#Thrawn Treason spoilers

[thrawns-backrest]

My thoughts on Treason but just the funny bits. I'll do a more serious review but here's some crack for now (CONTAINS SPOILERS BEWARE):

Pik and Waffle, lovable evil jocks with the silliest little names. No, I will not elaborate.

Savit is the embodiment of the 'he's out of line but he's right' meme. He was literally right. No actually he was wrong, he gave Stardust a few years when in reality it only lasted a day (Fs in the chat but also lmao, get rekt).

I'm still not supposed to root for the Empire like this but here we are.

Someone give Ronan a 'Krennic's top simp' shirt that he can wear with his goofy little cape. Which I'm happy to say the book read to filth, as it should.

The fact that Eli is still so genuine and likeable that even barbed-stick-up-my-ass Ronan felt bad for leaving him down at the space port... only for Eli to then get back to his shuttle with literal thoughts of slaughter on his mind. Like damn it takes some skill to make Eli this mad.

In recent news, Thrawn is still an absolute riot.

My heart goes out to Faro, every time she thinks she's catching up to Thrawn he just comes up with an even more insane plan and she ages ten years on the spot. Like 'we're going to fight Savit now but I'm not even gonna be here, also I left you some instructions on your Ipad :)' '???? Sir????'

My sympathies to the poor stormtroopers who had to watch Thrawn and literally thought he was joking when he said he was going to the bridge. They literally went 'yeah sure you will buddy- wait where did he go?!?'

Cue Savit having an aneurism when he finds him there. (You cannot tell me this man isn't having the time of his life in that moment. Huge 'little shit' energy right there. And I respect that.)

Imagine the Firedrake crew just minding their own business and Grand Fucking Admiral Thrawn walks by without any escort whatsoever like 'Hello :)' '???? Can I help you, sir????' 'No, I know my way around :)) Thank you :)'

TIE Defender supremacy. Stardust sucks.

Half of this book was big ships yeeting smaller ships at other big ships. No, I will not elaborate.

The other half was Thrawn and Ar'alani going back and forth like 'Thrawn no!! >:((' 'Thrawn yes! :))' 'sigh... fine.'

Also, can we talk about how hilariously petty the Chiss are?? ...I am so on board with that.

Knowing how bad Thrawn is at these political games, it's no wonder he's cool chilling with the Empire for now. I mean, the Empire is bad but the Chiss sound even worse. My man just wants to solve space mysteries, let him be.

Savit having another aneurysm while waiting for Ronan to catch up to him and Thrawn in the beginning of the book. Meanwhile Ronan living his best life walking down the runway with his stupid little cape

Chiss are genetically predisposed to being little shits, I'm not joking that's just facts.

"Have you found the target? If not, I suggest you put thoughts of entertainment out of your mind and concentrate on the task at hand." "Yes, sir." Tanik straightened in his chair. "Oh, wait, sir," he said with exaggerated brightness. "I stand corrected. Admiral, we have them." (SEE? SEE WHAT I MEAN??)

Tanik literally smiling at his station because he's gonna spill the tea about Khresh having a little tantrum to all his besties at home, what a legend.

Eli: Man, I want some one-on-one time with Thrawn. Also Eli when he gets some one-on-one time with Thrawn: Oh fuck, am I in trouble-

"Perhaps. But I believe you were suggesting a shift to turbolaser fire?" "A shift to-? Oh. No, actually, I was being facetious." "Ah." PFFFFFT

Okay I'm done. For now.

[bylightofdawn]

So I'm onto Thrawn Treason audiobook. This one I had to buy from Audible since spotify didn't have it available. I'd previously bought the book though so it was only like 10 bucks.

And I finally got to Eli's reaction to meeting up with Thrawn for the first time in over a year and his inward SEETHING and "REALLY? This is the greeting I get? Good Day, Lieutenant Vanto???" reaction is just too priceless.

Just...this whole ass mood.

It sent me suffice it to say.

Also, I'm kinda lowkey shipping him and Vah’nya this time around too. Gawd, Zahn just needs to write a sequel trilogy or SOMETHING with the Chiss while Thrawn is off being a dumbass in the Empire and I just need my Eli crops watered. Just....give me crumbs of canon, please??

I mean, he is clearly gearing towards the Grysks being something similar to say the Yuzon Vong in the old EU. This scary, alien invasion from the Unknown Regions species set on ruining everyone's day. Hopefully handled....slightly better.

But it feels like Disney is just....letting this plot thread dangle off and it's killing me.

[timeladix]

Wh-holy shit these are agbui right????

