#padme is definitely the smartest person in this au

[sendpseuds]

Oh no I’ve figured out the Twister au—

If it were up to Anakin, he would never return to Oklahoma.

His mom is gone, his step brother never liked him anyway, his team is—

But when Padme surprised him with plane tickets, calling it an engagement gift and squealing about how excited she was to see where he grew up— Anakin couldn’t find a good enough excuse to say no.

Now, staring at a familiar caravan of ramshackle vehicles on the side of the road, Anakin thinks maybe he should have told her the truth.

Because the truth is, if it were up to Anakin, he never would have left Oklahoma in the first place.

If it had been up to Anakin he would be in the back of that beat up bus searching for the next big storm.

If it were up to Anakin he would never have walked away from the two things he loved more than anything.

But it hadn’t been up to Anakin.

No, Obi-Wan took that choice away.

“It’s an incredible opportunity, Anakin, think of what you could do at a school like that.”

“But I belong here, chasing storms.”

[even then he hadn’t been able to say “I belong with you, Obi-Wan.” Even now he doesn’t think it would have changed anything.]

“I can’t make you go. But I won’t let you back on this team until you come back here with a degree.”

Anakin hates him.

But when his eyes land on the figure tinkering with the same damn satellite dish they’ve had forever, a shock of fire red hair glowing in the Oklahoma sun, Anakin thinks that may not be as true as he’d thought.

[gffa]

