| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/350px_vector_prime_cover.jpg]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | -> ''"I had fought the worst of all wars, and witnessed the redemption of evil. I have seen balance restored to the Force, but order can turn to chaos, as it did when I was born. Now, with my loved ones and my loyal allies, I face a new challenge unlike any before... And I'm not sure if this time, we can win."'' |
| 7 | -->--'''Luke Skywalker, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCV552EPGk a commercial promoting]] ''Vector Prime''''' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ''New Jedi Order'' is a ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' series set twenty-five years after ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIVANewHope''. The galaxy is at peace. [[LaResistance The Rebellion]] has become [[TheAlliance the New Republic]]. [[TheEmpire The Empire]] is reduced to a shadow of its former self, its surviving leaders much more reasonable (still authoritarian but not outright dictatorial), and a treaty exists between the Empire and the Republic. Luke Skywalker's [[TitleDrop new Jedi Order]] is still small, but growing--about a hundred all told. He also got married four years ago to a wonderful woman, also a Jedi and [[DefectingForLove who happens to have once wanted to kill him]]. Their courtship was ''adorable''. [[OfficialCouple Han Solo and Leia Organa]] have been hitched for seventeen years, and have three teenaged children, all prodigies and strong in the Force. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Then the Yuuzhan Vong come, at first on a small scale in the form of weird biological ships, carrying warriors that scar and tattoo and mutilate themselves, attack a few nothing worlds on the edge of known space. They're turned back, but then more come, and more, enough to conquer a galaxy, it seems. Fearless and fanatical, they crusade against the infidels and their machines and all of them, seemingly, don't exist in the Force. In their numbers, philosophy and ferocity, they promise to take a greater toll than the entire Galactic Civil War. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[FromBadToWorse They do.]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | And then things get ''really'' bad. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The New Jedi Order was the first novel series Del Rey Books produced once they acquired the license to produce ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' novels from Lucasbooks after Bantam lost it. Originally intended to have twenty-five books, it ended up as a still-sprawling nineteen-book series over five years of both in-universe time and real time, composed mostly of hardcover one-shots and softcover miniseries, written by several authors. It was embroiled in controversy from the start, with the killing of Chewbacca at the end of the first novel. It continued by killing a small host of minor, secondary, and non-movie major characters, including several fan-favorites, and ended up exploring the very meaning of the Force, and whether the Dark Side existed at all. (Short answer -- not really. Long answer -- yes, it does, but not as previously thought.) The published novels are in chronological order as follows (hardcovers with a indentation, softcovers with two, even though they aren't necessarily direct sequels). |
| 18 | |
| 19 | * ''Vector Prime'' (1999) -- Creator/RASalvatore |
| 20 | ** ''Dark Tide I: Onslaught'' (2000) -- Creator/MichaelAStackpole |
| 21 | ** ''Dark Tide II: Ruin'' (2000) |
| 22 | ** ''Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial'' (2000) -- Creator/JamesLuceno |
| 23 | ** ''Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse'' (2000) |
| 24 | * ''Balance Point'' (2000) -- Creator/KathyTyers |
| 25 | ** ''Edge Of Victory I: Conquest'' (2001) -- Creator/GregKeyes |
| 26 | ** ''Edge Of Victory II: Rebirth'' (2001) |
| 27 | * ''Star By Star'' (2001) -- Creator/TroyDenning |
| 28 | ** ''Dark Journey'' (2002) -- Creator/ElaineCunningham |
| 29 | ** ''Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream'' (2002) -- Creator/AaronAllston |
| 30 | ** ''Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand'' (2002) |
| 31 | ** ''Traitor'' (2002) -- Creator/MatthewStover |
| 32 | * ''Destiny's Way'' (2002) -- Creator/WalterJonWilliams |
| 33 | ** ''Force Heretic I: Remnant'' (2003) -- Creator/SeanWilliams and Creator/ShaneDix |
| 34 | ** ''Force Heretic II: Refugee'' (2003) |
| 35 | ** ''Force Heretic III: Reunion'' (2003) |
| 36 | ** ''The Final Prophecy'' (2003) -- Creator/GregKeyes |
| 37 | * ''The Unifying Force'' (2003) -- Creator/JamesLuceno |
| 38 | |
| 39 | The series also featured several short stories and e-book novellas set in the duration. These include: |
| 40 | * "Recovery" (2001) -- an e-book later reprinted in the paperback edition of ''Star By Star'' and set sometime after the events of ''Balance Point''. |
| 41 | * "Emissary of the Void" -- a six-part story published in various issues of Star Wars Gamer and Star Wars Insider magazines, set after the events of ''Rebirth''. |
