History YMMV / TheThrawnTrilogy

* EvilIsCool: Par for the course in Star Wars, but Thrawn is perhaps one of the most famous examples in the EU. He's charming, cunning, charismatic, and naturally pulls off RootingForTheEmpire.

* NeverLiveItDown: Luuke Skywalker. A silly name for an ultimately very minor character (he has one real scene and never speaks) but from the way many EU detractors speak of him, you'd swear he was the BigBad of the entire Legends continuity who spoke entirely in terrible one-liners and tasteless rape jokes as he did everything in his power to ruin ''Star Wars''.

*** Some complained of him ripping off Franchise/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 (and, in fact, was used as a slang term in at least one issue of MarvelStarWars).

* NeverLiveItDown: Luuke Skywalker. A silly name for an ultimately very minor character (he has one real scene and barely talks in it) but from the way many EU detractors speak of him, you'd swear he was the BigBad of the entire Legends continuity who spoke entirely in terrible one-liners and tasteless rape jokes as he did everything in his power to ruin ''Star Wars''.

** In the comic adaptation, Leia interogates the Noghri ''in her underwear'', and the dialogue is unchanged so she's ''dead serious the entire time''.

** Joruus' fondness for controlling and moulding people is pretty creepy in general, but it gets extra disturbing when Thrawn buys his loyalty by promising to give Joruus Luke and Leia and Leia's unborn children.

** A literal example occurs when Leia, on the ''Falcon'' waiting to meet up with Khabarakh, is sleeping...only to have the orbiting ship pass right through where the second Death Star was destroyed, so that she encounters the lingering traces of Palpatine's mind and emotions at the time of his death.

** Related to an above HarsherInHindsight, Han musing that Thrawn might try and build another Death Star if he can get the resources together becomes this in ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'', where Zahn through just about every character expresses complete distaste for AwesomeButImpractical superweapons, and states that Thrawn never had any interest in them, nor did he need them. . . Thrawn himself was the superweapon.

** To a lesser extent, some fans can't hear Mara Jade without hearing either Heidi Shannon's (who voiced Mara in Mysteries of the Sith and Galactic Battlegrounds) or Shannon McRandle's (the model/actress who portrayed Mara Jade in numerous official photoshoots) voices.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: It wouldn't be Star Wars without any uplifting moments.
** Obi-Wan fades into the force but not before giving Luke words of reassurance which pull Luke out of his funk.
** Mara joining Luke at the end. It shows Mara [[HeelFaceTurn has fully abandoned her past]], Luke is on his way to restoring the Jedi, and is the first step to something [[HappilyMarried beautiful]].
** Chewbacca's life debt extends not just to Han but to his family which he shows by protecting the pregnant Leia throughout much of the books.
** The birth of Jacen and Jaina Solo. There will be [[FallenHero complications]] in the future but in the moment, it's a ray of hope.

-->'''Leia:''' I wanted to see if you might have knowledge about the Grand Admiral we could use against him.\\
'''Mara:''' There isn't anything. Not with Thrawn. He has no patterns, no favorite strategies, no discernible weaknesses. He studies his enemies and tailors his attacks against psychological blind spots. He doesn't over-commit his forces, and he's not too proud to back off when it's clear he's losing. Which doesn't happen very often, as you're finding out.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In ''The Last Command'' Han and Leia start trusting Mara after she risks her life to save their newborn children Jacen and Jaina from being kidnapped. [[spoiler:Years later, Jacen would pull a FaceHeelTurn and kill Mara. Oddly enough the irony of this was never pointed out in the latter book]].

** Han and Lando have a joking exchange about a particularly rough landing of the ''Falcon'', to which Han retorts that at least the sensor dish is still there. Lando replies that next time, he'll take down the shield while Han flies the ''Falcon'' down the Death Star's throat. Han muses that it really isn't all that funny, since if Thrawn manages to get back enough of the Empire's old resources, he might just try and build another of the damn things. Fast forward just a hair, and the Star Wars EU becomes positively littered with superweapons, both leftovers and new constructions. (And cue the TakeThat to this era of EU in ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' where it's explicitly stated the only weapon Thrawn ever needed was information.)

** What Joruus C'baoth [[MindRape did]] to that one Imperial in ''Literature/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 [[SycophanticServant worshipful puppet]] he was {{MindRape}}d into was utterly horrifying.