Every single time I do this, I keep thinking, “I’ll just add one or two more to the list, because they’re so good and that’ll be it, surely fandom won’t post anything else that I need to immediately read and yell about my feelings over!” And then every single time I’m wrong about that and STAR WARS fandom puts out more fic or, I don’t know, creates and Obi-Ken genfic exchange and I suddenly have a whole new pile of fic to read and crying about it. It’s the best worst problem to have because there are some absolutely stellarfics here and so many talented people and I need to yell a lot and shove them allat everyone who will listen! STAR WARS FIC RECS: TIME TRAVEL RECS: ✦ The Unreliability of Chronology by Felilla, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & rex & cast, time travel, 7.5k wip    No. His Padawan died on Mortis six months ago and he was left without even a body to mourn. This was a trick. She hadn’t returned to him and she most definitely was not a decade older. ✦ Blades of Grass by zarabithia, obi-wan & shmi, time travel, ~1k    Shmi is not yet five years old when the strange man falls out of the sky. ✦ A Future in Crisis by WolfMarauder, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 45.3k wip    Ahsoka has a vision that may change the course of the future. She just needs to keep her master from falling, keep his wife from dying, and the Jedi Order from dying out… That’s all. The first step is returning the the Jedi Order and she finds she has more friends than she thought. ✦ Warmth by Tomatosoupful, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & xanatos & tahl & shmi & cast, child endangerment, time travel, 59.8k wip    Time Travel AU. Anakin has woken up in the past. Time to say hello to past friends, right? Only problem, Anakin is a walking talking human disaster and makes a lot of stupid decisions. Stealing a Jedi baby from the temple certainly isn’t the smartest thing he’s done. PREQUELS RECS: ✦ Trust by SingManyFaces, anakin & ahsoka, 1.2k    Three moments when Ahsoka recognized Anakin in the Force. ✦ Room Arrangements by skatzaa, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k    Anakin has some concerns about room arrangements at the Temple. Obi-Wan does his best to reassure him. ✦ When Darkness Seems to Hide This Place by IllyanaA, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & kanan & ocs & cast, 94.9k wip    After killing three of the Jedi Order’s best and brightest, Palpatine’s fight with Jedi Master Mace Windu goes shorter than expected. Afraid he’s lost his chance at recruiting a new apprentice, Sidious unleashes Order 66 across the galaxy, but, per their programming, the Clone Army is not to harm Anakin Skywalker. After witnessing the most painful loss he’s ever experienced and injured at the hands of his captors, Anakin is ready to die like the rest of the Jedi, though not before getting his vengeance. ✦ Waiting and Learning by otherhawk, obi-wan & ahsoka & cody & waxer & boil & cast, 2.9k    During a brief period of time when Ahsoka Tano is working with the 212th under Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka takes part in a mission to obtain separatist codes. Unfortunately the mission involves a lot of downtime without much entertainment as they wait for an ambush. Along the way Ahsoka gets to know her grandmaster better and makes some new friends. ✦ Out of the Desert Storm by LazarusII, obi-wan & owen & luke & beru, 2.1k    One day, a harsh desert storm suddenly kicks up, stranding Owen Lars and a young Luke Skywalker in the Jundland Wastes. Obi-Wan saves the day, takes them back to his home, and a friendship begins. ✦ And the Void Answered Back by Ghost_Owl, obi-wan & anakin & rey & finn & poe & ben & yoda & maz & han & cast, force ghosts, 110.6k    (Follows the Force ghosts of Anakin, Obi Wan, and friends getting dragged kicking and screaming through the events of The Force Awakens) ✦ you’re safe within by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k    Anakin wakes from nightmares tinted red. The darkness of his bedroom seems oppressive, and no matter how many times he blinks red seems to seep into the edges of his vision. He wants to feel safe. He wants Obi-Wan. ✦ Imperfect Resolution by Nny11, ahsoka/barriss, 11k    When Ahsoka Tano heard there was a possible Jedi living in the Outer Rim she could recruit, she didn’t expect to find Barriss Offee. She didn’t expect her stupid heart to bleed over this. It’s so much easier to forgive someone when you thought they were dead. ✦ The Spire by skatzaa, obi-wan & ocs, 2.4k    The galaxy was on the brink of war, and Obi-Wan Kenobi had been assigned a new room. ✦ We Push Away the Unimaginable by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & padme, 5.2k    RotS AU: Padme survives. Weak from her injuries on Mustafar and healing after giving birth, she and the twins are taken into hiding by Obi Wan. Now they are on the run from the Empire and dealing with each other’s trauma, as they try to figure out what to do after your world falls apart. ✦ Swimming Lessons by devilinthedetails, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k    Obi-Wan decides Anakin must learn how to swim. ✦ In Pursuit by zinjadu, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & rex & padme & adi & cast, 40k    AU - The Jedi Who Knew Too Much. Rex decides to stay “in pursuit” of his Commander; he jumps. Now, with backup, Ahsoka navigates the lower levels and deals with Ventress. Meanwhile, Anakin takes the Order to task, finds a little more support, and things turn out a little differently for everyone. ✦ Of Progress and Promises by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & bant & yoda & cast, 6.2k    Not