#thrawn: vader was supposed to kill these jedi

[isagrimorie]

Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano as Wild Cards | Star Wars Ahsoka, 1x06

Sabine Wren, the Loose Thread, Unseen by the Great Mothers of Peridea. And enters Ahsoka, another loose thread, previously unseen.

[marvelstars]

Skyguy & Snips

The Clone Wars may have ended tragically but I have always loved this last conversation between Ahsoka and Anakin. Just imagining Anakin working on Ahsoka´s lightsabers hoping agaisnt hope for an oportunity to give them to her as a gift as her former master and friend and when they finally get the oportunity to meet it´s so bittersweet but nice just to talk to each other again.

Also Anakin´s way of showing love is so sweet:

Here Ahsoka, have your lightsabers back, oh you need people to help you on Mandalore, sure, take half of 501 st they all missed you and changed the color of their helmets to give you a nice welcome back, oh Obi-Wan says you can´t lead them into battle because you are not a "jedi" anymore?, don´t worry Snips, Rex is now Comander and you have great experience working together, go an help Mandalore.

Seriously, Anakin would have given her his metal arm if that would make her happy and she needed it. He would have stayed with her if he and Obi-Wan were not called especifically to rescue the Chancellor

Their relationship is friendship, family love, sister/brother, father/daughter all rolled into one and it was a nice end for them before tragedy stuck.

Now I hope Dave Filoni takes just enough time to give them a nice moment of closure post ROTJ on Ahsoka´s series and I can´t wait to see her learn about Thrawn´s own relationship with Anakin/Vader, that will honestly give her some pause while fighting him.

Ahsoka: What do you mean you knew him and didn´t try to bring him back?

Thrawn: Lady Tano, he didn´t even want to be called by his own name, he insisted he was dead and I am not force sensitive, what else was I supposed to do? I am not a mind healer either and even if I was, the Emperor would have killed me if I tried anything.

Ahsoka: Kidnap him and bring him to me so we could work on his issues.

Thrawn: He and I would have been killed by the rebellion, I didn´t know who you were or where you were hidding if I did that and that´s betrayal Miss Tano, I am loyal to my people and the Empire.

Ahsoka: How did Luke managed to get to him? and during a duel?

Thrawn: Family privilege I guess?, he was his Son after all, Anakin always cared deeply for those he saw as his own.

Ahsoka: It could be that(gets sad over not being able to get to him) well then, I guess we don´t have anything else to discuss Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Thrawn: I quite agree.

Both keep on fighthing.

Meanwhile Anakin´s force Ghost is telling them to stop and work together.

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Tales of The Empire

THE PATH OF FEAR

Didn't think we were getting General Greivous first episode!

Not noticing any men in the Mountain Clan

Matron got the moves!

THE PATH OF ANGER

Empire further proving a vulturous reputation (Which is an insult to vultures).

"Everything comes at a cost." "Including failure."

That must be the beskar spear she later has in Mandalorian

Think this is the only visual rendition I like of Thrawn

THE PATH OF HATE

Corvus has seen better days for certain.

New Republic lady kinda... 👀

Oop, Bo Katan picked up the comm, more Mandalorian ties.

DEVOTED

Oh goody, Order 66 again.

This is not what I had in mind for more Clone-content post Bad Batch.

I like this rendition of Grand Inquisitor much better than Rebels. And we'll not mention how he looked in Kenobi...

"Your friend had a terrible accident."

"Perhaps you're not as powerful as we-" Spoke too soon, didn't you.

Clones have green visors like Fireball and Nemec did

Hello Vader

REALIZATION

That's pretty coldblooded, Lyn.

"You're a traitor and a murderer." "Not true!" ... girl please the Wrong Jedi arc is right there.

"Then you have one Jedi left to deal with." This feels like a... very underdeveloped return to the Light if you ask me.

Showcasing her Force-healing abilities which would've been nice to see in Clone Wars...

THE WAY OUT

[Sees thumbnail and forgets Lyn is in Kenobi until looking up information later, not having seen all of Rebels] ... OKAY so how are they gonna "Somehow, ____ returned..." Lyn Rakish but NOT Tech? That's some bantha-fodder.

"We seek the healer." Oh not the poor baby...

She's older now and they're calling her wise mother. Wonder how much time has passed between Way Out and Realization.

The spiny blades still just look so Dumb (affectionate)

"You choose your allies poorly."

Haha get lost, idiot.

Okay cool, ambiguous ending. [This feels/reads like it's supposed to be a 'Return to the Light' moment for Lyn to me, yet we see her as the Fourth Sister in Kenobi, so she clearly doesn't. Remorse over killing Barriss, then?]

[inquisitorius-sin-bin]

Okay, I want to know your thoughts on this. Do you think out of all the villains we had in Rebels, The Grand Inquisitor is the most underrated? While putting him against everyone we've seen, Sixth, Seventh, Vader, Thrawn, I want you to be as unbiased as you possibly can, but where do you rank him amongst them His impact on the story and characters. As an antagonistic threat. Etc. Just all of it.

Uh well, if you come to the inquisitor-fucking blog and ask me to remove my bias regarding a question about the inquisitors, I'm going to have to say... Unlikely.

I do think in order for a character to be underated, they can't be, you know, rated. Darth Vader is possibly the most rated character of all time, so he's off the list. Darth Maul? Also rated. They put him in everything for a reason. Thrawn? So beloved they plucked him from Legends to put him in Rebels. I wouldn't qualify any of these characters as "underrated" in the slightest.

So that leaves characters like Pryce and Tarkin and various underlings, and the Inquisitors. Tarkin actually poses the appropriate amount of threat and pulls through in my opinion. Pryce?

I can't remember what Pryce did other than being a menacing Imperial Governor type, so I will take her out.

The Inquisitors... are SUPPOSED to be a threat. But by virtue of the material's nature, they cannot be allowed to succeed. This happens over and over again, no matter what material they appear in. They're menaces off the page, killing left and right and turning Jedi, etc. But in practice? Never allowed to shine. And as the Grand Inquisitor is meant to be their leader and the best of them all, former Temple Guard, hand-picked by the Emperor and trained by Vader himself, who doesn't get a name or a backstory? Yeah obviously I am going to pick the Grand Inquisitor. Is anyone surprised?

It's the opposite of show-don't-tell. They TELL you how scary and effective they are meant to be, but will you ever see it? No.

[tobiasdrake]

Honestly, I'm looking forward to Ahsoka season two. Mainly because, now that the obligatory plot on loan from a different show is done, maybe the show will finally do something.

The entire first season feels like simultaneous cleanup work and setup work. Cleanup for Rebels and setup for the big Thrawn crossover event that they've been hyping for years.

Like. The reason the show exists is fairly obvious. Rebels promised a story to bring Ezra and Thrawn back from "Wherever they fucking went". Which is the sort of thing that has enough substance to fuel a season premiere of the cartoon but not nearly enough substance for eight hour-long episodes of a miniseries. But that was the only idea they had so they had to stre-e-e-e-etch it.

So we have Star Wars's favorite idea: A treasure hunt to find the ancient lost secret map to Wherever Thrawn Went, which is a thing that exists for some reason. Makes as much sense as the Secret Map to Wherever Luke Went or the Puzzle Quest to Wherever Palpatine Is. Star Wars creatives play a lot of video games.

We have Ahsoka training Sabine which is a cool idea, but before that we have both of them being distant and pissy over absolutely nothing. They have no grudge between them; During Sabine's training, Ahsoka abruptly decided apropos of nothing that she wanted to drive a wedge between them for drama. Both of them already want to reconcile from the moment we meet them because there is no conflict here; Just vague gesturing at what interpersonal conflict looks like. But we gotta pad the runtime so they're going to be obstinate about it for a while.

We have your typical "New Republic is obstructive because Star Wars hates democracy only slightly less than it hates fascism" stuff. As usually, this allows the heroes to be rogue actors sticking it to the man even when "the man" in question is supposed to be the good guys that we've been trying to establish this whole time.

We have Ahsoka inexplicably teleporting into the Timey-Wimey Realm so she can have the version of her confrontation with Anakin that Filoni probably would have liked to have written if the movies' Official Vader Plot hadn't forbidden him from doing so. One where she finally surpasses Anakin, defeats him, and transcends into being her own master.

(Which is honestly a lot cooler than "Anakin killed her but then Ezra time-traveled her back to life". But, much like the Boba Fett and Cad Bane showdown in Book of Boba Fett, it feels weirdly out-of-place to be doing this here and now, and winds up feeling awkwardly forced in.)

