Timothy Zahn possessed, to my knowledge the unique ability outside of comics to create a seminal character and enlarge an attached IP with his own intellect; twice. Decades ago, before coming full circle to the actual screen, many postulated that Heir to the Empire would be where Star Wars would go, following the three films which were at that point the only trilogy made by Lucasarts. When Disney acquired Star Wars, what interests me is how a given author could leverage his original artistic ability to take his most popular fictional character and broaden where his stories explore.
Rather than the scrap and rehash approach, a typically rather genius touch is going further than the initially quite inventive creation of a character or process. Why not detail an alien outsider’s early life, and by extension novels that could fit within both the EU and Disney continuities? Heir of the Empire provides a foe to Luke, Han and Leia while the New Republic is fresh to rise (and given significant attention and personality). Thrawn details the rise of a naval officer and detective unravelling the politics of the galaxy, until asking the Emperor what exactly is the Death Star.
I can see EU Thrawn serving the Empire wholeheartedly, even the evils it perpetuates. Disney Thrawn is a different man, one I could see flirting with treachery. Which in a subtle and clever way reinforces the more one-dimensional Imperial morality. Disney’s Thrawn novel presents a view of the Imperial court akin to the new Empire of Augustus. Thrawn sees Palpatine as a mortal man, subject to age and death, taking the long view while shielding his smaller Chiss nation. Heir of the Empire features an Empire already broken, surely inspiring Disney yet again as they placed Thrawn and the Imperial Remnant within the Ahsoka series.
The notion of chaos verses order is rather brilliant. What I like is that in the Original Trilogy, chaos is actually good and order the evil of the Empire, a Rebel Alliance contrasts the minimalistic imperial war machine, with each human underneath the uniforms derelict or deprived in soul. This in broader context is something with a deal of grey. The republic is corrupt order, and both Jedi and Sith treat and perpetuate enforced order according to their paradigm. The Sith ferment chaos and offer intensive discipline to their warrior natures. The Jedi selectively treat the chaos and injustice of the world, while acting from the cosmopolitan centre of the galaxy.
Interestingly, Thrawn’s firm notion of absolutes could give him a moral blindness relative to others, something shared by of all things, the Jedi as evidenced by an oft repeated and mocked line from Obi Wan. Thrawn more clearly possesses more of a grey morality within Zahn’s later work, no association with slavery or parallels to brutalistic colonialism, and these newer works featuring Thrawn are a refinement of Zahn’s desire to avoid simple moral evils in his antagonists after honing his craft. After all, how would an author realise how his character, how the franchise he was writing for would become one of the most popular of its genre?
Interestingly the first book might fit with legends as well, something I find rather fascinating. The question of the exile itself is one where I prefer to separate legends from canon, as a personal choice. I like the idea of a straightforward exile for his pre-emptive strikes, it fits with a more…militant thrawn. More desperate, as he faces a Jedi like the Skywalkers, and the Vong. Cannon Thrawn being assigned to either support or fell a neutral faction within seems to suit the new material Zahn is creating.
This decision fits one of the wider artistic decisions of Disney; the introduction of younger characters. Reflecting the desire for younger audiences. Say, new audiences who saw Rebels, the new generation coveted as evidenced by TLJ’s ending. Those who will certainly enjoy Thrawn, but not remember the EU. Because it was removed. I like this dynamic a great deal, an example of using a younger character to both expose the strengths and prestige of a major character, but also expand the world with a different viewpoint, and an original figure with interesting possibilities. The Grysks, possibly with the Final order in Eli’s case, and the best example I can think of being Asoka Tano, which Disney seized with both hands, ensuring she was placed in Rebels, going back for TCW, and also a live action appearance in The Mandalorian, which amuses me no end when people who complain about ‘cartoons’ enjoy a character whose worst showing by far was on the ‘big screen’.
Aside from being the golden period, as the EU knew, it serves a practical purpose from Disney. It is comfortably removed -with the young like eli unable to remember it- the clone wars and prequel era, which you have played into by the ‘return to roots’ and affection for taking imagery and concepts from the OT, save for clone wars which clearly was all but imperial, and Darth Maul in Solo. avoiding the future keeps you from interfering with the then unknown and chaotic nature of the films, and that dark place which is either unexplored, or as with the Expanded Universe goes in very strange directions, something varying in quality and feedback from the Vong, to Darth Caedus, to Legacy.
It is emphasised how difficult a rebellion is, explaining the lack of presence, giving suspense, agreeing with the timeline, and giving the rebellion much needed prestige. They lack figures like wedge now, the new republic does nothing until being destroyed, and its heroes aged and because exiles. Here, as with Rogue One at least weight is given to the efforts people fell in love with so long ago. the nazi element need not be so heavily enforced, because our heroes doing the will of good was so engaging, we loved Lando and Leia and building a revolutionary movement founded upon democratic values, just war and just rule.
It is also an example of Jedi being Jedi ‘Knights’ at their ideal. A knight, a fighter, one who cares for struggle more than bureaucracy. Rey does share that nobility, but the effectiveness of it is unfortunately constrained, weirdly for one of her power. She runs from a base, she fails to affect anything for two films, she fails even to live without revival, pretty sad honestly, and while I feel that the corporate reboot cuts both ways. it is easier to age and forget Rey than it even was for Luke, and that idea of a cycle is a depressing waste, but perhaps one Disney deserves as much as Terminator Genysis. One can hope for seeing a Jedi Grandmaster restoring a noble order, and it surviving for longer than a few years; but it seems unlikely, and fortunate that what cinema fans were denied, many appreciators of literature and video games have enjoyed.