long after joining the Jedi Order, Anakin Skywalker teams up with some of his Master’s friends for a very important mission: to get Obi-Wan Kenobi to smile and laugh again. ✦ Accidental Baby Acquisition: The Obi-Wan Kenobi Way by kitkatkaylie, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 9.9k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi was just browsing the market, he has no idea how the baby ended up in his robe, honest. ✦ The Bad Day (Trademark Pending) by skatzaa, obi-wan & anakin & bant, 2k    Obi-Wan is having one of his Bad Days. Anakin helps. ✦ Old Sins Cast Long Shadows by zarabithia, ahsoka & obi-wan/padme & anakin & cast, 16.6k    In this universe, when Palpatine asks if Anakin is going to kill him, Anakin does. While Anakin ultimately wins, it costs him his life. In this universe, the twins are raised by Ahsoka, Padmé, and Obi-Wan. ✦ Voices in the Dark by otherhawk, obi-wan & cody, 6.9k wip    In the middle of the war Obi-Wan and Cody find themselves stranded behind enemy lines, deep in the old tunnels of a hostile world. Injured, alone and in complete darkness they have to rely on each other’s skill and strength. Fortunately there’s plenty to go around. ✦ Abducted by devilinthedetails, obi-wan & qui-gon, 1.6k    In trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a planetary leader, Qui-Gon finds himself abducted and in need of Obi-Wan’s rescue. ✦ Wellspring by skatzaa, obi-wan & shmi, 1.9k    Ben meditates, and meets a ghost. She’s just not the ghost he’s been expecting. ✦ Farewell There by DestielsDestiny, obi-wan & mace & cast, 1.4k    It was a routine mission. In so much as anything was routine since the war began. Which was to say, it was a disaster from the word go. ✦ A Burning Why by Icarus_is_flying, jocasta & anakin, 1.1k    Jocasta Nu understood many things–all valuable, obscure, interesting, well-known, and useless in turn–knowledge earned over decades. Some questions were easy to answer. Others take generations to decipher. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, anakin & ahsoka & mace & rig & vokara, 1k    Anakin Skywalker walks through the halls of the Jedi Temple, his padawan by his side. ✦ playing yourself like a red three by EclipseMidnight (EternalEclipse), obi-wan & xanatos & qui-gon, 7.7k    As usual, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s mission has gone spectacularly sideways, this time before they even reach the planet they are meant to be helping. Luckily for them, they get some help from an unexpected source. ✦ Obitine Week 2019 by sunshineisdelicious, obi-wan/satine & anakin & ahsoka & qui-gon & korkie, 12.6k    A little celebration of Obi-Wan and Satine. ✦ I Know: Or, How Ahsoka Tano Saved the Skywalkers by SianShanya, obi-wan & anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, 12.5k    In a galaxy where Ahsoka learns of her master’s marriage before leaving(because come on, Anakin is the least subtle person ever), Evil Plans are thwarted left and right. ✦ Rebirth by Emmeebee, obi-wan & padme & cast, 12.3k    Padmé has never been one to run from danger, but it’s different when it’s her children at stake. A rewrite of the ending of Revenge of the Sith. ✦ Flash Flash Fashion Baby by Nny11, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, ~1k    Anakin wears a crop top to show solidarity with his Padawan’s fashion choices and because Padme wears one. He didn’t mean to start a galaxy wide trend! ✦ Aliit ori'shya tal'din by TexasDreamer01, obi-wan & anakin & cody & waxer & boil & ahsoka & cast, 5.3k    Reconnaissance missions are never easy. On a far-flung planet in the Outer Rim, Obi-Wan thinks, is not much better. His troops and friends, however, can make his work downright pleasant. ✦ Perpetual Parents & Padawans by BigFatBumblebee, obi-wan & anakin & mace & yoda & cast, 2.4k    As is the case with all children, Jedi Padawans grow up. And as with all parents, Jedi Masters occasionally find this a rather difficult concept to get to grips with, and no matter how old, Padawan’s need their Masters. ✦ Force Ex Machina by BookGirlFan, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & ahsoka, 4.3k    Qui-Gon appears in the middle of the Clone Wars, and Anakin discovers some uncomfortable truths about his master’s past. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, jocasta & yoda & cast, 1.1k    Jocasta Nu has been the Head Librarian of the Jedi Temple for many years now. There is no one who knows the Temple library and its different ways of searching for information better than she does. ✦ Escapade by Shadaras, obi-wan & anakin, 1.3k    Obi-Wan helps Anakin rescue himself from hawk-bats beneath the Jedi Temple. OBI-WAN/ANAKIN RECS: ✦ untitled by imperialvader, obi-wan/anakin, 1k    Kenobi and Skywalker. Anakin and Obi-Wan. They’re a team. They’re the team. And they happen in every universe. ✦ This time we’ll fall together by liv_k, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & yoda & bail & cast, 13.5k wip    In the aftermath of Order 66, Anakin Skywalker’s miraculous survival after his confrontation with the new Sith Apprentice Darth Vader ignites a sparkle of hope in the remaining Jedi, in the fledgling rebellion and, above all, in his former Master, who had thought he had lost everything to darkness. But darkness is generous, and it is patient. ✦ The Missing Part by Nightstar269, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & palpatine, NSFW, modern au (of sorts), suicide ideation, switching in the final chapter, 151.1k    Anakin Skywalker, a student of mechanical engineering, has always felt that his life was lacking something, a feeling that was made much worse with the deaths of his mother first, and of the woman he