| 42 | * "The Apprentice" (2002) -- a short story published in Star Wars Gamer #4 and set during the events of ''Dark Journey''. |
| 43 | * "Ylesia" (2002) -- an e-book later reprinted in ''[[Literature/DarkNestTrilogy The Joiner King]]'' and set during the events of ''Destiny's Way''. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | Additional stories set during this era, but not published concurrently with the series include: |
| 46 | * "Revenants" (2003) -- a short comic published in ''ComicBook/StarWarsTales'' #18. As with all Tales stories published in issues #1-20 it was considered CanonDiscontinuity. |
| 47 | * "Or Die Trying" (2004) -- a short story published in Star Wars Insider #75 and set sometime after ''Refugee''. |
| 48 | * "Equals and Opposites" (2004) -- a short comic story published in ''ComicBook/StarWarsTales'' #21. |
| 49 | * "A Practical Man" (2006) -- an e-book later reprinted in the paperback edition of ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheForce Sacrifice]]''. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/StarWarsInvasion'' (2009 -- 2014) |
| 51 | ---- |
| 52 | !!Provides Examples Of: |
| 53 | |
| 54 | * ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the war goes on, Fey'la's approval rating tanks. By ''Star by Star'', this makes him pretty desperate. |
| 55 | * EleventhHourSuperpower: In the last book, [[spoiler:Jacen manages to attain Oneness with the Force and uses it to lay a major smackdown on Onimi]]. |
| 56 | * AbortedArc: |
| 57 | ** Several, unfortunately, as a side-effect of the multi-author format. [[spoiler: The Great River, the Insiders, and Tahiri's destiny]] were probably the most notable. |
| 58 | ** {{Enforced}} with Anakin and Tahiri, between whom Master Ikrit prophecies something great. Given [[spoiler:Anakin's death]] in ''Star by Star'', this never comes. [[spoiler:One of the Solo children was always going to be killed off, with Jacen being chosen for it but plans were swapped around when Creator/GeorgeLucas nixed Anakin being the hero of the series (reportedly [[ViewersAreMorons not wanting him confused with his grandfather]]). Thus Anakin was killed off instead of Jacen. [[ShootTheShaggyDog And then Jacen went to hell]] in [[Literature/LegacyOfTheForce the next series]] anyway.]] |
| 59 | * AcidAttack: The ''voxyn'' can vomit acid (which is, unusually, not depicted as stereotypical HollywoodAcid, but rather mucus that happens to be strong enough to [[BodyHorror burn through faces]]), and their blood is [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill both acidic and a neurotoxin]]. |
| 60 | * ActionMom: Leia, Mara Jade, post-''Rebirth''. |
| 61 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: After Han's tirade against the Empire and their superweapons, the imperial who provoked this has a reaction that suggests she actually agrees with him. |
| 62 | * ADayInTheLimelight: ''Dark Tide'' for Corran Horn, ''Agents of Chaos'' for Han Solo, Edge of Victory for Anakin Solo, ''Dark Journey'' for Jaina Solo, ''Enemy Lines'' for Wedge Antilles, ''Traitor'' for Jacen Solo and ''The Final Prophecy'' for Tahiri Veila. |
| 63 | * AgentProvocateur: Nom Anor, several times in different disguises. |
| 64 | * AlienBlood: Yuuzhan Vong blood is either tar-black or deep blue, DependingOnTheWriter. |
| 65 | * AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Played with in the ''Force Heretic'' trilogy, which visits the Chiss homeworld Csilla for the first time in Legends. The protagonists are baffled by [[MostWritersAreWriters a library of paper books and a card catalog]]: the rest of the galaxy has been all-electronic for so long none of them have ever seen paper before (Creator/GeorgeLucas didn't allow any paper to ever appear on screen in the first six films for this reason). The Chiss still use them due to considering them more durable than electronics [[SingleBiomePlanet in Csilla's climate]]. |
| 66 | * AliensSpeakingEnglish: In ''Vector Prime'', Threepio is quickly able to translate Yuuzhan Vong, ''a language from outside the galaxy'', because it's similar to one of the six million languages he ''does'' know (which, for added strangeness, hasn't been spoken in three hundred years). ([[spoiler:Eventually we learn that a remnant of the species' GeniusLoci homeworld made it to this galaxy thousands of years earlier, though the text never draws a connection]]). Additionally, major Vong characters are all conveniently able to speak [[CommonTongue Basic]], which makes sense for the diplomat Nom Anor, but not for most others (their [[TranslatorMicrobes tizowyrms]] explain being able to ''understand'' it, but responding is another issue). |
| 67 | * TheAlliance: By the end of the series, the Galactic Alliance, Empire, and Chiss are all working together to stop the Vong. [[TheDragon Nas Choka]] ruefully reflects that the brutality of the Vong's policies prevented them from building an alliance of their own. |
| 68 | * AllMythsAreTrue: In-universe, Zonama Sekot. There are many legends about the wandering, living planet. Danni Quee says, "Every astronomer who's worked the Outer Rim knows about Zonama Sekot. They know it doesn't exist, for starters." |