And we have the most incredibly nobody villains in Star Wars history. Like. Who the fuck are Baylan and Shin? Baylan is Something Something Ex-Jedi and Shin is some rando Baylan started training. There's a point where Baylan's fighting Ashoka and he starts talking about "Anakin told me this and that" and I'm like, "Okay? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?"

The answer to which seems to be a commercial for next season. Baylan signed on because he wanted to go to the other galaxy because he can feel through the Force that the plot for season two is there, and also he separates from Shin because he only brought her along to put her where season two will need her to be: Separate from him and doing a different Villain Thing entirely.

Even the answer to where Ezra and Thrawn ended up is "Dathomir Zero. Yeah, there's just more Original Star Wars Galaxy stuff in the New Star Wars Galaxy. It's exactly the same. But hey, at least I unwrote the shortsighted genocide of the Nightsisters so Star Wars can have Dark Side witches again."

I appreciate that. Dark Side witches are a cool idea and their extermination made the universe smaller. But it's still a demonstration of how few ideas this season had beyond "Finally do the thing."

But now The Thing is done. They actually have to do something else now. So maybe season two will be better? I don't know.

[dalekofchaos]

My biggest problems with Filoni’s Star Wars

I'd say my biggest critiques of Filoni's Star Wars would be

Complete change in Anakin's character from AOTC to the character he is portrayed as in TCW. We NEVER see Anakin knighted, so he should not be given a Padawan. Nor do I think Anakin is capable nor do I think the Council would trust Anakin with a Padawan.  Honestly the change in Anakin's character felt like giving into RLM's complaints about Anakin and just turned Anakin into a mix of Luke and Han, but that’s not Anakin. 

Lightening the skin of the clones and Boba and not bringing back Temmura to voice the clones, The whole whitewashing of the Clones is downright disgusting.

Constantly retcons. Kanan’s backstory. Ahsoka’s novel has recently been retconned. This is getting ridiculously mean spirited, it’s like the man has no respect for the canon novel/graphic novel writers. 

Everything about Barriss. A Muslim coded character who was loved in the EU. And what does he do? From someone who was Anakin’s temporary is deaged to be Ahsoka’s, makes her willing to be okay for dying for the Jedi and having her bomb the Jedi Temple. I hope this was just him being tone deaf, but if intentional, oh boy yikes.

EVERYTHING ABOUT GRIEVOUS

EVERYTHING ABOUT MANDALORE AND THE STUPID RETCON OF THE FETTS BEING MANDALORIAN(YES I KNOW ALMEC IS AN ASS, BUT THIS WAS DIRECT FROM FILONI AND PABLO HIDALGO)

Minor nitpick but changing Obi-Wan's armor from the awesome design from the micro series to what he has from TCW. It’s like going from Gucci to Walmart.

Erasing Alpha 17 and Captain Fordo

The Bad Batch. It again enforces the whitewashing of the clones and could've easily been Delta Squad, since they are essentially the same fucking characters.

Bringing back Maul. Maul served a purpose. Sure George regretted killing him off too soon and I do think he should have been the Vader of the Prequels. But god, the way they hammered him in TCW, Rebels and Solo? Good god it's ridiculous.

The same damn story in EVERY Star Wars story. It's less noticeable in TCW and Rebels. It's good for The Mandalorian, but The Bad Batch just makes it clear he only knows how to tell one type of story. Grumpy man is forced to take care of small sunshine child.  What's next? Book of Boba Fett doing it with Boba and Dash?

Abundantly clear he did not care about Boba Fett and used Book Of Boba Fett as a prop for The Mandalorian. Boba Fett doesn't do Boba Fett type things. He's a crime lord that doesn't do any crimes. He's outwitted by everyone in the show and instead of reaching out to characters Boba knows like Bossk, IG-88 etc, we need Din. And instead of focusing on flashbacks with Jango that focuses on his Mandalorian heritage, again we get proto-Mando season 3.  It honestly would've been better to keep Grogu out of TBOBF cause now people are forced to watch it to see how Din reunites with Grogu instead of watching The Mandalorian season 3. If he didn't want to write for a show about Boba Fett, then he shouldn't have written a show about Boba Fett. 

Ahsoka living through all 3 trilogies. The Jedi are supposed to be all extinct by the time of the Empire, Obi-Wan and Yoda should be the only survivors. Ahsoka lives beyond Order 66, throughout the Galactic Civil War and Filoni plays favorites and literally uses time travel to bring her back. Then apparently she lasts beyond the Galactic Civil War(why did she not meet Obi-Wan, Yoda, Luke or Leia?) Like fuck it is convoluted that she's survived this long. Hell, I will also say that Ezra, Cal and Cere should be dead too. Thrawn's fleet should have crushed the Rebels on Lothal and Vader should have killed Cal and Cere in Fallen Order.  No one but Obi-Wan, Yoda and the Twins should be left alive from the Jedi. Luke is the Last Jedi for a reason. I came up with an emotional death for Ahsoka in Order 66,  Rex kills her and then Rex kills himself. But for sure if Ahsoka survived  Order 66, she should have died against Vader in Twilight Of The Apprentice. She should have died against Vader, it would solidify him as the monster that he is at this point in time: the one that can only be saved by his son who in turn would be saved by him. It took away all the tension and emotion by using World Between Worlds in bringing Ahsoka back. Filoni pulled a Moffat by having a dead character come back to life an episode/season later. Kind of insulting. Like imagine if Leia used WBW to prevent Alderaan’s destruction or imagine if Luke used it to stop Anakin’s fall. Yes it would be satisfying to prevent a tragedy, but for story purposes it takes away the tension and the monstrosity of the Empire. I think it would have been a good end if she was killed by Vader. In their fight she even says "I won't leave you, not this time!", but then time travels out of them and never tries to go to him again. I don't really know what they'll do with her, she isn't mentioned once in the sequels by Luke, so seems unlikely they met up. I don't think there is much they can do with her, not to mention its now dumb that she didn't turn up in the OT.  Better she get killed by Vader in a poignant death scene. With her lamenting she couldn't give Anakin a proper burial with Padme much less kill Vader. Then Ahsoka appeared in THe Mandalorian. Good moment, but you are telling your new audience they need to watch your animated shows in order to even know who this character even is. Also it’s kind of insulting Ahsoka lived this long. And honestly Ahsoka living past Order 66 and past the Galactic Empire is the epidemy of refusing to let go and let your oc die. I've said countless times how Ahsoka has surpassed her expiration date and I stand by my point. For Ahsoka to survive all the way up to TROS is both baffling and insulting and it implies that Ahsoka stood by and did not help Luke with Ben. It implies she stood by and did nothing while The First Order was reigning and only waited until the last minute for the Emperor to return. Like Filoni confirmed she wasn't a force ghost, so it's just baffling she lived this long and Filoni should've just let go. She outlived the Empire AND the Skywalkers since Filoni said Ahsoka isn’t dead(good god man let her go) It's clear at this point that Dave Filoni doesn't know when to let go of her as a character. I like her, but It's kind of insane to me that she's now a part of all 3 eras of Star Wars. George Lucas wanted Ahsoka to die at the end of The Clone Wars, but Filoni somehow convinced him that she should live. Ahsoka Tano is a lot like The Simpsons. Great at first, but now I just roll my eyes at her existence. Ahsoka has been overexposed and it shows. She's a great character, but she's just become as overexposed as Maul was.

I also would include these videos about Filoni to my critiques

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

I love the jedi but enjoy the sith, mostly vader,new republic sith and old republic sith, do yoi have a lost of your favorite star wars villains.

In order, Dooku, Thrawn, Palpatine, Vader, OT-era Tarkin, Maul - and TCW!Hondo right after Dooku if that counts.

Pretty vanilla lmao. I like the Son as a concept but he's really not hardcore enough to really embody what he's supposed to represent. (There's not enough of the slimy slithering madness and viciousness that makes the Sith do stuff like sacrifice Jedi on altars and do blood magic rituals, among other things.) He's too tame for something supposedly worse than the Sith, though he'd be horrifying if he'd been more Dark-Side-y.

So, Dooku, because he's a disaster and a mirror to Anakin's garbage and because there's a lot of genuinely interesting things about a character who was among the wisest and noblest and who knows what the darkness is and willing embraces it anyway. he's Star Wars' Saruman and I love Saruman. It certainly helped that he was played by Sir Christopher Lee. The man was just that good.

Thrawn, because of the smooth, calm demeanor - much like Dooku's. That scene where he slowly explains what a kalikori is without revealing right away who is Hera, toying with us with his incredible score in the background, gave me shivers the first 4-5 times I watched it. I love sophisticated and collected villains. Brutish villains feel too simplistic and not nearly as frightening. I also love Star Wars aliens.