loved some time later. Still haunted by the pain and heartbreak, he tries to go on with his life as well as he can. When an initiative of the director of the university has the students attending the classes of another degree so as to enrich their knowledge, he will meet someone that will turn his world upside down. ✦ Upfall by bell (belldreams), obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & satine(/obi-wan background) & padme & cast, NSFW, 41.5k wip    Anakin is doing just about everything he can to hold himself together; it won’t last. ✦ The Devil’s Own by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & cast, regency au, 16.2k wip    Some whisper the Skywalker family is the devil’s own, and no tutors in the area will take on the orphaned Lord, a young man famous for his excessive drinking, riding, and dueling. The townspeople shake their heads at the arrival of the latest tutor, a London scholar out of money and other options, wondering how long it will be before this Kenobi is run out like all the rest. ✦ Mutual Acquaintances by Ghost_Owl, obi-wan/anakin & obi-wan/satine & anakin/padme & padme/satine & cast, 11k wip    In which Satine’s distress call puts Obi Wan under Council scrutiny, Anakin offers to save her for him as a Totally Platonic Favor, Satine would like one good day, please, Padmé has everything under control, and Maul manages to cause an even bigger problem than before. ✦ The Garden by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & rex & cody, a/b/o, 4.8k wip    Nothing is ever simple with Anakin Skywalker. ✦ Tell Me Yes by SingManyFaces, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, mild d/s, 2.7k    Anakin gets too worked up, Obi-Wan talks him down. ✦ Montreschere by Ralph_E_Silvering, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & dooku & cast, 9.4k wip    Reckless, brilliant Anakin Skywalker is being hailed as the greatest swordsman of his age. In a city where the nobles hire swordsmen in their never-ending political games against one another, Anakin is always assured of a job and is beholden to no one and nothing except the sword. Until the day he meets the handsome, reclusive Duke of Montreschere, whose idealism threatens the very foundations of the city’s most powerful players, and Anakin learns the true meaning of living, and dying, by the sword. ✦ Beard by bell (belldreams), obi-wan/anakin, ~1k    It’s the beard, Anakin thinks sometimes. But he knows better; the beard is just a symbol, a visual shortcut for something far more complex. ✦ For Everything by Diminution, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, 10.8k wip    In which Obi-Wan owns a coffee shop and Anakin stumbles in early one morning after an especially terrible nightmare. ✦ not too particular, not too precise by AozoraNoShita, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & padme, modern au, 4.1k    Obi-Wan and Anakin both run food blogs and they have Opinions about each other’s recipes. Then it turns out they live in the same apartment building and they have the same friends and when they finally meet? It’s like a cooking competition meets a rom-com. Kind of. ✦ The Seduction of Anakin Skywalker by DontCallMeShirley, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, 16.5k wip    Anakin is falling to the dark side. Obi Wan and Padme concoct a scheme to bring him back. ✦ Red Shift by Burning_Nightingale, obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, fem!anakin, 4.2k    Obi-Wan and Anakin decide to go undercover as a husband and wife bounty hunting team at a Black Sun casino to try and find crucial information about their ties to the Separatists. But when their host gives them a “gift” of aphrodisiac purri root, they get a little more than they bargained for. ✦ Would you teach me? by blurred_lines, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 3.8k wip    Obi-Wan was… well, meditating, probably, but this was most definitely a form of meditation Anakin wasn’t acquainted with. Like, not at all. ✦ So I Love You Because I Know No Other Way by DontCallMeShirley, obi-wan/anakin, 3.3k    Anakin and Obi Wan just need a little push to admit their feelings. ORIGINAL TRILOGY RECS: ✦ Binary by skatzaa, obi-wan & r2-d2, ~1k    Old Ben has a talk with a familiar astromech. ✦ Challenge or Manipulation by Raven_Knight, obi-wan & luke & yoda, 1.3k    Before going to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, Luke Skywalker visits the abandoned home of Ben Kenobi in the Jundland Wastes. ✦ a crown upon my head by skatzaa, leia & poe & rey, 1.7k    Poe finds her the morning after they escape from Crait at the dejarik table, though it she isn’t hard to find, with the Falcon as full as it is. ✦ Wizard by ASadHermitStory, obi-wan & owen & beru, ~1k    Owen worries that Obi-Wan is lurking too close to the farm and will attract unwanted attention to them. With Beru’s help, he proposes a solution. ✦ Inviolable by glorious_clio, leia & deara & bail/breha, 4.1k    Deara has a new niece to love and spoil, and teach how to smash things with hammers. Meanwhile, the Galaxy has gone to hell. REBELS RECS: ✦ The Starry Crown by bedlamsbard, ezra & kanan & sabine & zeb & chopper & cast, 17.4k wip    Months after Ezra Bridger vanished into the depths of the mysterious Jedi temple on Lothal, he reappears – with Kanan Jarrus in tow. All Hera Syndulla and the other surviving members of the Ghost crew want is to retrieve their missing teammates, but a Jedi who can raise the dead is a prize too great for the Empire to pass up. Palpatine will do anything to get Ezra and the secrets he carries – secrets that may allow the Emperor to control reality itself. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