| 69 | * AllThereInTheManual: "The Apprentice" and "Ylesia" are akin to missing chapters belonging to ''Dark Journey'' and ''Destiny's Way'' respectively. |
| 70 | * AlternateCompanyEquivalent: |
| 71 | ** The Yuuzhan Vong have been compared to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration the Borg]]. |
| 72 | ** They also have similarities to [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} the Tyranids]] and [[VideoGame/StarCraft Zerg]] (extragalactic invaders with organic technology), the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Dark Eldar]] (aliens who have a religion centered on pain and death) and the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Drow elves]] (highly organized and intelligent race of fanatical villains who are also prone to infighting). |
| 73 | ** Official artwork sometimes, particularly in the ''Invasion'' comic, depicts them with very [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon-esque]] ridged foreheads (in the novels, Vong are described as having long, sloping foreheads but no ridges are mentioned). Both cultures happen to be {{Proud Warrior Race}}s and significant enemies of their setting's primary protagonist faction. And like the Klingons, down the road [[{{ComicBook/Legacy}} they end up allies of the protagonists]]. |
| 74 | ** They also have a lot of similarities to two other species in the ''Legends'' continuity, the [[Literature/TheTruceAtBakura Ssi-ruuk]] and [[Literature/BlackFleetCrisis Yevetha]] (both introduced when Bantam Spectra had the license, before Del Rey acquired it). Both species are ScaryDogmaticAliens that invade Republic/Imperial space from outside. The authors seem to have noticed this: [[spoiler:both species are destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong offscreen]]. |
| 75 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. The Vong are introduced as being this, but it's gradually revealed to be a function of their totalitarian government and [[ReligionOfEvil toxic religion]] rather than something inborn. Later on, several Vong characters are given sympathetic character arcs: [[spoiler: Harrar, Vua Rapuung, Nen Yim, and even Nom Anor to a degree]]. |
| 76 | * AnArmAndALeg: Tsavong ritually sacrifices an arm to the gods in ''Star by Star''. He was initially just going to go with a hand, but decided to bump it all the way up to the whole limb, just to be on the safe side. |
| 77 | * AntiMagic: ZigZagged. The Yuuzhan Vong and their creations, alone of all life yet encountered, do not have a presence in the Force, which means Jedi {{precognition}}, {{telepathy}}, and [[MasterOfIllusion illusions]] don't work on them. However, Force-sensitives find a number of RequiredSecondaryPowers that ''do'' work: |
| 78 | ** {{Telekinesis}} is effective as long as you're moving something other than the Yuuzhan Vong himself. Such as propelling a rock as a bullet or bludgeon, Streen's {{signature|Move}} [[BlowYouAway wind powers]], and [[ShockAndAwe Force lightning]] (the latter discovered by Dark Jedi encountered in ''Star By Star''). |
| 79 | ** Jedi are able to root out disguised Yuuzhan Vong by looking for people they can see but can't detect with the Force. |
| 80 | ** Anakin, and later Jacen, find an alternate way to use the Force to attune themselves to the Yuuzhan Vong, though this means temporarily losing access to their normal powers. |
| 81 | ** The Vong being AntiMagic to the Force is ultimately {{justified}}: [[spoiler:Their destroyed GeniusLoci home planet, of which Zonama Sekot is a fragment, closed them off to the Force for their heinous actions.]] |
| 82 | * ApocalypseHow: |
| 83 | ** The first thing we learn of the Vong doing is unleashing a bioweapon on Belkadan, utterly wrecking the planet's biosphere. |
| 84 | ** Everything on Ithor is dissolved by a Vong bioweapon. Then the crashing flagship sets the atmosphere on ''fire''. |
| 85 | * AppealToFlattery: How Lando tries and fails to convince Luke and Mara to "run the belt" in a two-seat TIE, and how he successfully talks Han and Chewie into it. |
| 86 | * ArchEnemy: Several heroic characters get one: |
| 87 | ** Nom Anor to Mara. |
| 88 | ** Viqi Shesh to Leia. |
| 89 | ** Warmaster Tsavong Lah to Jacen and Jaina. |
| 90 | ** Shedao Shai to Corran. |
| 91 | ** Shimrra to Luke. |
| 92 | ** [[spoiler:Onimi]] to [[OmnicidalManiac everyone]]. |
| 93 | ** Subverted with Nen Yim and Tahiri. They have very personal reasons to hate each other (Nen was part of the team that experiemented on a captive Tahiri; Tahiri killed Nen's mentor while escaping), but when they actually meet up again, they're initially antagonistic, but end of letting go of their hate for each other and end up in something of an OddFriendship. [[spoiler: Of course, Tahiri's Vong memories were adapted from Nen's, so it's perhaps unsurprising that they would develop a strong rapport against all odds]]. |
| 94 | * ArcWelding: Supposedly, a lot of Palpatine's actions were to prepare for the coming invasion, at least according to Empire supporters. Thrawn's ''definitely'' were.[[note]]Zahn had previously elaborated and/or retconned (depending on your point of view) Thrawns's motivations into wanting to protect the galaxy from invaders in ''Hand of Thrawn''. The NJO established that the Vong were the threat he feared, and later books like ''Literature/OutboundFlight'' support this.[[/note]] |