Palpatine because he's a delight to hate. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever - he's just absolute selfishness embodied and that makes if very fun. Also love the 'frail' old man whose power is in his insidiousness. I love how maniacally happy about his plans he always is and I love to think of how completely bored he must have been during the Empire days, before Luke showed up and gave him something to plot about. Sure I wish the Zillo beast could have flattened him to a Sheev pancake - or that Dooku would have just punted him into the sun before Naboo, but hey, at least he got thrown down a reactor and exploded twice and was never ever heard of again, right?

Vader because he's a powerhouse and that's always impressive. James Earl Jones' voice was always magnificent as well and there's something so expressive about faceless characters.

OT Tarkin because- smooth, calm and collected old villain. I really have a type ah ah. There's something so maddening about that complete confidence that they're right, that end-justify-the-means mentality they confuse for wisdom, that dismissive way they see the hot blooded righteous heroes as so beneath them...

Maul mostly for the times he goes completely crazy and either turns into a spider or a Temple-dwelling Sith cockroach and runs around painting Kenobi on the walls with his blood. I love his arc with Obi-Wan, I love what it says about the light and the Dark, the Jedi and the Sith, and the Florrum and Twin Suns duels are my favorite ever.

Finally, Hondo... Well, is Hondo. Much smarter, much more ruthless, and much saner than people give him credit for - just spectacularly greedy and ballsy. I wouldn't call him a villain so much as the true example of what a 'morally gray' character is. It's not good guys in impossible situations like Mace, it's not complex villains like Dooku, it's not the image people have of a tortured prince of darkness that deep down feels really sad about all the murder he's doing and it's not the selfless hero who angsts about quickly killing a monster that one time - it's Hondo.

I'm generally pretty indifferent to Ventress, Jango, Boba, bounty hunters like Cad Bane, the Hutts, villains of an episode, or more minor villains and/or reformed antagonists like Bo-Katan, Kallus, etc - as characters anyway. I might like them when they're onscreen or like their place in the story but they don't do much for me individually beyond that.

And a special mention goes to Miraj Scintel - the Zygerrian Queen and only Star Wars villain I truly and deeply loathe. I hate seeing her onscreen, I hate hearing her talk, I hate watching her move, I hate her aspirations, I just detest her. Everything about her is infuriating.

[pan-gya]

My Thoughts on Reva/Third Sister

spoilers for kenobi, obviously:

ok, so to put it plainly, i don’t like reva. her existence annoys me. this isn’t because of who she is as a character or her actress’s performance, i actually like both very much! reva has an amazing design both in her appearance and personality. what annoys me is how the show is handling her character.

1. her name. we learn her name immediately when the grand inquisitor shouts it out in public. what????? that’s not how the inquisitors work. once the inquisitors join, they are stripped of their identities, which is why they have names like 9th sister and 6th brother. the reason we learn trilla’s name and backstory is because those pieces of information are critical to understanding the sub story of fallen order and how the inquisitor program functions. trilla refers to herself as the 2nd sister as do her colleges, only cere calls her trilla in canon. reva still being called reva, much less in public, completely contradicts that key point of the inquisitors, they are like the stormtroopers, they are vader’s toys that he sends out to hunt jedi and nothing more. 

2. her knowledge of vader’s identity. this pisses me off so much. vader being anakin is NOT common knowledge, in fact there are only 6 people who know that they are the same person: the emperor, obi-wan, yoda, ahsoka, thrawn, and vader himself; and the only reason why thrawn knows is because he studies behavior so closely that he was able to notice the similarities between anakin and vader. when he actually tries to approach vader about it, he is threatened into silence. also ahsoka didn’t figure it out until 5 years before a new hope. IT IS SOMETHING NO ONE IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW. and that’s because of vader. he wants to separate himself from anakin as much as possible (he even mutilates himself to try and purge any physical resemblance to anakin). so reva a. knowing they’re the same person, and b. casually spitting it out to obi-wan makes no sense because there’s no fucking way vader would allow that. when he had aphra investigate luke, the moment she stepped onto the path of potentially figuring out the connection between anakin and vader, he has her killed (of course she lives, but that’s not the point), and it is something he does himself. he is her executor, because it is such a close kept secret. the only way i can see the show actually following this pre-established lore is by having vader come up next episode and murder reva, but i doubt that’s gonna happen.

i’m really disappointed with how the show is using reva because she has so much potential to be such a fun and cool character, but they’re making her so unlikable by having her contradict everything that has previously been set up over the past 45 years.

[lifblogs]

Whumpay 2021: Day 9 - Gentle / Brutal

A Fool's Hope

read on ao3 1412 words star wars, rebels, ezra bridger, grand admiral thrawn, graphic depictions of violence, torture, interrogation, beating, shock collar, force suppressor

“I’ve never had a Jedi captive before,” Grand Admiral Thrawn mused as he looked Ezra up and down.

It was difficult to read the expression on his face, and Ezra knew trying to sense him through the Force would be useless, thanks to the shock collar he’d had put on him moments ago. Thrawn had explained its uses, and right away, Ezra had tested that, and he was still recovering. Muscles throbbing, skin around his neck burning, he made himself meet the red gaze that stared him down.

“Yeah? Well don’t get used to it.”

The big Chiss man had a hint of a smile on that all-too passive face now, clearly amused. Ezra met it by baring his teeth.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be used to.” Then, Thrawn put up a hand and gestured backwards at the two stormtroopers guarding the entrance to Ezra’s cell. “Leave us.”

Ezra thought about trying to make a break for it when the doors opened, but with the confidence in which Thrawn moved, he had a feeling he didn’t want to mess with him. Instead, he found himself stepping back, legs hitting the bunk, and he lost his balance. As the guards left, he fell.

The light from the hall was cut out with the door closing once more, and the grand admiral closed in on him.

“What do you want?” Ezra challenged, despite backing himself into the corner. (Come on, really? The corner? Stupid move. Nowhere to go to now.)

Thrawn reached out a hand to him, and as it drew closer, Ezra grimaced, trying to flinch back from it.

“Uh… what?”

He ran a hand through his short hair.

“Pity. I liked the longer hair on you. We’ll have to get a new holo for the wanted posters.”

“Hey, can you not?”

Thrawn drew back. He smiled (uh oh). “My apologies.”

Suddenly, his head was forced back, and he was kneed right in the gut. His air left him, and his lungs and diaphragm didn’t seem to know how to suck more in. Ezra nearly toppled over at the great, throbbing pain, but Thrawn held him steady with just one hand. Karabast!

“Now, tell me, where is your Rebel base?”

Ezra coughed, and then got out, “What… What makes you think we have one?”

Thrawn simply sighed, and Ezra waited for another blow. It came, this time by the hand holding his head, slamming it back against the duracrete. His skin split open at the sharp contact, and as blood rushed over his scalp, he saw stars in his vision.

Great, not like he needed his head to be intact or anything.

“Do you think me a fool, Ezra Bridger?”

Ezra tried to smirk at him through the pain to get his answer across.

Grand Admiral Thrawn withdrew and began to slowly pace, hands behind his back, as poised as ever. Meanwhile, it took all of Ezra’s strength to not topple over. Without thinking, he reached out for the Force, sensing it around him, willing it to lend him strength.

The shock collar was engaged.

He collapsed, body thrashing, pain searing his nerves. His muscles spasmed so violently he fell to the durasteel grating of the floor. The impact hurt, and made his world spin, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as the shock had.

Sometime during all of that he’d stopped trying to reach out for the Force, and his body was released from its torment.

“I’m not here to play games with you.”

Ezra’s mouth was filling with blood. Apparently he’d bit his tongue. He spat the thick, metallic liquid out, and tried to hold himself up, despite how weak he was.

“Good. You’d probably lose.”

That earned him a hard kick to the ribs, and he cried out, hugging his arms to himself and trying to roll away from him.

“I could just as easily acquire another member of your crew. Perhaps… Sabine Wren? Or your master, Kanan Jarrus?”

Ezra fought back tears at the thought of this monster having them, face scrunching up in distress. But he wouldn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He couldn’t let Grand Admiral Thrawn know more about his weaknesses.

A gentle hand that had harmed him mere minutes ago was on his shoulder, and was helping him sit up. Ezra tried struggling, but Thrawn’s grip was firm, albeit still… soft. A shiver ran down his spine, and he did his best to not think of the Seventh Sister. Not all these Imperials were creeps like that, were they? He remembered how much she’d touched him. Mostly his face, but still.