In treason on the cojoined ships that formed the triad there are agbui OKKKK

I mean it makes sense bc they're client spicies of the grysks but still

Lol

[buffthrawn]

we love the pik and waffle cameo

[marroniere]

fic: Admiral Fantastic, Thranto, Mature

After the walk, he shall return to inquire about the Great Mothers’ progress. Now, though, he must deal with even more delicate matters.

Thrawn presses the button on the recording device.

First, there are the sounds that indicate a very, very thorough bug sweep. Thrawn commends Captain Enoch’s attention to detail, truly. It is, however, both convenient and most unfortunate that the Captain never bothered to check the built-in comlink in the helmet he so favors. It only took Thrawn ten minutes to reprogram it.

Then come the conversations with a stormtrooper about the destruction of an Imperial base on Lysatra. Thrawn believes the stormtrooper to be an unreliable narrator—a human’s emotional state may affect the said human’s ability to think logically and focus on the details that matter. But the recording makes it abundantly clear that Eli Vanto did take part in its destruction. Curious.

Thrawn takes a pause to read all the files he manages to find on the base on Lysatra. He sits down in the tall, black grass, under a carcass of a tree. The rancor curls beside him. Already in the base commander's dossier, Thrawn finds what he needs. "Necessary security measures" taken against the local population.

Moff Gideon, in all his infinite wisdom, decided to begin with a mass murder of those Lysatrans who wished to have talks with him.

Some distant part of Thrawn wants to brand Eli a traitor. He refuses to do so. Over the years, it has become increasingly harder for Thrawn to draw a line between himself and the Empire. More often than ever, he has to remind himself where his true loyalties lie.

But then he remembers, and then certain things become obvious. If Thrawn’s people were treated that way by the Empire, he would have done the same thing Eli did.

(Would he? Does he even remember what his people look like?)

(He would. He certainly would.)

[doctorwenqing]

okay but... where are the grallocs

[wixiany]

i love that we’re going to see more of Thrawn, and I get that the heir to the Empire is some big legends thing, but I’ve read 5/6 of those Thrawn books that are supposed to be considered canon, and idk, i just don’t see how this fits into Thrawn’s characterisation????

[admiral-arelami]

Thank you, @mustbethursdayy , for drawing our attention to the Hat Man's *own words* about the Star Wars canon. 💙

Canonicity

There seem to be some misconceptions about what, exactly, a "canon" is, so I thought I would post a dictionary definition of the word just to clear things up. Pay special attention to no. 2. So yes, considering the centrality of books and literature in various types of canons over the centuries, it is logical to assume that books are *also* part of the Star Wars canon. But don't take *my* word for it; I'm fairly certain the Star Wars people themselves will tell you that the Thrawn 2017 and Thrawn Ascendancy trilogies are part of the "new" Disney canon (i.e. canon in the sense of "authoritative body of works"), even if Disney decides to contradict or retcon them from time to time. Timothy Zahn, the author of these trilogies, also seems to be under the impression that they are "canon." Sure, Disney can "de-canonize" any or all of these books at any time, but for now, at least, they are still "officially" recognized as "canon." In any case, any body of "canonical" works--whether in Christianity, literature, art, film, or music (no, I don't mean "canon" in the sense of musical genre or technique here), carries within itself numerous contradictions and revisions.

And yes, I am already very well acquainted with the other dictionary definitions of "canon," thank you very much.

Sincerely,

One of the "Thrawns."

[heirtotheempire]

As I read through the Ascendency trilogy, it is becoming more and more clear that the Chiss Ascendency is as hateful as the Empire. And it's odd how few people call that out. I think it is because Zahn does a fantastic job at hiding it through Chiss POV, but even then, the Chiss are still incredibly xenophobic and controlling. Yes, this includes Thrawn, he isn't the saint that so many people like to paint him as and frankly could be argued as worse.

I keep thinking about Ar'alani admitting she never saw non-Chiss as people. She is brilliant and kind, but only to other Chiss. We view her in a purely positive light because the POVs in these books are primarily Chiss, who agree with her. Of course her mindset is normal amongst Chiss, of course it isn't questioned, of course Ar'alani herself never questions it despite her experience off-world. It takes a direct and pretty personal interaction for her to think twice, and even then it is difficult for her to accept the humanity of a non-Chiss. They are lesser in her eyes. They are lesser in the eyes of most, if not all, of the Chiss.