[shadowsong26x]

Random SW meta because Why Not

So, I’ve been thinking some about Thrawn lately (because a) I do that off and on, and b) commentary about Alliances has been on my dash again lately). And I’ve been thinking about where he works really well for me, and where he doesn’t quite hit the mark; and where a lot of the commentary from people who are not super fond of the character is coming from (i.e., the fact that he is The Smartest In The Room and the need to demonstrate that has a tendency to push back on other characters he interacts with in a bad way/sometimes makes them look less clever/competent than they actually are; I’ve particularly seen this in some of the discussions about Alliances, and it’s not entirely wrong.)

The rest is now going behind a cut because apparently I am incapable of shutting up XD

Anyway. Quick note before we get started. While Thrawn isn’t actually my favorite/a top-tier character for me, I do like him quite a bit, and most of the works he’s in. (I also like Timothy Zahn’s writing style, for the most part, though I know it isn’t for everyone.) Outbound Flight, for example, remains one of my favorite Legends novels. Also, I do like Alliances. Not as much as the first canon Thrawn novel or the stuff in Legends, but more than a few people I’ve seen comment on it. That being said, I don’t like the way Zahn writes Vader, for one thing, and I can understand where people who don’t like the way he writes Anakin and Padme are coming from, though I don’t 100% agree. I also, overall, like Thrawn in the novels a lot better than I liked him in Rebels, particularly S4.

And I think a lot of it comes down to this:

Thrawn is, essentially, a Sherlock Holmes expy*.

And, more than Moriarty or his other nemeses/notable antagonists, and probably at least as much as being Clever and solving mysteries, a lot of what defines Sherlock Holmes, and what makes stories about him good and compelling, is his relationship with Watson**.

So, with that in mind…

In each of the novels except Alliances, Thrawn has a pretty solid Watson at his side. In the original Thrawn trilogy, of course, he has Pellaeon. In Outbound Flight, he has Car’das. In Thrawn, he has Eli. And it’s interesting, because while all three of these men fill that Watson role, and have a sort of give-and-take with Thrawn that’s really fun to read about, it plays out differently with each of them, based on the relative positions they hold, and their personalities.

Eli tends to come across more or less as Done with Thrawn’s bullshit like 99% of the time, as much as he respects Thrawn’s brilliance – but, then again, while Thrawn does outrank him, they come up together/start their careers in the Imperial military together, and have parallel learning curves.