He was sitting up now, Thrawn crouching before him. He seemed weary, but his brows had lowered, noticing something. He caressed Ezra’s face, and despite wanting to draw back from it, there was simply nowhere to go.

“Interesting. This frightens you more.”

“Kind of used to the whole pain thing,” Ezra said. Can we get back to that? he silently hoped, though had almost said out loud. The taunt wouldn’t do much, just dig this hole he was in deeper and deeper.

“Did one of the Inquisitors mistreat you, boy?”

“How did you—? I mean, no. No. Definitely not. Completely friendly. Went straight to dueling me with those sick lightsabers, you know?”

“Hmm… You do fear brutality though, don’t you? Just not in the quantity I need. I admit, your master has trained you well.”

Thrawn ran his fingers along the shock collar, as if letting Ezra know he wasn’t at all afraid of the pain such a device could inflict. Or perhaps he did as just a… sense of ownership. Ezra didn’t even want to think about it.

“Yeah, uh… you’re not my type.”

To Ezra’s great surprise, Grand Admiral Thrawn stood and started laughing. Laughing! What in the…?

“Don’t worry. I’m not at all thinking about you like that. You humans are all alike, aren’t you? Someone is gentle to them, or shows an interest of some sort, and they think, Oh, perhaps they find me attractive. Well, news flash, boy, the galaxy doesn’t revolve around you.”

“Oh, and I suppose it revolves around you,” Ezra shot back.

“On the contrary, it revolves around our great Emperor. Now, I take no joy in politics, but his reign is final.”

“Did Darth Vader tell you that?” he challenged, wondering if the “grand” admiral had indeed even met Darth Vader. Though, speaking his name, even with him surely parsecs and parsecs away, left Ezra feeling cold inside.

To his surprise, Thrawn froze, back going ramrod straight.

“Darth Vader wants you dead.”

“Then kill me.”

“No, I think not. There’s still a use for you, even if I can’t get you to talk.”

“Maybe if you torture me a little more…?” Ezra hedged, not wanting Thrawn to go back to previous ideas.

But it was too late. His thoughts were clearly already set in motion.

“I hope you enjoy your stay here,” Thrawn said. “I’ll be sure to send your friends by to say hello.”

“Wait, no, no!” Ezra pleaded, suddenly up on his hands and knees and scrabbling after him as he made to leave the cell.

With a harsh turn, Thrawn kicked him, and Ezra was sent sprawling across the floor. Before he could even think about getting up, too dazed from the blow, his face was being grabbed, the grip fierce now. His jaw felt as if it was about to crack beneath those strong fingers.

“Your lack of desire to cooperate gives me little choice. So tell me where the base is, or Kanan will be here within the hour.”

Quickly, Ezra thought of a lie, one he hoped would work well. He gave him the name of a random system, and Thrawn let out a growl before throwing him back down.

He didn’t thank him, or say anything to let him know if he believed him or not. As he left the cell, letting Ezra contemplate his pains and failures, he somehow knew he didn’t believe him. And he was now bait. Kanan would come to rescue him, and there’d be no hope then.

No, he couldn’t think like that!

But the dichotomy of gentleness and brutality he’d faced left him with nothing to hope for. Ezra, knowing it was a fool’s hope, tried reaching out for Kanan. All that greeted him was the burning, spasmodic shock of electricity.

[luminousbeansarewe]

what are your takes/version of how the sequel trilogy went down? because i also have my own version in my head, not.... that, but im really interested in the ideas other people have had for it

hoo boy there’s a lot of ground to cover here lmao i will try to keep them as short as i can... i also enjoy multiple versions of events and outcomes for the sequels as long as they’re in-character so i’m not trying to say no other version of the sequels is good or cool bc only a sith deals in absolutes amirite? (i won’t apologize for that dumb joke.) first the jumping-off points:

first of all, i fully support Force-sensitive Finn. even if he didn’t become a full-blown Jedi, if the entire concept of the Jedi was reforged and we don’t see him become the kind of Jedi we saw in the prequels (more on that later), i see him as someone who was attuned to the Force in a way that is similar to how i conceive of Barriss; empathetic to the suffering and joy of others. this would drive him to defect from the Empire and fear it, too. i also saw him becoming a reluctant leader for the rebellion, and there’s a GREAT fic which i’ll link here that riffs on the idea that he creates a spark within the stormtrooper ranks and more and more of them begin to defect... which i love

Rey being a nobody is cool to me. the ONE character moment where she became super relatable for me was when she realized how frightened she was of her own Force abilities. but i don’t think she has to be the legacy of Palps to have that. she doesn’t need supercharged powers to be spooked by them in a post-Jedi Order world where the most recent memory anybody has of the Force is Vader. (also Rey being a Kenobi seems more out of character for Obi-Wan than anything else lol he was pretty committed to the ways of the Order even after they were destroyed, plus he already had one kid to furtively watch over... just imo). this also ties into my expansion on the Force.

Poe being not a carbon copy of Han. i think Leia looked after him, found him somehow after she sent Ben to the Jedi Academy and was a motherly figure in his life. i like the idea that he was a little shit, and she’s the one who taught him to turn his reactive defiance of authority into bravery when fighting for the rebels. i think he looked up to her, wanted to be a leader like her. i saw him in the position of generals like Akbar by the end, as he learns to balance risk-taking with steady leadership. I wanted to see that growth, how those leaders are formed, see Leia get to impart her wisdom to someone. (also i fully support Finn/Poe and Finn/Rey/Poe, i’m not a committed shipper so i’m down with no romance at all between them but those ships are choice af and Stormpilot is all Oscar Isaac wanted anyway, so...) plus can u imagine the dichotomy of Ben the fallen son with Poe, the “adopted” son who became what Ben couldn’t? the guilt of Leia for not knowing how to teach her son about the Force, doing better half-raising a nobody who had the same shitty attitude as Han when they met but no Force ability? THIS IS JUICY CHARACTER CONTENT

Rose was given cheesy lines to introduce an important topic: that fighting is all well and good but throwing away your principles defeats the purpose of the fight in the first place (an important theme in the Clone Wars era, too.) she was there to be the voice of the truly little people in the gffa, who we don’t hear much about in the other trilogies. Finn’s sensitivity puts him at risk of the sorrow-to-hate arc i described for Barriss; Rose is there to be the empathy that sustains hope rather than becomes a crushing weight. i love the idea that she might rally volunteers from blue-collar places (like... Lothal, for example?) and spearhead the notion that the New Republic should be very different from the old one, calling out the fact that working conditions didn’t change with the shift from republic to empire and the First Order simply took it to an extreme that left her and her sister with nothing else to lose.

Ben Solo, hoo boy. so here’s the thing, we don’t KNOW Ben Solo. we were expected to want him to be redeemed because he was the son of Han and Leia, and that’s it. that’s lazy as fuck. him killing Han in the first movie (if it happened it should have been in movie #2, that’s how fucking second acts work) was an excuse to shock people, subvert the ‘i can’t kill my own father’ thing, and make sure we knew he was “evil” even though we’re supposed to also want a redemption arc? you have to read the Rise of Kylo Ren comics to learn that he was a) hounded by the voice of Snoke in his head from childhood, manipulated by it, which is horrific bc it’s like grooming... or b) that he felt HUGE pressure as a legacy Force-user to save the galaxy, lead the New Jedi Order, etc. these are much more empathy-generating and we should have learned them in TFA. echoes of Anakin much? which is why i think him being redeemed in a way other than self-sacrifice (which made sense for Vader given his long history of being a terrible person, knowing it was too late for him in the end, and really just wanting to save his son rather than “become good again”) is more interesting than him just falling (which is too much the same as the prequels.)

it should have been Finn’s call, a moment of Truth that held the balance of Finn as either falling prey to darkness or learning forgiveness, whether or not Kylo got redeemed. Finn and Rey working together to get to that point while Rose and Poe took on the military aspect of the Big Finale would have been great. Finn with a lightsaber to Kylo’s throat, feeling the temptation to murder him instead of making him face what he’s become in a meaningful way? Rey trying to urge him away from darkness as she’s been tempted before, but this is the first time Finn’s really been tested, and he was the one who so often reminded her of her own humanity? Rey calling up Rose’s point of creating a new paradigm instead of recreating the old one, of Poe’s growth or Leia’s willingness to take Ben back showing it’s possible? shiiiiiiit

the rest is going under a cut!