* MagnificentBastard: Thrawn is as adept a master manipulator as Palpatine was, and a ''better'' military strategist and tactician than he, Vader or anyone else in the galaxy. Not surprising, as Zahn partially based him on [[UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel the original Magnificent Bastard]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Thrawn's continued use of [[spoiler: the Noghri, Mara Jade, Ferrier, and C'baoth,]] despite it being painfully obvious they can and will disrupt his plans a case of him holding the IdiotBall, or an indication of how unwilling he is to eliminate potentially useful people no matter how unlikely it is that they can be incorporated into his plans?
** Is Thrawn's analysis of art really how he comes to his conclusions or is it simply the myth of his own invincibility that he has created?
* BadassBoast: Thrawn shows us exactly who's in charge: "I rule the Empire now, not some long-dead Emperor."
* BadassDecay: Both Darth Vader and the Emperor suffer from this in the Thrawn Trilogy, at least when the pair are directly compared to Thrawn or C'boath. Several times in each book there will be moments where characters will often compare Thrawn or C'boath to the big bads of the classic trilogy in a way to make Thrawn or C'boath seem like superior threats. Thrawn is stated several times to not make mistakes the Emperor or Vader would have made, characters wonder if the Battle of Endor would have gone differently with Thrawn in charge, C'boath is called more powerful or dangerous than the Emperor, Vader's tendency as a BadBoss is heavily exaggerated, etc. The only time Vader is ever treated with respect is when Luke or the Noghri talk about him.

* TearJerker: Obi-Wan's ghost leaving Luke for the last time in the beginning of ''Heir to the Empire''.

* TakeThatScrappy: Several of the books make jabs at the Ewoks, despite how crucial they were to ultimately defeating the Empire the first time around.

* NeverLiveItDown: Luuke Skywalker. A silly name for an ultimately very minor character but from the way many EU detractors speak of him, you'd swear he was the BigBad of the entire Legends continuity who spoke entirely in terrible one-liners and tasteless rape jokes as he did everything in his power to ruin ''Star Wars''.

* BadassDecay: Both Darth Vader and the Emperor suffer from this in the Thrawn Trilogy, at least when the pair are directly compared to Thrawn or C'boath. Several times in each book there will be moments where characters will often compare Thrawn or C'boath to the big bads of the classic trilogy in a way to make Thrawn or C'boath seem like superior threats. Thrawn is stated several times to not make mistakes the Emperor or Vader would have made, characters wonder if the Battle of Endor would have gone differently with Thrawn in charge, C'boath is called more powerful or dangerous than the Emperor, Vader's tendency as a BadBoss is heavily exaggerated, etc. The only time Vader is ever treated with respect is when Luke or the Noghri talk about him. Thrawn and C'boath's portrayals in comparison to the previous villains verges close to CreatorsPet / VillainSue territory.

* BadassDecay: Both Darth Vader and the Emperor suffer from this in the Thrawn Trilogy, at least when the pair are directly compared to Thrawn or C'boath. Several times in each book there will be moments where characters will often compare Thrawn or C'boath to the big bads of the classic trilogy in a way to make Thrawn or C'boath seem like superior threats. Thrawn is stated several times to not make mistakes the Emperor or Vader would have made, characters wonder if the Battle of Endor would have gone differently with Thrawn in charge, C'boath is called more powerful or dangerous than the Emperor, Vader's tendency as a BadBoss is heavily exaggerated, etc. The only time Vader is ever treated with respect is when Luke or the Noghri talk about him. It verges into CreatorsPet / VillainSue territory.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Admit it, if you read these books, you liked it when Thrawn kept winning.

* CantUnhearIt: After the character's appearance on ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', many fans have often found it hard not to read Thrawn's dialogue in the trilogy without hearing Lars Mikkelsen's voice in their head.

* 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.
** Thrawn was made a CanonImmigrant in Rebels probably due to his popularity.

* HarsherInHindsight: Thrawn's treatment of the Noghri becomes this after Literature/OutboundFlight, where he, as a young officer, expresses some distaste for slavery.
** Han and Lando have a joking exchange about a particularly rough landing of the ''Falcon'', to which Han retorts that at least the sensor dish is still there. Lando replies that next time, he'll take down the shield while Han flies the ''Falcon'' down the Death Star's throat. Han muses that it really isn't all that funny, since if Thrawn manages to get back enough of the Empire's old resources, he might just try and build another of the damn things. Fast forward just a hair, and the Star Wars EU becomes positively littered with superweapons, both leftovers and new constructions.

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

** [[spoiler: Thrawn]] was made a CanonImmigrant in Rebels probably due to his popularity.