Car’das is a combination of wary and fascinated, because he’s stranded in Chiss territory and Thrawn’s prisoner, so a lot of his dynamic with Thrawn is negotiations to make the best of the situation for himself and his friends. Meanwhile, Thrawn has next to no experience with the main (from a narrative perspective) part of the galaxy, and Car’das in particular is his window into that world and has a way of thinking that intrigues him. The two of them also have a lot to learn from each other, in terms of culture, history, language, etc.

Bearing in mind that I haven’t reread his books in a while – Pellaeon, interestingly enough, despite being pretty established in his career, is in some ways even more conscious of the rank and status in play than Car’das, at least at the start. Because he is directly under Thrawn’s authority, being the captain/commander of his flagship. To the best of my recollection, he starts off serving mostly as a sounding board for Thrawn, but over time starts to bounce back, and the two of them hit their stride I think probably somewhere in the second book? And there’s a lot of cool things about their dynamic, even posthumously (on Thrawn’s end) in the Hand of Thrawn duology ten years later, where the possibility of Thrawn being back and undoing everything Pellaeon is currently trying to accomplish is something he has to thread his way through very carefully.

Pellaeon also fits the audience-surrogate/narrator part of being Watson (which becomes kind of the focus in some adaptations of the source material, to the point where a badly-handled Watson loses most of his own characteristics/cleverness) better than most of the others. And, true, all of the Watsons fill the role in this respect, since Zahn didn’t write Thrawn’s point of view at all in Legends, but Pellaeon hits those particular notes the best, IMO. I remember reading the annotated Heir to the Empire and Zahn commenting that he needed a human viewpoint character because Thrawn is, well, alien, and that’s in some cases a better way to get alien worldviews/psychology across than trying to write it directly***.

Interestingly enough, Thrawn kind of serves as an origin story for all three book!Watsons, too? Which is probably part of what makes them so compelling, that while this relationship is a hugely impactful/defining one for them, it’s not the sum total of their character or story. For example, as much as I like Thrawn and Pellaeon’s dynamic with each other, I’m almost more attached to Pellaeon once he comes into his own and builds on what he had and then lost with Thrawn. (Full disclosure – while I generally prefer the broad-strokes post-ROTJ worldbuilding in Legends to the same in canon****, I’m not super fond of a lot of the specific Legends plot points from that era; Pellaeon’s arc is one of the exceptions.) And Car’das had his own journey, building a smuggling empire and doing some light espionage on the side as the Empire rose around him. Eli, of course, we have yet to see what he’s done with himself after separating from Thrawn, but I expect he’ll have a cool story of his own, too.

…anyway, the point of all that is, giving Thrawn someone to bounce off of in the right ways, with whom he can hit that Holmes-and-Watson dynamic in one way or another, makes him work a lot better, at least for me personally, than Thrawn more or less on his own, and that works pretty well in the Legends novels and the first canon Thrawn novel.

Which brings me to Alliances and Rebels.

Alliances is kind of an interesting case to me, because there’s sort of the start to that kind of push-and-pull Thrawn gets with his Watsons when he’s interacting with Anakin, which is probably why those sections worked the best for me (despite some issues with Anakin’s POV, although I didn’t find them as jarring as other readers have). But, of course, it’s never actually going to develop properly into that kind of relationship, primarily because Anakin has already imprinted on other people/is already spoken for, so to speak, and so he and Thrawn are never going to mesh. Which does make for an interesting AU/story of what might have happened if Thrawn, or the Chiss in general, had been the ones to find Anakin/recognize his potential and take him in, as opposed to Qui-Gon and Palpatine. Buuuuuuuut that’s a separate conversation, and an AU I don’t need/will not be writing, lol.

And Vader, of course, is never ever going to fill that niche for Thrawn; which probably contributes to why that half of the novel fell a little flat for me, along with really not liking the way Zahn wrote Vader.

And then there’s Rebels.