| 95 | * ArcWords: |
| 96 | ** Vergere to Jacen: "Everything I tell you is a lie." |
| 97 | ** Vergere to Nom Anor: "Everything I tell you is [[MetaphoricallyTrue the truth]]." |
| 98 | ** [[RuleOfThree Vergere]] to Jacen: "I was only waiting for you to ask." |
| 99 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence [[spoiler:Many Jedi]] die. |
| 100 | * AssholeVictim: The Yuuzhan-Vong wipe out the entire Yevethan race. Considering [[AlwaysChaoticEvil what the Yevethans were like,]] the rest of the galaxy isn't exactly sad about it. |
| 101 | * AsteroidThicket: Lando's Folly, from ''Vector Prime''. Exaggerated even by Star Wars standards of this trope. |
| 102 | * AttackPatternAlpha: The Vong call the ColonyDrop form used against Sernpidal "Yo'gand's Core" after their first Supreme Overlord, who pioneered the tactic. |
| 103 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Palleon's opinion on the various superweapons the Empire liked using. Good for intimidation, bad for defending. |
| 104 | * AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Onimi.]] See OmnicidalManiac. The Yuuzhan Vong themselves (mostly the warriors) come across as this at first, but it rapidly grows [[HiddenDepths more complicated.]] |
| 105 | * BadassBoast: On Borleias in ''Rebel Dream'', a platoon of YVH droids use the following battle cry, [[InvokedTrope calculated to maximally infuriate the technophobic Vong]]: |
| 106 | --> "We are machines! We are greater than the Yuuzhan Vong!" |
| 107 | ** The boast works like a charm; the Vong troops in question break cover in a rage and are summarily torn to pieces. |
| 108 | * BackForTheDead: |
| 109 | ** The Ssi-Ruuk, who we haven't heard a peep from since ''Literature/TheTruceAtBakura'', come back late in this series. Supposedly, they want to make a truce with Bakura, for mutual defense against the Yuuzhan Vong. [[spoiler: In reality, it's a trick to pave the way for a new invasion, which is itself a trick so the P'w'eck slave race can overthrow and destroy the Ssi-Ruuk. Which was all organized by a Vong agent to begin with.]] |
| 110 | ** Within the same miniseries, the Yevetha--which had barricaded themselves within the Koornacht cluster since the events of the Literature/BlackFleetCrisis--are scouted late in the conflict. The mission reveals the Vong had completely wiped them out offscreen, along with their rebuilt fleet. |
| 111 | * BattleInTheRain: Prior to being rescued by Luke and Jacen in ''Onslaught'', Mara and Anakin do battle with a number of Yuuzhan Vong warriors who're chasing them in the rain. Additionally, while the text of ''Ruin'' didn't set Corran and Shedao's duel during a thunderstorm, an illustration in ''The New Essential Chronology'' did so. |
| 112 | * BeamSpam: |
| 113 | ** The tactics adopted by New Republic pilots to take down Yuuzhan Vong fighters is to fire a large number of lower-powered shots to exhaust the coralskipper's dovin basal, before switching to quad-fire mode (which involves firing all their guns at once) to punch through its heavy armor. |
| 114 | ** Upon reverting from hyperspace in the middle of an enemy fleet in ''Rebel Dream'', the ''Lusankya'' does this immediately and in all directions (seemingly at normal power, too). Its ability to do this as a matter of course proves quite useful for the requirements of [[OrbitalBombardment Operation Emperor's Hammer]] later in that book, too. |
| 115 | * BecomingTheMask: All along, Ganner Rhysode is only a conflicted GloryHound, trying to fight his own "glory sickness" and fearful of not living up to what he is supposed to be--a hero. It is not until the events of ''Traitor'' that he finally learns his lesson, with Jacen's help, and makes his choice: he accepts his role as a sidekick, buying time for what Jacen has to do. [[spoiler:His YouShallNotPass-type of DyingMomentOfAwesome is the direct result, earning his title of hero among the Yuuzhan Vong.]] |
| 116 | * BeneathNotice: The reason YVH-M droids, Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids in the shape of the Mouse Droids, work so well. Most people never notice a regular Mouse droid as it goes about its work, allowing them to find infiltrators without anyone getting suspicious. |
| 117 | * BigBad: Supreme Overlord Shimmra [[spoiler:until Onimi's big reveal]]. |
| 118 | * BigBrotherBully: Mildly, with Jacen and Anakin. Jacen isn't ''deliberately'' trying to be one, but a lot of his interactions with Ani are rude and condescending. After the incident with Centerpoint Station, Anakin finally gets fed up of Jacen and refuses to listen to him at all, even when Jacen's trying to reach out to him. |
| 119 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 120 | ** Kre’fey swooping in to save the fighters and refugees on Dantooine. |
| 121 | ** Pallaeon and his Star Destroyer in ''Ruin''. Up until then, Kre'fey and his troops figured they were screwed; their best option was "die, but don't let the Vong win". Palleon, and Jagged Fel's clawfighters, manage to save them. |