SO... given those things as a basis...

there being no scene where Force-ghost Anakin bops Kylo on the head (but you know, more subtly and with gorgeous metaphor ofc) was a travesty. we needed some version of that, also imo that reaffirms that Anakin was the chosen one... as him redirecting his grandson away from that path would be restoring hella balance

Snoke should have had his own fucked up backstory, if he was even there at all. a dark sider fucking with Ben Solo is reasonable to me, but Snoke could have been someone who looked up to Palps as much as Kylo supposedly looked up to Vader. that would have been interesting... maybe there are multiple “nobodies” who are being touched by the Force, just like there always were in the prequels era, but some are going dark with no Jedi to try to convince them otherwise? or, maybe Snoke’s life was ruined by the Empire and he chose to become the beast that harmed him, whereas Kylo becomes the version where you think you want to do that but then realize that it’s just as bad and you still have empathy and regret what you’ve done?

Thrawn being the main military antagonist, since they couldn’t be arsed to make Hux into anything but a sniveling baby fascist (despite his really upsetting backstory of an abusive father, also found in the comics... noticing a trend here?). Thrawn was already established and beloved in the legends. why would you not use him. whY?? he’s like a foil for Tarkin. contention between him and the Force-users in charge (Snoke and Kylo) would have been VERY interesting, esp with the character of Thrawn in the new canon seeing the Empire as a ‘necessary evil’ and now maybe having the potential to make it into something else? how’s JOINING WITH THE NEW REPUBLIC for a subversion of the classic tropes, Rian?????? you fucker????

if Thrawn’s history is “too storied” for a bunch of cowards to "fit” into a new movie trilogy, invent another antivillain to take Thrawn’s place whose history is a little more concurrent with the sequel era... you cowards

Luke fucking off after his failure isn’t out of character IMO. he was THE STRONGEST JEDI EVER and his star pupil still fell? maybe he broke under the same pressure Ben did. maybe that’s what allows him to reach back out towards Kylo and reconnect, admitting his failure. i want to hear more about him cutting himself off from the Force bc i LOVE KOTOR 2 and Kreia, but maybe that’s too much for one trilogy to delve into meaningfully, i dunno

Han fucking off after Ben wrecked the temple isn’t OOC either. i think Han was always a little frightened of the Force, the way many non-sensitives are. I think he was critical as a father, because he was critical of himself and Han is the king of projection. i wanted more of the dysfunctional relationship between him and Ben.

if Kylo kills Han, the scene needs to show more of the fact that Kylo actually regretted it, which Snoke only alludes to in TLJ, foreshadowing his future. i rewrote Han’s death scene for a friend and got a lot of good feedback about it so maybe i’ll post it here sometime. i can get behind a version where he doesn’t die, too, i just haven’t fleshed it out in my own head.

i like the idea that the Jedi Order needed to be remade, and that Luke saw the failure of the old order when he saw Ben turn like so many of the Jedi in the Order did. i like that Rey and Finn might spearhead this, and maybe Kylo’s role is to know the dark side intimately enough now that he can actually teach how it works, how to deal with it... how inevitable its temptation is. because...

in this canon, i don’t think the Force has light or darkness. i think it’s Force-users who do. it is their internal landscapes which cause them to “fall” or be redeemed or not, after all. Finn can attest to the same, so can Rey and Luke... so like, all the Jedi need DBT therapy or something i guess. lmao hold the dialectic, you nerds

the Force has shown time and time again that it cannot be “balanced” so maybe it is ourselves who need to become balanced instead

the Force is chaos, a never-ending series of colliding butterfly effects that to us will always and inevitably be seen as turmoil, cause and effect on a cosmic scale. if you drink too greedily of its power, or try to exert total control over it, by its nature it will consume you because it is beyond your mortal ken. whatever you hunger for, the force will give you more and more of it until you are overwhelmed, drowning in it

this is why peace was a central teaching of the Jedi... peace, the antithesis of chaos, which can only ever be created from within, the eye of the storm which must be sought time and time again

anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk? i’m always down to hear other people’s ideas for these characters tbh. and always down to get more into these topics if you want to know more... esp as it relates to the failure of the Jedi Order, or KOTOR 2 and Revan and Kreia, or OF COURSE my OCs because Sol has a very interesting relationship with the Force.

thank you for this ask lordimperius!! ^_^

[smokeybrand]

Rise of the Skywalker

This sh*t with Lucasfilm is wild to witness. I’m not really one to buy into entertainment gossip but i am emotionally invested in Star Wars. I’m an Eighties kid, man. Star Wars helped to shape our childhood growing up. Vader is one of my all-time favorite antagonists. Ahsoka has grown to rival him in my heart as a beloved character. As a cat who creates, myself, i can’t help but adore the passion and creativity i n the entire world lore around the Skywalker legend. I mean, look at everything built around those first three films. Just taking Legends into account, you have the absolutely excellent Shadows of the Empire and the Thrawn trilogy. More than that, and probably one of the best game franchises ever realized, you have The Knight of the Old Republic. F*ck, dude, Revan? Nihilus? Bastila? Kreia? HK-47? This is Bioware at it’s finest, save Mass Effect 2. And then Disney cam in and f*cked it all up.

Kathleen Kennedy has been a poison to the franchise, and not because of her identity politics. Look, you can work in your ideals and messages without being so goddamn heavy-handed with it but this chick, and her “writer’s group.” can’t craft a story to save their lives. That’s the problem here. Not Rey or Finn or Poe. Not Holdo or Rose Tico. Not even Snoke. It’s how these characters were presented, it’s how the writing shaped them. I’ve written at length about how Rey was a missed opportunity and, according to the original leaked treatment, that misstep was more like an outright face-plant The Rey that was to grow throughout the Sequel trilogy, culminating in a battle between a fully realized, Jedi Knight Rey and a fully realized Sith Lord Ren, should have been the Last Jedi we got. Instead, we got what we got and it shattered the credibility of the entire franchise. Star Wars, the most successful franchise in cinematic history until the MCU came through, was on life support. Forty years of solid, narrative storytelling, ancillary material, and fan passion, squandered because the chick in charge wanted to instill everything with her identity politics, using something she had no creative credit toward, co-opting the shine of another, to secure her legacy. And she did just that; Kathleen Kennedy was the person who almost killed Star Wars. Kennedy’s legacy of failure, secure. But then, a new hope. Jon Favreau, the progenitor of the MCU, stepped forward and saved Star Wars with his show, The Mandalorian.

John Favreau is a great creator. Dude not only gave us Iron Man, but Chef, Swingers, and Elf. He gets the content but, more than anything, Favreau understands how to craft a goddamn story. He was appointed to The Mandalorian and given creative control by, at the time, CEO of Disney, Bob Iger. Favreau, in partnership with the genius pariah, Dave Filoni, architect of Star Wars: Clone Wars, Rebels, and the best f*cking character created in the modern era, Ahsoka Tano. With theses two at the helm, Mando returned to the true essence of a Star Wars tale. They created their own pocket universe, one with the evolution of the Mandalorian culture and sprinkled with shenanigans of an adorable, and marketable, Baby Yoda. That first season gave us amazing characters like Din Djaran, Cara Dune, Greef Kaga, and Moff Gideon. That first season of Mando saved the franchises and that is not an exaggeration. It felt like Star Wars. The characters were rich and developed. More than anything, the stories told were absolutely excellent. The funny thing about that? Mando isn’t expected to succeed like it did. No, everyone, including Kennedy, thought it was going to fail. She fought, tooth and nail, against what Favreu was trying to created, sabotaging him at every turn. But he was able to complete his show and the fandom received it with utmost fervor, eclipsing anything Kennedy and her idealouges every created. Then season two dropped.

I’m not going to sit her and say that the narrative for Season two was better than the first. It wasn’t. But that’s because season two of The Mandalorian was a love letter to the fans. Favreau and Filoni had a hit on their hands with Mando and, more importantly, they made Star Wars profitable again. This gave the two of them a margin of creative freedom that expanded into something truly marvelous. That second season of Mando was able to dig deep into the lore, introduce fan favorite characters like Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kreyze, reintroducing Boba Fett while giving him a bad-ass second in Fennec Shand, while expanding the universe for spin-offs and delivery a franchise altering return of a Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker! Kennedy spent her entire sequel trilogy, discrediting and marginalizing the old trilogy, typified by the complete destruction of Luke in The Last Jedi, only for Mando to overturn, redeem, and empower Luke with a two minute gauntlet of Force awesomeness that rivaled the utter dominance displayed by his father at the end of Rogue One. That tidbit about Vader? Yeah, Kennedy fought against that, too. The Mando came through and proved that fallowing Lucas’ path was the true way of the Star War and Chepek agreed. We now have this entire blueprint of shows birthed from this one season, that will build toward an Avengers-level event. Ahsoka, Rangers of the New Republic, and The Book of Boba Fett will all culminate in a cinematic experience, most likely a theatrical film, based around Thrawn. And, more to the point, people are excited about this sh*t. People are looking forward to this sh*t. People want this sh*t. What they don’t want is more of Kennedy’s politics and bullsh*t hot-takes, masquerading as Star Wars canon. Case in point, the abject failure of The High Republic.

