History Literature / StarWarsLostStars

* AcePilot: Half the main characters--Ciena, Thane, Kendy, and Nash--qualify. They're at pilot school from ages 16 to 19, so…

A ''Franchise/StarWars' young adult novel written by Creator/ClaudiaGray. It's part part of the ''Journey to the Force Awakens'' media campaign, ''Lost Stars'' gives readers a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe. From the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire, these major moments are filtered through the eyes of two childhood friends--Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell--who have grown up to become an Imperial officer and a Rebel pilot.

A ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' young adult novel written by Creator/ClaudiaGray. It's part part of the ''Journey to the Force Awakens'' media campaign, ''Lost Stars'' gives readers a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe. From the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire, these major moments are filtered through the eyes of two childhood friends--Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell--who have grown up to become an Imperial officer and a Rebel pilot.

* BenevoltBoss: Piett is this during the story, with him kindly reminding Ciena that he just got promoted to Admiral after Vader Force Choked Ozzell for jumping out of hyperspace too early and close to the Hoth system. He also discreetly thanks Ciena for following orders during the dogfight at the Hudalla System despite her letting Thane escape.

* BenevoltBoss: Piett is this once again, with him kindly reminding Ciena that he just got promoted to Admiral after Vader Force Choked Ozzell for jumping out of hyperspace too early and close to the Hoth system. He also discreetly thanks Ciena for following orders during the dogfight at the Hudalla System despite her letting Thane escape.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Thane and Ciena were at numerous key points during the Galactic Civil War from the Battle of Yavin, to the Battle of Jakku, in some cases being present during major scenes. Thane, for example, was one of the scouts at Dantooine and after defecting was one of the snowspeeder pilots on Hoth. Ciena helped sabotage the ''Millennium Falcon''[='s=] hyderdrive and also picked up Lord Vader's TIE fighter.
* BerserkButton: Bringing up Alderaan and stating its destruction was unnecessary is guaranteed to stir up Nash's ire. Similarly, Nash goes ballistic when he finds out Thane is a rebel. Ciena finds this peculiar because up until this point she hadn't realized that Nash had dealt with Alderaan's destruction by doubling down on his fanaticism towards the Empire, justifying the destruction of his homeworld and family by believing anything they did was worth a utopian future and anyone who fought them was scum beyond compare.

* OpeningScroll: Well, the three paragraphs that open the story don't crawl up like the movies, but they do carry their spirit.
-->'''Eight years after the fall of the Old\\
Republic, The Galactic Empire now reigns\\
over the known galaxy. Resistance to\\
the Empire has been all but silenced.\\
Only a few courageous leaders such\\
as Bail Organa of Alderaan still dare to\\
openly oppose Emperor Palpatine.\\
\\
After years of defiance, the many\\
worlds at the edge of the Outer Rim\\
have surrendered. With each planet's\\
conquest, the Empire's might grows\\
even stronger.\\
\\
The latest to fall under the Emperor's\\
control is the isolated mountain planet\\
Jelucan, whose citizens hope for a more\\
prosperous future even as the Imperial\\
Starfleet gathers overhead....'''

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Rescuing your {{Star Crossed Lover}} from her ship during a battle between your forces? Yay! Wait, your side considers her a Prisoner of War? Rats.

* BrokenPedestal: Nash has always wanted to meet Princess Leia. After it turns out she's a rebel involved in stealing the Death Star plans, Nash views her as this, the first of a snowball effect that leads into his BlackAndWhiteInsanity.

** Combined with SanitySlippage for Nash Windrider. No one actually expects him to remain loyal to the Empire, but he contorts his brain into a pretzel to make not only Alderaan's destruction justified but a moral sacrifice for the greater good. It makes him a terrifyingly loyal Imperial.

* HourglassPlot: At the beginning of the story, Ciena is the idealist out to follow her values to forge a better galaxy, and Thane is the cynic turned bitter and wary or the world by his upbringing. By the end, their paths in life have left Ciena depressed, disillusioned with her beliefs and completely empty and useless inside, whereas Thane has found true trust in the world around him and a belief in ideals and right thinking that he never trusted before. At the close of the story, ''Thane'' is the one convincing ''Ciena'' that the world can be better than it seems, albeit with the promise that he'll make it that way if it doesn't comply.

* TheSmartGuy: In their Academy days, between both the boys and the girls Ciena's best friend Jude Edivon was the smartest and most studious of their class--and even after graduating, sees many things as if they were scientific exploits. Notably, [[spoiler:this doesn't save her. She is explicitly revealed to be the analyst who discovered the tactical merit in the Rebels' attack on the first Death Star (via its AchillesHeel) and sent the message to Tarkin, who--as we all know--[[CassandraTruth didn't]] [[IgnoredExpert listen]], leading to the deaths of everyone posted to the space station, including her and him.]]