| 122 | * BioArmor: Vonduun crabs, they can even resist lightsabers. Though they're fatally allergic to baffor tree pollen. |
| 123 | * BiotechIsBetter: Played with. A lot of Yuuzhan Vong biotech advantage comes not from their tech being objectively better, but from it being ''different''. |
| 124 | ** The dovin basals they use for shielding and propulsion aren't necessarily better than standard engines and shields, but their ability to create microsingularities to gobble up weapon's fire is something the New Republic never dealt with before, but rapidly find a trick to work around. Those same dovin basals can use their gravity-altering abilities to yank the shields off NR ships, but extending the ship's acceleration compensator envelope outside the shield radius nullifies that trick. |
| 125 | ** Vong plasma weapons aren't that much more destructive than standard laser weapons, but have a damage-over-time component that's difficult to deal with once a blast strikes the hull. |
| 126 | ** The one thing in space combat that is categorically better than anything the New Republic can offer is grutchins, the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of torpedo weapons: think the Buzz Droids from ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', but ''much'' bigger, shaped like a giant space-borne locust with acid-dripping mandibles that pretty much literally eat starfighters for breakfast, and even able to pursue ships into hyperspace. No counter is ever found for them, [[ForgottenPhlebotinum and they quietly disappear from the series shortly after their introduction.]] |
| 127 | *** Grutchin do reappear in Force Heretic 1, where they easily devastate the Imperial fleet. It is implied the New Republic/Galactic Federaiton has gotten a lot better at spotting and shooting them down at range. |
| 128 | ** On the gound, Yuuzhan Vong ranged weapons are distinctly lackluster, having no real equivalent to a blaster (their thud bugs are quite a surprise, but easy to deal with once you're aware of them) and Vong warriors have to close to melee range to do any real damage. Unfortunately, their armor and weapons are capable of withstanding hits from lightsabers, so it takes a rather impressive amount of blasterfire to down the average Vong (though as their armor leaves their faces exposed, [[BoomHeadshot headshots work pretty well if you're a good marksman]]). |
| 129 | ** Their [[SubspaceAnsible long range communication devices, villips]], can reach interstellar distances despite being relatively compact and having transmission the New Republic can't detect, but they lack the flexibility of traditional comm gear, as each villip can only communicate to its partner. One Yuuzhan Vong pilot even privately envies the ability of starfighters to communicate voice to voice with one another, compared to his own coralskippers. |
| 130 | ** The [[BrainMonster yammosk]] war-coordinator ''does'' work much better at coordinating Yuuzhan Vong forces than voice-to-voice comms, right up until the New Republic figures out how to jam them. |
| 131 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Viqi Sheesh's first scene in ''Hero's Trial'' has her come across as the reasonable one in an argument. She turns out to be the head of the Peace Brigade. |
| 132 | * BittersweetEnding: The Vong are defeated and the Galaxy's at peace, but the damage the Vong caused isn't gonna heal, and everyone's future is uncertain. |
| 133 | * BlackCloak: Nom Anor wears one of these in ''Vector Prime'' with the intent of reminding Leia of Darth Vader. |
| 134 | * BloodFromEveryOrifice: Anyone who breathes in Elan's plague in ''Hero's Trial'', [[spoiler:including Elan herself.]] |
| 135 | * BloodFromTheMouth: Shedao Shai, when Corran skewers him with his lightsaber. |
| 136 | * BloodKnight: |
| 137 | ** Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Some priests have interpreted that their millennia long voyage through the intergalactic void was because the gods banished them for enjoying it too much. [[spoiler: They're right.]] |
| 138 | ** In ''Destiny's Way'', Admiral Kre'Fey requests more Jedi Knights to boost his forces. It's made almost explicit that Luke and the Council agree partly because the presence of Jedi around will keep Kre'Fey from straying into BloodKnight territory (the Bothans just declared a GuiltFreeExterminationWar in revenge for the death of [[spoiler:Borsk Fey'lya]]). |
| 139 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: What makes the Vong so scary: they do horrible things, but they do them with the unshakable belief that it's all not only morally justified, but morally ''required''. [[spoiler:At least until later in the series, when they start to realize that there are other ideas out there that might have merit.]] |
| 140 | * BodyHorror: A number of examples are present, such as the coral seed implants used to enslave and modify the physiology of non-Yuuzhan Vong. In the case of the Yuuzhan Vong themselves, implants are marks of honor. Failed implants are dishonorable and tend to rot while still attached. Other bad things can happen, as in the case of Tsavong Lah's sabotaged radank arm implant, which threatened to transform him into a radank. |
