History YMMV / TheThrawnTrilogy

* MagnificentBastard: Thrawn.
** Sometimes crosses over into MaryTzu.

* HarsherInHindsight: Thrawn's treatment of the Noghri becomes this after OutboundFlight where he expresses some distaste for slavery.

* HarsherInHindsight: Thrawn's treatment of the Noghri becomes this after [[Literature/OutboundFlight]] where he expresses some distaste for slavery.

* MaryTzu: Thrawn was {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into this in later EU works, which led to Zahn delivering a TakeThat in the ''HandOfThrawn'' duology that he was never ''that'' good. Zahn himself played with the trope in the original trilogy, as Thrawn deliberately nurtured an image of being this trope so that his enemies would lose hope, thinking ''everything'' was part of a XanatosGambit. The fear of Thrawn was often as much of a deciding factor in his victories as Thrawn himself.
** Thrawn wasn't flanderised into a Mary Tzu. He was an extreme example of Mary Tzu right from his first appearance. Even in the original Thrawn trilogy, his omniscience is difficult to swallow. There is really little justification for most of the conclusions he reaches. Even Zahn fails to depict him as a convincing military genius, and instead he comes across as a consistently lucky guesser.

*** A reference to a Corellian Corvette (you've seen one; Princess Leia was escaping in one at the start of the original ''Star Wars)'' had some claiming he named it for the car, not realizing the car had been named for a type of small AgeOfSail warship. The fact that the name for the ship predated Zahn's writing also was a factor.

*** A reference to a Corellian Corvette had some claiming he named it for the car, not realizing the car had been named for a type of small AgeOfSail warship. The fact that the name for the ship predated Zahn's writing also was a factor.

*** A reference to a Corellian Corvette had some claiming he named it for the car, not realizing the car had been named for a type of small AgeOfSail warship. The fact that the name for the ship predated Zahn's writing also was a factor.

* MaryTzu: Thrawn was {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into this in later EU works, which led to Zahn delivering a TakeThat in the ''HandOfThrawn'' duology that he was never ''that'' good.

* CompleteMonster: Joruus C'baoth.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In ''Heir to the Empire'', Leia goes to Kashyyyk and is greeted by a Wookiee who has a speech impediment that allows him to speak like a human...but she doesn't know about the speech impediment when he first opens his mouth and begins to speak perfect English. Since she's only ever met one Wookiee before this, there's a brief moment when she wonders if ''Chewie'' was vocally challenged all this time, which he finds very amusing.

* AlasPoorVillain: ''"But... it was so artistically done."''

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In ''Heir to the Empire'', Leia goes to Kashyyyk and is greeted by a Wookiee who has a speech impediment that allows him to speak like a human...but she doesn't know about the speech impediment when he first opens his mouth and begins to speak perfect English. Since she's only ever met one Wookiee before this, there's a brief moment when she wonders if ''Chewie'' was vocally challenged all this time.

* HilariousInHindsight: Luuke being an insane clone of Luke Skywalker becones especially ironic when one remembers that Luke Skywalker's film actor, MarkHamill, ends up voicing SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, who is an incredible insane supervillain.

** In the sidebar notes of the 20th Anniversary Edition, Zahn mentions a few cases where fans accused him of referencing stuff current culture, not realizing that the references were older.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The books produced at least three extremely popular characters - Thrawn, Mara and Talon Karrde, but the most surprising success story might be the relatively minor character of Pellaeon who would go on to much greater things.

* HilariousInHindsight: Luuke being an insane clone of Luke Skywalker becones especially ironic when one remembers that Luke Skywalker's film actor, MarkHamill, ends up voicing TheJoker, who is an incredible insane supervillain.

** What Joruus C'baoth [[MindRape did]] to that one Imperial in ''TheThrawnTrilogy''. We don't see it happening, but for a little while after it's over the Imperial is the viewpoint character, and he's basically nothing more than an extension of C'baoth's will. A few pages later and Captain Pellaeon sees a report that the Imperial who was escorting C'baoth just... died a few hours after being separated from the mad Jedi. Worse, Covell had already been the viewpoint character once before, and the contrast between the highly competent DeadpanSnarker that he was and the [[TheRenfield worshipful puppet]] he was {{MindRape}}d into was utterly horrifying.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In ''Heir to the Empire'', Leia goes to Kashyyyk and is greeted by a Wookiee who has a speech impediment that allows him to speak like a human...but she doesn't know about the speech impediment when he first opens his mouth and begins to speak perfect English. Since she's only ever met one Wookiee before this, there's a brief moment when she wonders if Chewie was just mentally challenged all this time.

*** A reference to a Correllian Corvette had some claiming he named it for the car, not realizing the car had been named for a type of small AgeOfSail warship. The fact that the name for the ship predated Zahn's writing also was a factor.

*** Some complained of him ripping off StarTrek when mentioning the 'borg implant' that Lando's assistant had, but 'borg' is just a abbreviation of cyborg, a term that had been around for many years before.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In ''Heir to the Empire'', Leia goes to Kashyyyk and is greeted by a Wookiee who has a speech impediment that allows him to speak like a huma...but she doesn't know about the speech impediment when he first opens his mouth and begins to speak perfect English. Since she's only ever met one Wookiee before this, there's a brief moment when she wonders if Chewie was just mentally challenged all this time.

* MaryTzu: Thrawn could determine the proper techniques and maneuvers to use against an enemy commander just by studying the artwork of their species. Thrawn may have been an all around awesome and enjoyable character, but this pushes beyond the believable.

* MagnificentBastard: Thrawn, who was actually the picture on that page for a while.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Zahn used the Star Wars [[TabletopGames role-playing game]] as a mine of source material, apparently on the advice of Lucasfilm.