* SelfDestructMechanism: [[spoiler:The Rebels board the ''Inflictor'', the Star Destroyer commanded by Ciena, and she seeks to trigger its self-destruct sequence per protocol. However, they anticipated this and sabotaged it, so she tries to fly the ship into the planet below instead. Thane stops her however.]]

** By the end of the book, Ciena is [[spoiler:trying to kill herself by going down with her ship to fulfill her obligation to the Empire and finally free herself from its grip]] when Thane arrives. Refusing to leave with him, and Thane refusing to leave without her, they begin a brutal fist fight to knock each other out and drag the other to safety. Thane notes that, to any outside observer, it would look like they were trying to kill rather than save each other.
* TheSmartGuy: In their Academy days, between both the boys and the girls Ciena's best friend Jude was the smartest and most studious of their class--and even after graduating, sees many things as if they were scientific exploits. Notably, [[spoiler:this doesn't save her. She is explicitly revealed to be the analyst who discovered the tactical merit in the Rebels' attack on the first Death Star and sent the message to Tarkin, who--as we all know--[[CassandraTruth didn't listen]], leading to her death, his own, and millions more.]]

* UndyingLoyalty: Ciena and Nash have this to the Empire. For Ciena, it is because her culture demands that she honor the oath of loyalty she swore, while Nash slowly transforms into an Imperial fanatic and true believer in Palpatine's New Order. But what tears Ciena apart is that ultimately, she has this for Thane too. Even at the height of her anger over his desertion and signing up with the Rebellion, she admits she will always love him. The best compromise she can come up with is to be loyal to him for a night, and then the Empire the rest of her life.

* BerserkButton: Don't mention Alderaan around Nash. Seriously, don't. Similarly, Nash goes ballistic when he finds out Thane is a rebel. Ciena finds this peculiar because up until this point she hadn't realized that Nash had dealt with Alderaan's destruction by doubling down on his fanaticism towards the Empire, justifying the destruction of his homeworld and family by believing anything they did was worth a utopian future and anyone who fought them was scum beyond compare.

* HeelFaceTurn: Thane Kyrell, of course, ever since the Death Star reduced Alderaan to smithereens, eventually deserting his post and joining the Rebels. Kendy Idele also mutinied with most of her unit against the Empire on Miriatin, with the survivors joining the Rebel Alliance.

* HeelFaceTurn: Thane Kyrell, of course. Kendy Idele also mutinied with most of her unit against the Empire on Miriatin, with the survivors joining the Rebel Alliance.

Starfleet gathers overhead....''''

-->Eight years after the fall of the Old\\

Starfleet gathers overhead....

* SelfDestructMechanism: [[spoiler:The Rebels board the ''Inflictor'', the Star Destroyed commanded by Ciena, and she seeks to trigger its self-destruct sequence per protocol. However, they anticipated this and sabotaged it, so she tries to fly the ship into the planet below instead. Thane stops her however.]]

* FlatEarthAtheist: A {{downplayed}} example. Thane works for the Rebellion with Luke Skywalker livig just down the hall, but continues to believe the Force is ridiculous nonsense. Doubly so with so many people in living memory who knew the Jedi. Also, despite the staggering amount of really weird happenstances that keep bringing him and Ciena back together. However, he's never shown as seeing any hard evidence (Luke doesn't appear on page in the book nor apparently use his powers where Thane can see, and witnesses don't interact with him), thus his view seems more reasonable at first, since he just hears people state their ''belief'' in the Force. In the end, he comes around to believing it's real from the aforementioned happenstances just becoming too much for explaining as being coincidences.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Rescuing your {{Star-Crossed Lover}} from her ship during a battle between your forces? Yay! Wait, your side considers her a Prisoner of War? Rats.

** [[spoiler:At the end of the book the Empire and the New Republic have signed an official peace treaty, but in secret facilities and bases in a nebula the Imperial Navy is secretly being rebuilt away from the prying eyes of the New Republic and plans are being drawn up for the next war.]]
* FrameUp: Ciena's mother is framed for embezzling money from the mine on Jelucan, though her strict code of honor would make it unthinkable. Though the culprit is unknown, it's most likely an Imperial offical with connections who made her into the scapegoat for their own crime.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Rescuing your Star-Crossed Lover from her ship during a battle between your forces? Yay! Wait, your side considers her a POW? Crap.

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: Played for drama. Thane and Ciena have two discussions after Alderaan and Yavin but before Thane deserts. Because Thane is paranoid about being spied on, he uses coded and vague language, while Ciena is still working on accepting the rationalization for blowing up Alderaan. End result: Thane thinks Ciena's agreeing they should leave the Empire, Ciena thinks he's resolving to continue serving the Empire.

* StarCrossedLovers: Thane and Ciena: aristocrat and farm girl; Rebel pilot and loyal Imperial officer.