| 141 | * BodyguardLegacy: {{Defied}} at first. After Chewbacca's death, some of his family step up to assume his Life Debt to Han Solo (and by extension, Leia, Luke, and the Solo children). Han refuses them since he's still raw from Chewie's death and doesn't want anyone else, especially Wookiees of Chewie's own family, dying because of him. He eases up on this stance by the end of ''The Unifying Force.'' |
| 142 | * BondCreatures: Yuuzhan Vong ships, their amphistaffs, [[spoiler:Jacen and the World-Brain]]. |
| 143 | * BondOneLiner: We don't see Mara fighting a Vong infiltrator during ''Onslaught'', only hearing her after-action report to Leia; "He just went to pieces." |
| 144 | * {{Bookends}}: The first and last scenes of ''Traitor'' begin with an identical five-paragraph passage about hyperspace. |
| 145 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Yuuzhan Vong's slaves, especially the Chazrach, but some captive humans as well. A more subtle version of this was what the shapers had in mind for Tahiri, but that future was (probably) averted by Anakin. |
| 146 | * BringMyRedJacket: Luke all but cites this trope by name in Dark Tide I when he sees Jacen in a dark red combat jumpsuit. |
| 147 | * BusCrash: The last survivors of the Firrerreo species from ''Literature/TheCrystalStar'' are mentioned to have had the planet that adopted them attacked by the Vong off-screen, and the species is now functionally extinct. |
| 148 | * ButICantBePregnant[=/=]ButWeUsedACondom: [[spoiler:Mara's first few thoughts on discovering she's pregnant.]] |
| 149 | * TheCaligula: Supreme Overlord Shimrra. Some of this is probably a side-effect of [[spoiler:Onimi's mind control]], but a lot of it's implied to be his real personality. |
| 150 | * CallARabbitASmeerp: Cleverly used in combination with ReportingNames. |
| 151 | * CallBack: |
| 152 | ** The YVH droids' armor is made from laminanium, the self-healing metal that the Qellan ship in ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'' was made of. |
| 153 | ** In ''Destiny's Way'', Vergere recounts the broad details of her part of ''Literature/RoguePlanet'' for Jacen (as well as anyone who hasn't read that book). |
| 154 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Leia and Jaina's reunion in ''Balance Point'' is not a happy one, because Jaina thinks her mom is using her connections for personal gain. |
| 155 | * CassandraTruth: Leia's initial attempts to warn the New Republic about the Yuuzhan Vong are ignored by the Senators assuming she's either trying to distract attention from the Jedi's bad publicity, or making a grab for power, [[FantasticRacism like all humans]]. |
| 156 | * ChasedByAngryNatives: Happens to Luke and company in the first chapter of ''Refugee''. |
| 157 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 158 | ** Using a Jedi Mind Trick on animals in ''Onslaught''. Early on, Corran and his son use it to prank Ganner. Later on, they use it to set some animals on the Vong warriors, saving Corran from death. |
| 159 | ** The not-a-Swiss-army-knife Anakin gives Han in ''Hero's Trial''. First he uses it for eating on a cruise ship, and at the climax it saves him from hideous death. |
| 160 | * ChronicBackStabbingDisorder: The Yuuzhan Vong never follow through on their deals to spare planets, though in at least one case (Ithor), the Vong who made the deal to spare the planet (Shedao Shai) was not the same as the one who gave the order to destroy it (Deign Lian). |
| 161 | * TheClan: Yuuzhan Vong "domains". They have a stronger sense of familial loyalty to their domain than they do to their immediate blood relatives. |
| 162 | * LesCollaborateurs: Viqi Shesh, the Peace Brigade. The Peace Brigade are convinced there's no way to beat the Vong, and so surrender in the hopes they'll be spared. Shesh is just doing it to save her own ass, and get a little something as a reward in the bargain. |
| 163 | * ColonyDrop: |
| 164 | ** In the very first book, the Yuuzhan Vong drop Sernpidal's moon onto the planet itself, killing thousands in the process [[spoiler: (including Chewbacca during the half-successful evacuation attempt)]]. This is actually a military tactic called Yo'gand's Core, named after the first Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. It gets used again at least once during the war (against the planet Kalarba), and Shedao Shai at one point threatens to use it on Ithor. |
| 165 | ** During their assault on Borleis, the Yuuzhan Vong use a dovin basal to sweep the planet's orbital defense platforms out of the sky and plunge them into the planet's atmosphere. [[spoiler:They repeat this on Coruscant.]] |
| 166 | ** It's heavily implied that the Yuuzhan Vong had to leave their home galaxy and seek a new one (thus creating the conflict for this series) because they used that tactic ''too much'', leaving too few habitable worlds for them to live on. |
| 167 | * CombatByChampion: The fate of planet Ithor is decided by a single battle between Corran and [[ArcVillain Shedao Shai]]. [[spoiler: And then ignored by his subordinate, who torches the place even after he's lost.]] |
