History Fanfic / StarWarsAscendancy

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Voidlord humiliating the Miskara and coercing the Vagaari into aiding his search for Thrawn's fleet by seizing their treasure ships comes across as this given that the Vagaari are unrepentant conquerors who've enslaved and genocided countless innocent alien races.

* VestigalEmpire: The Vagaari have been hit with this ''hard''. In the past, they were a vast slave empire that threatened the Chiss Ascendancy, controlled a large portion of the Unknown Regions, and fielded an impressive fleet of warships hundreds strong. By the time the ''Chimaera'' encounters them, the Vagaari's repeated wars with the Chiss, combined with Miskara Pesh's incompetent leadership, have seen them reduced to living aboard a few dozen ramshackle starships in constant states of disrepair. This is even reflected by the state of the Miskara's throne room, which is brightly lit to create an illusion of opulence and has aged walls covered with rust. After the Voidlord makes off with all of the Vagaari's treasure ships, [[spoiler:they are left in an even sorrier state as they suffer chronic resource shortages and their nomadic way of life is said to be on the verge of becoming unsustainable.]]

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The Vagaari have been hit with this ''hard''. In the past, they were a vast slave empire that threatened the Chiss Ascendancy, controlled a large portion of the Unknown Regions, and fielded an impressive fleet of warships hundreds strong. By the time the ''Chimaera'' encounters them, the Vagaari's repeated wars with the Chiss, combined with Miskara Pesh's incompetent leadership, have seen them reduced to living aboard a few dozen ramshackle starships in constant states of disrepair. This is even reflected by the state of the Miskara's throne room, which is brightly lit to create an illusion of opulence and has aged walls covered with rust. After the Voidlord makes off with all of the Vagaari's treasure ships, [[spoiler:they are left in an even sorrier state as they suffer chronic resource shortages and their nomadic way of life is said to be on the verge of becoming unsustainable.]]

* TakeThat: When Palpatine's Royal Guards force Ezra to engage in a "sparring match" with them as payback for being buried under rubble during the Battle of Lothal, Ezra tries to intimidate them by boasting how his master Kanan defeated the Grand Inquisitor. The lead Royal Guard responds by mocking the Inquisitorius as a bunch of "[[DarthVaderClone poor Vader knock-offs]]" and tells Ezra this:

* WhyIsntItAttacking: In chapter 12, the ''Chimaera'' discovers the homeworld of the Narivan, an aggressively xenophobic and isolationist alien race, and is immediately confronted by a fleet of Narivan warships demanding that they leave or be fired upon. Thrawn calls them on their bluff, explaining to Ezra that if the Narivan really wanted to be left alone, they would destroy any alien vessels they encountered rather than risk them leaving and spreading word of their planet's location. In Thrawn's case, there's even more incentive for the Narivan to attack since Thrawn had just told their fleet's commander that his ship was damaged, wandering in uncharted space, and had lost contact with the rest of his empire. As far as the Narivan know, they have everything to gain from destroying the ''Chimaera'' since the Empire would never learn of their existence nor would they face any retaliation for the act. Going off this, Thrawn deduces that the Narivan are making an empty threat because they know their ships are no match for the ''Chimaera'' and are hoping to scare him away before he realizes it as well.

* BigBad: The Voidlord, a Yuuzhan Vong warlord who nearly defeated the Chiss Ascendancy in the past. He's the biggest threat that the crew of the ''Chimaera'' face in the Unknown Regions and his hunt for the Seventh Fleet as they try to make their way to Chiss Space is what drives the fic's main conflict forward.

* GenreSavvy: One of the reasons that the Narivan admiral Carala distrusts Thrawn and the Imperials is because of the overwhelming size of the Galactic Empire's territory and the fact that their government even has "Empire" in its name, a word with [[TheEmpire certain negative connotations]]. He points out to a fellow admiral that one doesn't build a GalacticSuperpower that powerful by being nice and correctly guesses of the Galactic Empire's true malevolent nature.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:The Mnggal-Mnggal]] does this in Chapter 10 after Ezra and Ayer narrowly escape its clutches. [[spoiler:Up until then, the main advantage the Mnggal-Mnggal had was that Thrawn wasn't aware of its presence aboard the GhostShip and had sent Ezra as part of the search team. When the Mnggal-Mnggal initially tries ramming Celaphid ship into the ''Chimaera'' after its existence is discovered, Thrawn is unable to fire on the ship due to Ezra still being aboard. Once the Mnggal-Mnggal loses the element of surprise and no longer has Ezra to act as a HumanShield, it makes the decision to immediately flee into hyperspace as soon as Ezra's shuttle has left the hanger bay since there was nothing left to keep Thrawn from having the Mnggal-Mnggal's ship destroyed.]]