It is fascinating, it really is. It's an interesting look into a xenophobic society without the initial hate from the reader. Because xenophobia is born out of misunderstanding and perpetuated systems of ignorance. If a similar situation was told but through the eyes of Imperial officers, fewer people would be willing to see the nuances. Because Empire=Bad and anyone associating with it is also Bad, right?

But, propaganda and cycles of ignorance are also to blame. Not every Imperial Officer was born hating aliens. Hell, even TARKIN started out incredibly sympathetic to alien species according to the canon novel by James Luceno. But his family taught him otherwise, just as the Chiss Ascendency teaches its own children see other species as lesser.

This mentality from the Ascendency is also seen in Thrawn: Treason with how Eli Vanto is treated simply for being human. The majority of officers hate his existence, insist he must prove himself (despite being at a lower rank than he was at when with the Empire), and are distrustful of him. Very similar to how Ronan treats Thrawn in the same novel.

This isn't, like, a call to love Chiss characters any less, but it's a bit odd to imply that Thrawn, or any other Chiss, would be against the Empire for the same reasons the Rebellion is. The Ascendency doesn't like the Empire because it could encroach on their rule, their space- not because it's xenophobic and oppresses too many people to count. The two systems are remarkably similar, which may be part of why Thrawn was inclined to help the Empire. It is familiar, and a system Thrawn himself has never opposed, even without taking Legends into account.

(SIDE NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT BRING UP SPOILERS FOR GREATER GOOD OR LESSER EVIL ON THIS POST. I AM STILL READING THOSE BOOKS AND WOULD LIKE TO ENJOY THEM SPOILER-FREE)

[cosmiccherrylimeade]

Tales of the Empire review, the problem with Filoni

Spoilers for "The Path of Anger" below

So, to start off with the obvious, Dave Filoni has never read a single Cannon Thrawn novel. The timeline of events in this episode made no sense for the timeline of the novels. Thrawn was an admiral, yet he was already accompanied by Rukh and Pallean, whom he wouldn't even MEET until he reached grand admiral status. At this point in the Cannon novels, he would have been accompanied by Eli Vanto, not Pallean. In fact, he wouldn't even meet Pallean until the events of Treason. The choice by Folini to overhaul this story erases the conical nature of the "Cannon" Thrawn novels.

Before I get into my real point on the problem with how Filoni writes, I'll give my review of the episode as a whole. It was fine, not much to write home about. The animation was beautiful as to be expected, and very expressive. The writing was... just ok. The empire was depicted as cartoonishly evil, though it is a cartoon so, maybe that's justified. For a short that was supposed to teach us more about Morgan and her motivations, I feel like we didn't learn much about her that we didn't already know? She's good with ship design, she wants revenge and power, etc. Nothing new. Personally, I found the pacing of the episode to be quite boring, it was very slow despite the short runtime. Overall, I don't know if I would recommend it, though I thought the episodes following Barris were quite enjoyable.

Now for the real problem I have with these episodes: Filoni's insistence on his own version of cannon at the cost of others' work. I don't deny Filoni is a good writer and director, Rebels is one of my favorite shows of all time! But he's been on this power trip after being essentially being handed the reigns to Star Wars. There was a period where Star Wars was a collaborative effort between a ton of creatives working on something they loved, the second golden age, that made it into a beloved franchise for a new generation. But now it's just Filoni, and he decides what part of other creative works he'll pick and choose to tell his own story. I feel so bad for Zhan. He created this beloved character, and wrote AMAZING NOVELS, only to have his incredibly complex character be forced into a 2d stereotype. Filoni needs to do better because if he keeps going down the path of writing he has been Star Wars is going to be a shell of its former glory.

[thrawns-backrest]

Ar'alani: We're getting a new human recruit

Eli: Aw neat!

Ar'alani: It's Ronan

Eli:

[mydearestblue]

One thing I can do? Screaming about how fucking good the Ascendency trilogy was (Yes I liked some books less than others but they are still absolute supreme pieces of sci-fi writing) and how it broke me

Thrawn lost his biological sister in such a cruel way (uncle Timmy truly said “you think the Jedi taking kids away from their family is bad? hold my bear I’m going to do something way crueler”), then his “adopted” brother (THRASS!!!! I was absolutely not ready to fall in love with him so much, or to see how tender and deep was his relationship with Thrawn only to have it taken away so quickly!!! THEY DESERVED MORE TIME TOGETHER YOUR HONOUR 😭), and then he had to say goodbye to Thalias and every single one of his friends in the hope of getting the resources needed to protect the Chiss from outside enemies, AND JUST A COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER THAT HE WOULD HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE TO ELI AS WELL!!!