After the twist, that the new Disney Thrawn’s first antagonist is a terrorist who attempted but failed to kindle a large-scale rebellion against the Empire, the affable nature gives an odd humour and humanity to the story. And when I look at it, there is actually a deliberate contrast in our two stories. As Nightswan is revealed, Eli and Thrawn have come into their own, we see their humanity, the opportunity for better tactics, consideration of human lives. Pryce at around the same point of transition becomes inhuman, cold, wholly devoted to power. I suppose that Zahn may have intended this, to humanise some characters and avoid a sanitised or soulless cast, offering us humour, affability, and tragedy converging at Batonn.
I do rather love Thrawn’s meta comment that “while false, legends (Legends being Disney’s terminology for the Expanded Universe) are quite informative”, the opposite of James Luceno’s rather hilarious 11-4D reference that made me chuckle and smile at the intelligence. Rather than sneakily reconnect all of the EU in a single reference -and not invalidate his life’s work and that of many others- Zahn sees the opportunity and ability to reflect. It’s the mindset of an artist with new possibilities, fitting for one who wrote a character that draws deductions about culture and psychology from art.
Disney Star Wars in enamoured with the gap period between original and prequel series in order to focus and profit on Vader, Tarkin, Palpatine, Thrawn and so on, with the Empire depicted much as it was in Legends. And then there is the ‘modern era’, with the juntas and ‘the old cause’ elements frustrating and one dimensional. The First Order are Neo Nazis or the Confederacy, blatantly obvious from the Valin Hess monologue in The Mandalorian’s ‘Chapter 15: The Believer’. Another example would be the new Battlefront II video game campaign. Imperial characters depicted become dyed in the wool fanatics, nuance is not permitted to the point where a protagonist must embrace becoming a rebel and the loyalist a screaming First Order SS officer.
The lack of captivating or nuanced characters was evident by the new trilogy’s endings also, Hux was a comic object in The Last Jedi, Phasma as utilised as Boba Fett, but with twice the misleading advertising. Richard Grant was there to give an edge at all to the First Order, far too late. And due to inconsistency; somewhat ineffectively.
I believe this is due to the lack of political nuance or interest in humanising characterisation. The Nazi’s are evil, and failures; so too must be a fictional faction, the Empire/First Order, as no other inspiration for them is presented in media. No example of positives exist within for this fictive government, and if they do, these people convert. The enemy may as well be liches or war automata, they are equally blank and morally vacuous. Yet, they can be a terror, a threat bigger than the empire, with worse weapons and intimidation if you compare their war compared to The Empire Strikes Back.
I say this because Disney’s lack of vision robs us of nuance. They can create what they like. And the Empire and First Order are not the Nazis. they do not need to be paper thin allegory. This becomes more confusing given two main examples. In terms of good writing, the focus on Thrawn. In the films themselves; Kylo Ren. A conflicted, frustrating character who mixed a knightly aesthetic and ancestor worship with…nothing Jacen Solo possessed in terms of depth or experience. redeemed, intended in TLJ to do something different, who…leads a room of men fresh out of The Last Crusade or Downfall. Much like the leader of his opposing Order, Ben Skywalker dies like Luke; fresh out of an existential crisis, he, his legacy, and his relevance are dead for future figures to potentially piece together later.
I find it interesting that while the ‘magic’ of Star Wars is rather aesthetically obvious and not possessing the same subtlety as other systems (Force blasts, Sith Lightning and telekinesis predominantly), political nuance and the workings of various settings in states of decay or wealth are detailed very well.
(I say this with a firm focus on the Legends material. Aside from the new Thrawn novels -which I fully intend to address in a rather large project late this year- I just do not have the will or patience to cover the reductive and less interesting Disney material. This may change, but it is the norm unless stated otherwise).
Mocked widely though it is, that a setting will in the now middle period of the Prequel Trilogy show the influence of ‘taxation and trade disputes’ gives it topical relevance to our modern era, arguably not only this century but a few before. The need for academic study and intellectual rigour, that a cloistered view removes an Order from their duty of helping the common people, these are intriguing themes beneficial for a popular series. Star Wars has been a collaborative effort for longer than I have been alive; much like Warhammer the domain of many different artists, with works of lesser repute being discarded and the engaging pieces adding to the ‘basic’ material of the core films.
Timothy Zahn epitomises this with elements beneficial for all science fiction, not merely the franchise. Actually alien sounding worlds, depictions of xenophobia and struggle against the political machine without farcical preaching or rote lessons. A distinctive female protagonist, placed due to the potential within her unique side story and amateur political ambitions, not simply as a token or to embody a nebulous and corporate ‘strength’.
I will not be dull enough to identify a given politician as the ‘Palpatine’, because the point is that a great many individuals can -and have- used such underhanded and malevolent methods in the pursuit of power. Or, indeed for good depending upon the result and your point or views.
Villainous virtues intrigue me, although personally I see it as a case of virtues being universal, not confined to the morality or ‘alignment’ or an individual.
Art comes in around halfway through the book, showing Thrawn has evolved past a calling card, showing a number of his other perception abilities and foibles first, then rewarding the reader with either a fresh and fascinating idea, or a wonderful reintroduction like Holmes explaining his process of inductive reasoning.
The real beauty of the multiple Thrawn novels is Zahn’s ability to weather the incredibly different media direction of the property he contributed to, preserving his legacy rather than having it be forgotten. There was no usurpation of property, with key concepts being taken by another author following on, and none of the increasingly typical habit of an author to ridicule their audience, chasing their own authoritative influence until it reveals more of their social media presence than genuine artistic ability. Timothy Zahn is simply an incredible writer, an adaptive one, and the story of how he makes iconic stories is an example for any reader or writer.
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