| 168 | * CombatPragmatist: The YVH droids. When the demo unit discovers that its lasers, normally capable of being dialed up to take out a ''starfighter'' in one shot, are powered down for the demo, it simply strangles the Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators watching its demonstration. |
| 169 | * CombatSadomasochist: All the Vong have strong elements of this, given their religious fetishization of pain, but Domain Shai takes it up a notch by doing things like using the [[AgonyBeam Embrace of Pain, a torture instrument]], as a means of meditation. |
| 170 | * ConflictKiller: As Palleon dryly observes, the Empire was one for the Galaxy, and without them, the New Republic is falling into infighting and idiotic bickering. [[spoiler:The Vong ''aren't'' this for them either, as the New Republic continue self-sabotaging right up until the Vong are kicking in their door.]] |
| 171 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 172 | ** Early in ''Agents of Chaos'' Mara and Luke snarkily go over his various girlfriends of the week from before her (Luke even wondering where Akanah has gotten to), with Mara asking whether she should still be worried. Later on has a character discussing ship-types comparing the ''Millennium Falcon'' among other ship-types to Nubian J-Type starships (the book was released in 2002, when ''Attack of the Clones'' was just out). |
| 173 | ** The last book has a ship infected by a Vong-destroying plague head towards Zonama Sekot. Wedge jumps into an X-Wing and takes off after it, comparing the two to Luke and the Death Star. He needs to pick a call sign and chooses "Vader". |
| 174 | * ContinuityPorn: The books are replete with {{Continuity Nod}}s to earlier works in Legends, everything from ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'' to the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' and ''Literature/HandOfThrawn''. |
| 175 | * ContinuitySnarl: Shares a [[ContinuitySnarl/StarWarsLegends page]] with the rest of ''Star Wars Legends''. |
| 176 | * CoolOldGuy: The main characters from the movies have begun to verge into this, particularly Han, who's a good ten years older than Luke or Leia. For an evil version, there's Czulkang Lah, Warmaster Tsavong Lah's father. |
| 177 | * CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Several characters argue that if TheEmpire was still in power, its more centralized, militarized government would have been quick and decisive in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong, whereas the New Republic's hesitation to fully commit to war led them to squander chances to end the Vong invasion sooner. On the other hand, Han Solo points out that the Empire over-relied on AwesomeButImpractical superweapons with glaring flaws. |
| 178 | * CoversAlwaysLie: There were no Trade Federation vessels in ''Ruin'', ''Jedi Eclipse'' didn't feature Han and a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, Wedge didn't fly an X-wing in ''Rebel Dream'' (well, not in combat, anyway; he did fly Luke's for recon), and X-wings weren't present in ''Traitor''. |
| 179 | * CrewOfOne: ''Rebel Stand'' has the Super Star Destroyer ''Lusankya'' crewed by a single person when used for a ramming attack on the Yuuzhan Vong command ship. Somewhat justified, as the attack had been planned well in advance and the ''Lusankya'' specially modified for it. |
| 180 | * CultureClash: |
| 181 | ** Early in ''Hero's Trial'', a Vong is talking with a captive from Obroa-Skai, and they get into a discussion on religion. The Vong is totally confused by the idea of doing good not because your gods command it, or because it'll bring reward but doing good because... you know, it's ''good''. |
| 182 | ** On the non-Vong side, Jagged Fel has some early teething troubles thanks to being a human who grew up in Chiss territory, which makes him come across to others as an inconsiderate berk, even when he's apparently trying to be nice. Plus, it's also hinted he's just got NoSocialSkills anyhow. |
| 183 | * CurbStompCushion: Several of the Vong's most crushing victories (Coruscant, Borileias, Ithor, etc), were only won at the cost of huge losses on the Vong side. This eventually reaches the point where, about halfway through the series, they literally run out of reserves, and are forced to adapt a more defensive strategy. |
| 184 | * DarkIsNotEvil: According to Vergere's philosophy, there is no separate "dark side", and the techniques traditionally associated with it are therefore not evil. Note that Vergere does ''not'' reject evil as a philosophical concept, merely that the dark side itself doesn't exist as an external corruptive force. The notion is essentially that whether you stand in the light or fall to the dark is all down to your own decisions. |
| 185 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Mostly due to the Vong, who are not only some of the most brutal villains the Star Wars universe produced, but also among the most successful, managing to break the back of the New Republic and seize a large chunk of the galaxy, along with killing numerous named characters and countless extras. |