Before Favreau and Filoni came through and saved Star Wars, Kennedy had this entire idea for a full-on Star Wars universe, built upon token diversity and f*cking Space dinosaurs. There was a pitch meeting that showed a literal checklist and story was the third or fourth option. How the f*ck is story not the first thing on the list for an actual narrative you’re writing? Why the f*ck isn’t the Writer’s group, not putting story first, in a narrative they’re constructing by committee? That is the genesis of The High Republic. In the time that Youtube preview hit the fandom with all the force of a wet fart, Mando came through and proved no one wants that sh*t. Then season two came through and rived people want more Luke and more Lucas Star Wars, weeks before The High Republic, the jumping off point for Kennedy’s original vision for “New Star Wars” was supposed to launch. Yeah, that launch ain’t go so well. The High Republic is out, right now, and you can buy it. No one is buying it. They’re all paying for Disney+ memberships to watch Mando sh*t on everything Kennedy has done or will do. Disney announced a whole slate of Star Wars shows and material. One of which is The Acolyte, a spin-off from The High Republic tarring Brie Larson and written by Leslye Headland. The Acolyte is going to bomb for the same reasons The High Republic is bombing; No one wants to be preached to and that’s all these woke, blue hairs, want to do. I know that because they’ve told you as such.

The Force is Female. All of that sh*t with Pablo Hidalgo. The recent controversy of Justina Ireland telling people not to buy The High Republic if they don’t agree with her politics. The fact that Kathleen Kennedy has been trying to get Favreau fired for “sabotaging” her High Republic launch by redeeming Luke and galvanizing the entire fandom. The thing about this, though, is the fact that everything Kennedy has crated, is creatively bankrupt. Everything Favreau and Filoni have built with Mando, has been genuine, organic, and fun. Just to be clear, i actually like Brie Larson. I think she’s an excellent actress with very valid opinions. I think the sh*t she wants to make should be made. I don’t think she should co-opt a long running franchise with decades of lore and a ravenous fandom who are already on the outs with the current management of their beloved franchise. I can’t say i like Headland but i did adore her Netlfix show, Russian Doll. that sh*t was hilarious and dope. I don’t think her type of film making lends itself to Star Wars, however, for he same reason i don’t think Larson should have a show in the fandom either. Having opinions is fine. Installing those opinions in your writing is fine. Installing your opinions in an established property is not fine. You can do that, Back Panther was able to integrate that sh*t successfully, but they did it nuance. It didn’t get clumsy and ridiculous until the end. Kennedy’s writing group started with the awkward preaching. Those weren’t the droids yo were looking for, bro.

Ultimately, The High Republic is going to fail, as will the rest of Kennedy’s Star Wars legacy. Favreau is already working toward altering her most precious OC, Rey Palpatine. There are plans in the works to make her a Kenobi going forward, redeeming the most egregious of Darth Kennedy’s transgressions, something that wouldn’t even be necessary if they had followed the original treatments JJ left for them going forward. Rey Palpatine should have been Rey Skywalker. She should have been Luke’s daughter. She should have been trained by her pops and took that discipline into the final film where she and her cousin would have a proper reckoning. Rey should have been a proper character with an established legacy. Kennedy decided otherwise and in that hubris, she failed. She has failed, not because she is a Femanzi or has an eye toward activism or an agenda to push. Kennedy has failed because she decided to heavy-handedly force those politics down our throats with no nuance or grace, by slighting everything that came before with malicious intent, while bolstering her analogous creations with the worst kind of writing and non-existent development. Favreau succeeded by weaving a compelling tale, that mirrored the Hero’s tale which has been the bread-and-butter of a great Star Wars narrative, filled it with realized characters who became fast fan favorites, staunched in the lore that came before. He respected the genesis and built something great from it, while revering the stuff which came before. Kennedy thought she was bigger than the franchise. Favreau understands he is in service to it. That’s the difference, That’s why Mando is succeeding and The High Republic has been laid low.

[thewillowbends]

What are your fave/least fave Star Wars Legends works?

Oh, this is a bite late, but I did have to think about it a bit, so hmmm... Favorites....

From the old books, I remember liking “The Truce at Bakura” and “Children of the Jedi” a lot.  Callista is one of those characters I think would’ve been really interesting had they done more with her, but they knocked her out of the story because they wanted to pair Luke off with Mara Jade - which is fine, Mara was a good character before the later books wrecked her, but still a missed opportunity.

I have a soft spot for “Courtship of Princess Leia” because it’s hilariously OOC, but read it as a pulpy scifi fantasy novel with characters who just happen to share names with the main cast, and you’ll have fun. “Shadows of the Empire” is probably my favorite of the older novels.  Beyond a few things with Leia’s characterization, I think it’s an above average intratrilogy novel. I really loved the Darkhorse post-prequel Vader comics.  They had a gravitas to them the newer ones didn’t have and a more thoughtful take on his character.  The 2015 Marvel run was also *really* good.  The post-AotC Jedi comics were also really good. Dark Empire was a good run.  I can see why Lucas liked those issues.

Least favorites?

Any of the Rogue Squadron novels, really.  I just find Wedge and gang completely disinteresting. “I, Jedi” couldn’t hold my attention.  Coran Horn bores me.

Anything in the era of the Han and Leia’s kids as adults I generally disliked.  They could’ve done really interesting things with that but instead they just...killed everyone off?  Kylo Ren is an expy of Jacen Solo, I suppose, but God the sequels are also so f*cking dark in that regard since they effectively wipe out the entire Skywalker/Solo line.  I don’t know why the EU and sequels were so obsessed with making Luke, Leia, and Han’s lives miserable after the whole point of their story was correcting the darkness of the legacy they inherited.

Anything by Kevin J. Anderson, of course.  Wow, is he bad.

The big one I’m at odds with the fandom over....Zahn’s work.  Like, they’re competently written, so I see why people like them, and they did give us one really great character (Mara Jade), but otherwise I find them just very overhyped.  Thrawn is just a ridiculously boring villain to me and such an obvious self-insert.

*This* being said, I’ll give Zahn the credit that I actually think the sequel trilogy would’ve been better if they actually used Thrawn as their big bad, just with a few changes.   Cold, aloof, calculating villains often work better on screen to me because you get the visual enhancement of the performance, whereas in text it reads very dry.  Use his detached, alien approach to contrast against Kylo’s emotional volatility, and you’ve got a more interesting dichotomy there.  Consider a villain who has recruited the only child of the Skywalker/Solo clan to convince him the universe would be better off without the Jedi and the Sith, a place where their power doesn’t threaten the stability of an ordered universe.  THAT would’ve been a more interesting story conflict to introduce because it has its elements of truth.

[legobiwan]

Thrawn: Alliances Chapter 8.8-12.8

It only registered with me yesterday that when Vader refers to “The Jedi,” he’s referring to himself as Anakin Skywalker. Nice bit of depersonalization there, Anakin. 

Okay, but when Vader starts going off on how “The Jedi” (himself) was distrusted, his opinions not valued, that he was always an outsider... I mean, yes, of course, he’s referring to the Order, but more specifically, he has to be referring to Obi-wan and that just breaks my damn heart. 

Anakin’s “plan” to infiltrate the Separatist base - is to do a costume change and then fake an attack by another Jedi? Hahahahaha! Also, who wants to take bets this is where Thrawn’s weird cosplay fetish started - the one we saw utilized so hilariously with Eli Vanto in the previous Thrawn installment. Because I would take that bet. 

But Thrawn’s breakdown of the Jedi uniform was actually fascinating - how all those twirling fabrics not only give range of motion, but distract the energy. Maybe there is something to the dramatic disrobe, after all, but I’m more inclined to believe the Dooku-Qui-gon-Obi-wan lineage is just prone to drama.

Speaking of Serenno...I’m highly intrigued by the fact this operation is run by Serennians. It makes some sense, if one takes Jedi Lost into account, in that Serenno was an active mining planet and Dooku needed to find a way for the sentients to be gainfully employed after his father and brother basically tied all labor to droids. Also interesting is the presence of a distinct Serenno accent and the fact that the cloaks are such a feature of the nobility. I must needs remember this for the future. 

