9 ABY, and gets to repeat his campaign against the New Republic. XD

 

That would be fine. Although in that case, really, there's not much reason not to simply re-canonize TTT, and let this new book be about... something else.

 

The fact that for the ST they are using a Cosplayer as the main villain, should have given a clue that Disney are a bit bare in the Villain cupboard, it's not surprising Thrawns back.

The problem Starwars has always had (and this is even before Disney) is that Darth Vader is the greatest villain in film history, it's really hard to top that.

 

Okay even tho my Thrawn thread was locked, I gotta hand it to Ulicus that was a funny way to lock the thread

 

https://www.facebook.com/TimothyZahn]First[/url] draft is done!

 

For me it's a bit different:

Initially, Thrawn is set up as a more careful adversary in contrast to the more wanton characters of Vader and the Emperor, but this does not render him really any more moral than them. If anything Thrawn is every bit as amoral as them in how he pursues his ends, he just has the ability to convince you he isn't that bad.

If you add in the 'uniting the galaxy to fight a bigger bastard' ret-con, does that change anything of Thrawn's MO? I don't think so - it doesn't actually move him from the villain to hero column.

 

This will be a day long remembered.....

 

Well I thought it was established that the New Republic had a New EU canon treaty with the Empire remnant, and that the First Order was an offshoot. May be basing this off old rumors.

 

Okay, then that makes it easy for Thrawn(if he survived that long. We're thinking Ian Mckellen playing him here if the Chiss don't age as rapidly.) to just easily be retired.

EDIT: what would be cool, and obviously there's no knowing how long this new version of the character will be around, is if the First Order persuades him to come out of retirement. He agrees, but don't take no **** from no one, runs things his way, still has his beliefs of how the Empire should be, and even wears the old Imperial Symbol on his uniform.

 

I know this is Lit, but I find it incredibly interesting who is voicing

Spoiler

Thrawn in Rebels.

Is it just a coincidence?

 

Zahn being the author is what works for me here. Anyone else writing this? Probably not.

 

Zahn is a surprise, but I don't believe anything can fix canon for me.

 

Well, that's pretty much a self-fulfilling prophecy for you then Zeta!

 

This is Amazing!

 

The Literature forum - where someone can look at the last two years of Star Wars and conclude that ONLY NOW, with this announcement, is Disney "finally doing something right." Don't ever change, Lit.

The return of Tim Zahn to Star Wars is reason for, well, celebration. What a time to be a fan!