* BigBad: The Voidlord, a Yuuzhan Vong warlord who nearly defeated the Chiss Ascendancy in the past. Over the course of the story, he hunts the Seventh Fleet as they try to make their way to the Chiss.

* BigBadWannabe: Miskara Pesh of the Vagaari Miskarate presents himself as a wealthy GalacticConqueror; dressing in elaborate silk robes, surrounding himself with slaves taken from alien races he's subjugated, and boasting of his people's legacy as conquerors and warriors. In reality, he's what the Vagaari have always accused the Ebruchi of being: a pirate with delusions of grandeur who bullies primitives too technologically backwards to fight back. Even Pesh's own second-in-command views him as a FatIdiot whose disastrous leadership has made the Vagaari into galactic laughingstocks. It's clear from the very beginning that Thrawn could easily destroy Pesh's fleet if he wanted to, and the only reason he doesn't is because he considers it a waste of time. When the Voidlord decides to enlist the Vagaari as part of his hunt for the ''Chimaera'', he easily cows Pesh into submission by seizing his treasure ships and threatening to kill all his slaves.

* BigBadWannabe: Miskara Pesh of the Vagaari presents himself as a wealthy GalacticConqueror; dressing in elaborate silk robes, surrounding himself with slaves taken from alien races he's subjugated, and boasting of his people's legacy as conquerors and warriors. In reality, he's what the Vagaari have always accused the Ebruchi of being: a pirate with delusions of grandeur who bullies primitives too technologically backwards to fight back. Even Pesh's own second-in-command views him as a FatIdiot whose disastrous leadership has made the Vagaari into galactic laughingstocks. It's clear from the very beginning that Thrawn could easily destroy Pesh's fleet if he wanted to, and the only reason he doesn't is because he considers it a waste of time. When the Voidlord decides to enlist the Vagaari as part of his hunt for the ''Chimaera'', he easily cows Pesh into submission by seizing his treasure ships and threatening to kill all his slaves.

* BigNo: Ezra in Chapter 10 after the [[spoiler:Mnggal-Mnggal]] taunts him by speculating about the ways that the ''Ghost'''s crew would be horrifically killed once the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong's fleets reach the galaxy.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Before the purrgil dragged the ''Chimaera'' into hyperspace, the last order the Royal Guard trio received from Palpatine was to "bring [Ezra's] corpse back to Coruscant. However, they agree to hold off on killing Ezra until they reach the Chiss Ascendancy since his Force-sensitivity is the only thing allowing the Seventh Fleet to safely navigate the Unknown Regions.

* GhostShip: In chapter 5, the ''Chimaera'' comes across a seemingly abandoned starship the size of a Star Destroyer floating within an asteroid field. Thrawn recognizes the ship as belonging to the Celaphid Syndicates, the Unknown Regions' equivalent of the Hutts, and guesses from the markings of Vagaari weaponry on the hull that the ship was attacked by Vagaari raiders and made a BlindJump into an asteroid field to escape where the crew perished after their escape pods crashed into the surrounding asteroids. Detecting that the ship has a much-needed supply of coolant, Thrawn sends Ezra and several squads of Stormtroopers to salvage what they can from the vessel. When the search teams arrive, they find the ship's interior coated with an unidentified grey sludge that they assume is AlienBlood. [[spoiler:It's actually the [[MuckMonster Mnggal-Mnggal]], who was responsible for killing the previous crew and begins gradually picking off the Stormtroopers one by one until only Ezra, Ayer, and a single squad is all that remains.]]

* GhostShip: In chapter 5, the ''Chimaera'' comes across a seemingly abandoned starship the size of a Star Destroyer floating within an asteroid field. Thrawn recognizes the ship as belonging to the Celaphid Syndicates, the Unknown Regions' equivalent of the Hutts, and guesses from the markings of Vagaari weaponry on the hull that the ship was attacked by Vagaari raiders and made a BlindJump into an asteroid field to escape where the crew perished after their escape pods crashed into the surrounding asteroids. Detecting that the ship has a much-needed supply of coolant, Thrawn sends Ezra and several squads of Stormtroopers to salvage what they can from the vessel. When the search teams arrive, they find the ship's interior coated with an unidentified grey sludge that is initially believed be AlienBlood. [[spoiler:It's actually the [[MuckMonster Mnggal-Mnggal]], who was responsible for killing the previous crew and begins gradually picking off the Stormtroopers one by one until only Ezra, Ayer, and a single squad is all that remains.]]