Okay, so Thrawn is obviously onto the relationship between Padmé and Anakin, but what killed me was the line when Anakin was going on about how he and Padmé had bonded over difficult times, like when friends were lost - and then he references the death of Qui-gon fucking Jinn!!! Which - I find fascinating given the fact Anakin is right now with another being who is kinda/kinda not acting as a mentor in a way that somehow Anakin finds palatable compared to the Jedi - Obi-wan, specifically. As I said before, I think Anakin was going to rebel against anyone but Obi-wan really got put in a bad position. And now Anakin is reminiscing about the man who was supposed to train him, not having known the mountain of hypocrisy and frustration that was the Jedi Knight Qui-gon Jinn and you have to think Anakin kind of hero-worshipped the guy in absentia and just how much that had to have killed Obi-wan, for about twelve different reasons. 

Getting back to the Vader/Thrawn episodes, Vader really is a one-note samba - “I will put on hand on my lightsaber threateningly or I will think about choking somebody.” It’s just a barrage of constant intimidation and how insecure was Anakin that this was the only way he felt he could establish his dominance? I mean, Anakin’s not dumb, he was a good strategist, but that all gets pushed to the side as he was crammed into this role as “the muscle” and “the enforcer” for Sidious. (Which I imagine is exactly what Sheev wanted - no thinking means no rebellion.) 

But you have to love Thrawn giving no fucks. What a badass.

Let’s bop over to Padmé for a moment. She starts this whole charade saying her “Uncle Anakin” is going to come with some ransom money and in the space of - what - a few days and one conversation she’s suddenly trying to stoke a rebellion? First of all, this is Leia’s mother, without a doubt and secondly, she and Anakin really do deserve each other. My gods. 

But I found the constant, “Anakin is coming to save me,” to be a little...I don’t know? Is this the part of their relationship where they’re getting a bit too co-dependent? A thought. 

Padmé recognizing Anakin’s “audacious” style of fighting was hilarious. An in-character.

Seems like much of this section is a lot more about Anakin and Padmé than Thrawn, although there is that mystery with the Grissks to be solved. We’ll see how this plays out...

[dalekofchaos]

Unpopular opinion. Ahsoka should have died  in TCW or Rebels

This is not me hating on Ahsoka, because Ahsoka is one of my favorite characters in Star Wars altogether, but Ahsoka should not have lasted as long as she did, she has been overexposed. 

The Jedi are supposed to be all extinct by the time of the Empire, Obi-Wan and Yoda should be the only survivors. Ahsoka lives beyond Order 66, throughout the Galactic Civil War and Filoni plays favorites and literally uses time travel to bring her back. Then apparently she lasts beyond the Galactic Civil War(why did she not meet Obi-Wan, Yoda, Luke or Leia?) Like fuck it is convoluted that she's survived this long. Hell, I will also say that Ezra, Cal and Cere should be dead too. Thrawn's fleet should have crushed the Rebels on Lothal and Vader should have killed Cal and Cere in Fallen Order.  No one but Obi-Wan, Yoda and the Twins should be left alive from the Jedi. Luke is the Last Jedi for a reason.

I came up with an emotional death for Ahsoka in Order 66,  Rex kills her and then Rex kills himself. But for sure if Ahsoka survived  Order 66, she should have died against Vader in Twilight Of The Apprentice. She should have died against Vader, it would solidify him as the monster that he is at this point in time: the one that can only be saved by his son who in turn would be saved by him.

It took away all the tension and emotion by using World Between Worlds in bringing Ahsoka back. Filoni pulled a Moffat by having a dead character come back to life an episode/season later. Kind of insulting. Like imagine if Leia used WBW to prevent Alderaan’s destruction. Yes it would be satisfying to prevent a tragedy, but for story purposes it takes away the tension and the monstrosity of the Empire.

I think it would have been a good end if she was killed by Vader. In their fight she even says "I won't leave you, not this time!", but then time travels out of them and never tries to go to him again. I don't really know what they'll do with her, she isn't mentioned once in the sequels by Luke, so seems unlikely they met up. I don't think there is much they can do with her, not to mention its now dumb that she didn't turn up in the OT.  

Better she get killed by Vader in a poignant death scene. With her lamenting she couldn't give Anakin a proper burial with Padme much less kill Vader.

I am not happy about Ahsoka appearing in The Mandalorian. Just...what are you gonna do with her? I am much less happy they are ruining her legacy by having a transphobe play her. She outlived the Empire AND the Skywalkers since Filoni said Ahsoka isn’t dead(good god man let her go) It's clear at this point that Dave Filoni doesn't know when to let go of her as a character. I like her, but It's kind of insane to me that she's now a part of all 3 eras of Star Wars. George Lucas wanted Ahsoka to die at the end of The Clone Wars, but Filoni somehow convinced him that she should live. 

Ahsoka has been overexposed and it shows. She's a great character, but she's just become as overexposed as Maul was.

[atamascolily]

Okay, I have calmed down enough after reading Aftermath: Empire’s End that I can address the bit that really got to me.

TL;DR: the entire “Contigency” business is based on an extended chess metaphor and... I have questions.

Previously, we have learned that a Jakku orphan named Galli Rax stowed away on Palpatine’s Space Yacht so he could get away, only to be caught by Palpatine. Palps told the kid that he had two choices: die, or go back to Jakku and make sure no one stumbled across the Mysterious Thing (”the Observatory”) Palps was constructing out in the desert. Galli chooses the latter, and Palps sends him back to Jakku and Galli does his thing. Ten years later, Palps shows back up with the space yacht to compliment Galli on a job well done and take him away.

O.... kay. I’m not sure how Palps was able to ensure Rax would keep his end of the bargain. Sure, he has a supervisor Yupe Tashu and a bunch of droids, and I suppose they could have killed Galli, but... there didn’t seem to be anything stopping Galli from running away? I doubt even Palps would have bothered to stalk one kid just to prove a point, but it just seems really weird from Palpatine’s perspective to be so hands-off.

Anyway, so the first thing they do in their Big Reunion is Palps teaches him how to play chess. And I don’t just mean Thinly-Disguised Space Chess as a stand-in for the real thing, I mean actual chess.

Here’s the passage that made me start to howl and gibber from a world-building perspective:

“It’s a very old game. Shah-tezh, in this interation, thought over the eons I have seen it spawn many variants. Dejarik. Moebius. Chess. In most of the iterations the core mechanism remains.”

To be clear: this is Palpatine talking. What the hell does he mean by “over the eons I have seen”? That’s not the sort of thing you say if it’s something you know from a book or a story, that’s what you say if you’ve personally experienced it. Is Palpatine really that old?? If so, this is HUGE, absolutely earth-shattering bombshell from a world-building perspective. Is it ever followed up on? Not that I can tell.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

(To be fair, I’m not against this, per se, but I just... feel like if it was important.... it should be relevant.... and not name-dropped once and never mentioned again? Like, it matters? AAHHHHHHHHHHH.)

The other thing that made me scream, is, of course, the fact he comes right out and says it’s Chess In Space, which.... While I have used “holo-chess” as a synonym for “dejarik” in my fics, and Wookiepeedia says “holochess” is an accepted synonym for dejarik in nu!canon, this particular passage reads weirdly to me because it implies that chess as we know it on Earth is a separate but related game to dejarik, not just another name for the same game. And I... have questions about that, just like I would if “poker” suddenly appeared in the GFFA lingo along with “sabacc”.

{Also, I just want to note that the Persian word for chess is shatranj. Per the “History of Chess” article on Wikipedia:

Players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – see checkmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.

This isn’t the first time real-life details have migrated into Star Wars - “Tatooine” is named after a location in Tunisia, and the Lars’ farm is located in the “Great Chott” which actually exists on Earth.... but still. I’m just saying.}

And again, this is probably me being stupid and petty about Details That Don’t Matter, except that the one is actually huge from a plot and thematic perspective, so it’s hard not to get tripped up on it.

Anyway, so Palps instructs Galli in the intricacies of shah-tezh, and it all boils down to one thing: “without the Imperator, the demesne cannot survive”.

And That’s the reason why Palpatine has to personally make sure the world burns after his death, because it means that his Empire has completely failed if he dies and deserves to be punished. O.... kay then.

(Granted, Palpatine is a crazed narcissist, but... there’s like no way this makes logical sense, right? And Rax doesn’t even think “oh, that’s insane, but I have to agree to stay alive”. Even at this juncture, when he barely knows Palpatine at all, he’s completely swallowed the Kool-Aid. Which is odd because he’s very skeptical about other things.)

Anyway, Palps repeats it because it’s his guiding principle: “If an Empire cannot protect its Emperor then that Empire must be deemed a failure. It collapses not only because its central figure is gone, but because it must not be allowed to remain.”