S4 Thrawn doesn’t work as well for me overall, because there’s no one in his orbit that even approaches that dynamic. Pryce might try, but he doesn’t seem to think much of her/like and respect her in the way he does with his various Watsons. His relationship with Rukh has its own appeal, but it’s not the same thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, S4!Thrawn is still clever and competent and badass and all of that and I do enjoy his bits, but he doesn’t draw me in/I’m not invested in him in the same way.

S3, on the other hand…

Much like the flashback half of Alliances, there’s the foundations of this kind of dynamic between Thrawn and Kallus. To the point where, if the timeline had been fudged just a little bit; if Kallus hadn’t already defected when Pryce requested the Seventh Fleet (and Eli was already gone), I actually think they probably would have headed in that direction. I think the specific interplay would’ve fallen somewhere between how Pellaeon deals with Thrawn and how Eli does, in part because of jurisdiction/whatever (which, I mean, I’m making up but Kallus is ISB, not Navy/regular military; so while he is under Thrawn’s authority, it’s not really in the same way as Pellaeon is, being the captain/commander of Thrawn’s flagship).

Which is not in any way to say that I would’ve preferred it if canon had gone in that direction, because I wouldn’t – in all honesty, Kallus’s canon arc hits, like, all of my narrative buttons, and I’m not sure it could’ve been more up my alley if it had been specifically tailor-made to appeal to me, personally. But having that potential Holmes-and-Watson dynamic underpinning Thrawn and Kallus’s interactions throughout S3 definitely adds something to Thrawn (at least for me), and probably to Kallus as well.

Long story short, Thrawn is a character who works best when he’s matched by the right deuteragonist/foil, and the places where he doesn’t work as well, at least for me, personally, support that.

(Also, I’m looking forward to Treason to see what’s become of Eli and hopefully get some more Chiss worldbuilding! Because the snippets we got in Alliances are pretty cool and one of the things I really liked about that novel. Also Pellaeon is officially a canon character as of the Rebels series finale so I’m hoping we get to see more of him, too! Either in Treason or elsewhere.)

*I don’t take credit for this reading/interpretation, btw! I think it was first pointed out to me by my roommate, though I may be misremembering. Either way, it seems accurate/makes a whole lot of sense to me, so I’m sticking with it!

**This holds true whether the relationship is romantic or platonic. This is in no way about shipping Thrawn with any of his Watsons (though, for the record, I do ship him with Pellaeon).

***This is another thing I like about the Thrawn books in general, and some of the worldbuilding Alliances gave us – Star Wars doesn’t do a whole lot with that side of things (i.e., with making aliens and the way they think/approach problems really feel alien, barring species like the Geonosians which are a little too removed, and make it hard to hit that sci-fi/fantasy sweet spot of being just the right combination of Similar But Otherworldly, if that makes sense? …tangentially related, I really should revisit that idea of an atevi Jedi at some point…but I digress). Anyway, I think it’s nice when this kind of thing is put into the universe. And since the Chiss Ascendancy and the Empire/Republic don’t have a lot of contact, it can be handled a lot better/more credibly with them, given the way the galaxy is built. So I appreciate that Zahn does that.

****I.e., the way the New Republic is set up; how the remainder of the Galactic Civil War played out over the next few years; a few other things; to the point where anything I write in that timeframe will absolutely be a blended canon, even beyond what I already do as a matter of course, integrating characters/specific locations and situations I like from the canon!ST with something like the broader Legends backdrop I prefer – with allowances, of course, for how AU I’ve gotten on the way to ROTJ. I mean, to be fair, once we get past roughly the Hand of Thrawn duology, I start getting a bit cranky at the worldbuilding again, but that’s when the plot points I dislike start taking over. But for those fifteen/twenty years, for that foundation, I prefer the Legends setup to the canon one. …and any more on the subject will be a long digression on my feelings about the ST in general which are out of place for this essay. Short version: I really like almost all of the new characters, but I’m not super invested in the story that’s being told with them.