I need my blue baby girl to take every remenant of Imperial force and go beat the Syndicure ass right now

I just finished Lesser Evil and with it all canonical Thrawn's books and I don't know what to do what my life

[thrawns-babygirl]

Finally, my thoughts on Lesser Evil

The memories chapters in this book? Chefs kiss.

Exactly what I want out of the memories chapters in these books. Small insights into Thrawn's life outside being in command of a ship. If Zahn gave me a full novel that was just slice of life I would eat that shit UP.

Thurfian and Zistalmu getting divorced was hilarious, I love those two so much. They are so in love I love them. Little political gremlins.

Some spoilers under the cut

Oh my God, I knew it was coming, but Thrass' death chapter literally killed me. Like, Zahn you can't rip my heart out like that. Thrawn needs his brother man, come on.

The scene at the very end with Thrawn getting exiled hurt until the conversation between Ba'kif and Ar'alani. Like, I knew that it the plan to get him in touch with the Empire, but watching my man get his honour chains removed at the trial hurt so bad after all he's done for the Ascendancy. Like, my man has given EVERYTHING for his people and Thurfian is there rubbing his grubby little hands together thinking he finally bested our Senior Captain Blueberry.

Speaking of shit that hurt. The scene with Borika. Man. "I dont remember him" bruh. And the fact that Thrawn never got to meet her before he was exiled killed me.

Speaking of shit that killed me.

Thrawn sitting at the bistro, alone, thinking of Thrass during his last night on Csilla. Tim you monster. That shit hurt me so bad.

The final fight between the Chiss and the Grysk above sunrise was amazing, watching Thrawn command the entire Chiss fleet so effectively was sexy as fuck. Go off king, do your thing.

Roscu pissed me off the entire book, except for the very end, which I know was Zahn's intention with her character so props for good writing. She pissed me off.

Wutroow remains my favourite. I love her so much. The way she finesses Roscu into giving away information by saying Ar'alani was sulking, absolute queen shit. I love her so much.

Oh and the Stybla ceremony where thrawn gets the "odo" suffix on his name was lovely. Its little insights into chiss culture that I live for.

And the reveal that Ba'kif was Stybla before he became supreme general was also a nice touch.

Samakro realising he's actually come to respect Thrawn 🥺🥺 yes, thank you king.

The whole ending was so bitter-sweet. It was by far my favourite of the three. I loved it so much.

I've already read Thrawn (2017) and Thrawn: Alliances and a friend told me to read the Ascendancy trilogy before reading Treason and TBH I think that was amazing advice because now I have such a good background for the Chiss and Ar'alani's character that I didn't have before. So stay tuned for my mad ramblings about Treason in the coming days.

Tl:dr

Best book in the series, Thrass was pure husband material and was taken from us too soon. I now have so many chiss ships and nothing to do with them.

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

Thrawn Reading List & Watchlist

WARNING: The following may contain spoilers for the Star Wars Expanded Universe, especially for several series*. Both books and episodes are in an approximate timeline order (updated as of 5/10/24). 

*Series entries are listed as Season:Episode. 

Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn 

Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good by Timothy Zahn 

Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn 

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn 

Tales of the Empire II: The Path of Anger 

Rebels: 

3:1-2 Steps into Shadow: Parts I & II 

3:5 Hera’s Heroes 

3:8 Iron Squadron 

3:10 An Inside Man 

3:14 Warhead 

3:17 Through Imperial Eyes 

3:18 Secret Cargo 

3:21-22 Zero Hour: Parts I & II 

Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn 

4:1-2 Heroes of Mandalore: Parts I & II 

4:6 Flight of the Defender 

4:7 Kindred 

4:9 Rebel Assault 

4:10 Jedi Night 

Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn 

4:11 Dume 

4:15 Family Reunion & Farewell 

Ahsoka: 

1:6 Far, Far Away 

1:7 Dreams and Madness 

1:8 The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord 

[stellanslashgeode]

I borrowed an audiobook of Thrawn: Treason from Libby, which came long after I finished writing Permission to Come Aboard, Admiral but that’s okay. And I am endlessly amused that the voice actor gave one of the characters a Sean Connery accent. Because that’s kind of a spoiler as it’s clearly a cheeky reference to Hunt for Red October.

[thrawn-hub]

I was reading a thrawn x reader slowburn fic but its getting into spoiler territory for Thrawn: Treason and I haven't finished that book yet but I didn't get to the part of the fic with the smut so now I have to finish Treason before I read the rest of the fic 😭 i just wanna get the blue dick man