He’s so incensed he nearly strangles Galli, but then he relents, and says Galli is “the Contigency” and if he fails, he’ll be replaced, because literally, “destiny”. Then they go watch opera, because Palps hasn’t found anyone to watch opera with him since that one time with Anakin and... Vader isn’t into that, lol.

(The problem with making opera Galli’s thing is that ALL OF THOSE SCENES ARE FLASHBACKS or referred to in passing in the narrative rather than viewed directly. So we don’t see him poised at the opera, plotting, the way Palps did in ROTS, or contemplating art like Thrawn does. So it’s easy to forget that he has this quirk. Also, it makes him feel like a Thrawn knock-off. But I do like that it’s canon that he’s just the Biggest Drama Queen ever, though.)

I’ve said this before in earlier rants, but to repeat: I do not see Palpatine as having the relative humility needed to even consider his own death seriously. in ROTJ, he acts 100% confident that he’s gonna come out the winner. So to come up with an entire elaborate plot, on the off chance that someone might off him seems just... kinda OOC?

Sure, he’s the type to have wheels within wheels and all kinds of schemes going on simultaneously, but... this one involves placing a lot of trust in Galli Rax going along with the script, and I just... don’t get why he would assume Rax would automatically go along with it, or be able to. There are just so many variables that the novel doesn’t seem to address and it’s just hard for me to imagine Palpatine doing this without making other/additional Contigencies, not just one.

Anyway, so it turns out “the Contingency” is to lure both the Imperial remnant and the New Republic fleets to Jakku and then literally blow the entire planet up to take everyone out at once, while a handful of specially chosen loyalist ride off in Palpatine’s Space Yacht for the Unknown Regions to form a new Empire. Which... okay, sure, why not. In theory, this sounds pretty cool and it involves all of Palpatine’s favor tricks, including a planet-destroying superweapon.

Where it actually breaks down is in the details, of course. And Palpatine is still dead, of course, so it does shit-all for him, except for some vindictive satisfaction while still alive, I guess. 

(And if he is planning on coming back, it seems weird to burn down the house you plan on re-occupying later? I guess? *shrugs*)

Anyway, it turns out that Palpatine has a whole network of Observatories, where he does all kinds of secret, evil things:

Palpatine began establishing the Observatories before the start of the Galactic Empire, infusing each with purpose: Some were meant to house ancient Sith artificats, others designed to host powerful weapons designs (or the weapons themselves), others still meant as prisons harnessing the lifeforces of those captured within for a variety of strange purposes.

(which, given that the Ashmead’s Lock prison on Kashyyyk is powered by its inhabitants’ life force a la The Matrix, strongly suggests that it, too, is an Observatory, although the book does not say that directly and canon will probably never mention the energy-harvesting thing again despite ALL OF THE QUESTIONS THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH TECH RAISES.)

I’m okay with this passage, because it means that the Maw Installation, the Eye of Palpatine, and Wayland are all part of this system. It feels very much in-character. However, only Jakku is part of the Contigency, at least according to Galli, but--tbh, I kinda doubt it, because when have we ever known Palpatine to tell the truth? Or have Only One Plan?

Anyway, for decades, the Observatory computers have been plotting a route through hyperspace into the Unknown Regions. (I thought this was something only Jedi could do, since they were supposedly hard-core Space Navigators? Otherwise, what was even the point? *shrugs* Why do you even need a “Sith Wayfinder” anyway? *cough cough*) Then there’s an obligatory Thrawn reference, since Thrawn is canon, but Rax is pretty dismissive and says that the only reason Palps tolerated Thrawn was for his secret navigational insights into the Unknown Regions.

So if Palps loses his original demesne, he’s just gonna go conquer the Chiss or something? Except he can’t, because he’s dead, so what ever. I don’t even know, okay? Does anyone know what happened to Thrawn or the Chiss post-OT in the Disney ‘verse??

Anyway, Palps is convinced there’s something in the dark side waiting for him out there, which Galli is dismissive of. You’d think a guy who had literally been Force-choked would be more accepting of this instead of assuming it was just wishful thinking, but okay then. This is pretty clearly meant to be an obvious Snoke reference, which gets wonky with the TROS retcon that Snoke was a clone-puppet of Palpatine the entire time!

Anyway, Rax gets Yupe Tashu all geared up with Secret Evil Sith Gear and a Magic Kyber Crystal and tosses him into the planet’s core, and it starts the self-destruct process. Except it doesn’t because Rae Sloane kills Rax at the last moment, puts a stop to it, and steals the yacht full of feral children and flies off into the sunset to carry on Rax’s master plan because the New Republic destroyed the Imperial fleet while she was distracted and she apparently is tired of all this shit? Okay.

Anyway, she makes a deal with Armitage Hux that she’ll keep Brendol from abusing him if he keeps the feral kids from attacking her, and apparently it works out. This is supposed to be the origin of the First Order, and I guess they find Snoke or something, but none of the details are ever explained in any material I can find, so.... *shrugs*

I just really don’t understand how the First Order can be functional under the conditions herein described and how it logically evolves from This One Ship to a massive, disciplined force capable of wiping out the New Republic.

So I finished the book and... was kind of mad, because it just felt like a complete waste of my time. Overally, this whole thing just seems like a lot of build-up that doesn’t go anywhere, and provides weird backstory that only raises more unaddressed questions for things that really didn’t need it. 

also, it’s darkly amusing to me that this book comes out saying, “yup, the ST is a literal game-board reset of the OT, and Palps fully intended for it to be that way, even though we at Disney had no plans to bring him back as a villain at first” and I just... well, props for honesty, I guess?

anyway, the whole thing is a mess from a world-building perspective, and even though Star Wars is Fake and In Space, I just get grumpy when things don’t line up, especially since that was supposed to be one of the major selling points of this new canon in the first place.

[sirloozelite]

Thrawn continues to psychoanalyse Ahsoka and Rex

Thrawn: So would you both say you have overwhelming feelings of anger towards Anakin Skywalker?

Rex: More like a desire to clone him so I can kill him over and over again!

Ahsoka: Same here! 

Thrawn: Hmmm, I see. Tell me though, how did you perceive Skywalker before his betrayal? A father figure perhaps to the both of you?

Rex: ... I suppose so... in a weird way.

Ahsoka: He was more of an annoying older brother to me. 

Rex: Still a bastard though. 

Ahsoka: Yep!

Thrawn: What would you say to him if you could speak to him once more. 

Ahsoka: I’d punch him in the face.

Rex: I’d shoot him!

Thrawn: But does that not make you two as bad as him?

Ahsoka: Lol what?

Rex: Yeah! We didn’t murder kids Thrawn!!!!!

Thrawn: I meant no disrespect. I was merely highlighting the fact that the two of you desire to use violence against him, despite your main issue with him being that he violently betrayed and slaughtered his way to a position of power in the galaxy. Your comments are, in a way, hypocritical. 

Ahsoka: That’s not fair! We didn’t turn into mass murdering monsters!

Rex: Yeah!

Thrawn: Perhaps not, but there was the potential for it to happen was there not?

Ahsoka: 0_0

Rex: 0_0

Thrawn: You were his apprentice Miss Tano... and once Vader fell on Malachor, The Emperor diverted all his attention to acquiring you as his replacement. From discussions I had with Miss Larte prior to this meeting she has informed me of the dreams you have had regarding visions of your darker self. 

Ahsoka: Kaeden told you that?

Thrawn: As for you Captain, had you not removed your control chip you would have become nothing more that a willingly slave to the Empire. You, like Skywalker and your brothers, would have turned and murdered the Jedi.

Rex: I....I....

Thrawn: Whether you both realise it or not, you both escaped very close calls to a path of darkness. Remaining angry at Anakin for his actions will only continue the possibility of a darker path existing. It is time for the both of you to move on. 

Rex: ...

Ahsoka: ...

Rex: ...

Ahsoka: Nah man.... you’re wrong. 

Rex: Agreed. Skywalker was a piece of poodoo. We are not!

Ahsoka: Yeah! We are awesome!

Rex: Plus Ahsoka would have totally killed me if I hadn’t taken my chip out! Kriff she destroyed pretty much all the 332nd that day anyways!

Ahsoka: Yeah!

Thrawn: -_-

Ahsoka: Hey Rex? Shall we joint write another book?

Rex: Sounds good! Can we make it about how useless Grand Admiral Thrawn is at being a shrink?

Ahsoka: Hell yeah!

Ahsoka and Rex high five and leave Thrawn’s office. 

Thrawn: ... why do I even bother trying anymore?