| 186 | * DarkestHour: ''Star By Star'' in its entirety, which ends with [[spoiler:the Battle of Coruscant and Anakin Solo's death.]] |
| 187 | * DeadGuyJunior: Luke and Mara's son, Ben, is conceived and born during the series. |
| 188 | * DeathGlare: Fey'la gives Viqi Sheesh one during ''Star by Star'' when she starts trying to "interpret" his words in a negotiation (which is a pretty big no-no in political circles). It's enough to momentarily get her to shut up. Fey'la's on the receiving end a short while later from the Bothan ambassador, which he takes to mean he's never going to be allowed back to Bothwaui while he's alive. |
| 189 | * DecadeDissonance: It barely resembles even the other ExpandedUniverse novels for tone. |
| 190 | * DecisiveBattle: BookEnds ''Destiny's Way'', which is essentially the war's version of the Normandy invasion. It begins with the Alliance ambushing and destroying a sizable Yuuzhan Vong fleet at Obroa-Skai, seeking to assassinate Supreme Overlord Shimmra who turned out not to be aboard. After this, Shimmra complains to his generals that the loss of this fleet means the Yuuzhan Vong no longer have any strategic reserve and berates them for advancing into the galaxy "over a rampart of our own dead". The book then ends with the Alliance luring in and decisively destroying a fleet led by Warmaster Tsavong Lah at Ebaq 9; Lah ejects and is killed on the ground by Jaina Solo. The war continues for another five books, but after ''Destiny's Way'' it's pretty much all downhill for the Vong. |
| 191 | * DecoyProtagonist: Anakin is set up for several important storylines but thanks to [[ExecutiveMeddling real-life workings,]] he ends up becoming one for his older brother Jacen. |
| 192 | * DefectorFromDecadence: The ''Jeedai'' heretics. |
| 193 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Vong see themselves as noble heroes purging a terrible taint from the galaxy, but their culture is so plain ''crazy'' that it's difficult for either the audience or other characters to have any sympathy for them whatsoever. This has the added bonus of making negotiating with them nearly impossible. Perfectly summed up when it is revealed that the best translation for "peace" in the Yuuzhan Vong language is "appropriate submission of the conquered to the conqueror." |
| 194 | * DemotedToExtra: |
| 195 | ** Han, in ''Dark Tide'', makes only two appearances, one for both books. In fairness, he's [[HeroicBSOD having a bad time]]. Also, Threepio. |
| 196 | ** Tenel Ka in the second half of the series. The last book that really focuses on her goes over, in great detail, her grief over the apparent death of her long-time LoveInterest Jacen Solo. Then Jacen comes back -- and Tenel Ka is ''barely mentioned''. She makes a brief cameo when Jacen returns to the Republic, but doesn't interact with him in any way. Jacen, for his part, doesn't even spare a thought to the girl that's one of his oldest friends and also been in love with him since they were 14. Later writers would avert this in future story arcs, making her a major character again and playing up her relationship with Jacen. |
| 197 | * DependingOnTheWriter: All but inevitable in a series with nineteen books and almost as many writers. The major example is the Vong's "immunity to the Force." Originally, it was just intended that the Force couldn't detect them, then it was that the Force couldn't affect them, then it was that the Force couldn't affect them directly (you couldn't Force Choke them by telekinetically squeezing their windpipe, but you could move the air away from their heads), then it went full-circle to being able to affect them normally, but not sense them. ''Star By Star'' also makes the Yuuzhan Vong vulnerable to Force lightning. |
| 198 | * DidntSeeThatComing: A Vong infiltrator in ''Onslaught'' takes a child hostage so Leia can't shoot her. There's a tense moment as she aims at Leia... and then, thanks to Danni Quee's emerging force powers, the clip of her gun falls out. |
| 199 | * DisastrousDemonstration: Subverted when Lando demos the YVH droids. He ends the demonstration and the droid promptly opens fire on the crowd, causing a panic. Except it's aiming at the ''ooglith masquer''-wearing Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators watching the event. The droid is acting ''exactly'' as designed, and when it discovers that its blasters had been locked in powered-down mode for the demo, it improvises and crushes the infiltrators to death. |
| 200 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: Runs up to a Disc Three Final Boss, actually. The series is ''that'' long. |
| 201 | ** ''Vector Prime'' has the Praetorite Vong, an advance guard defeated by {{technobabble}} in the same book they're introduced. Replaced by Shedao, Domain Shai. |
| 202 | ** Shedao Shai leads the invasion of the Outer Rim Territories from the second book until [[spoiler:Corran Horn kills him during single combat on Ithor]] in ''Ruin''. Replaced by Warmaster Tsavong Lah. |
| 203 | ** Tsavong Lah, in turn, is [[spoiler:killed by Jaina Solo after the Alliance inflicts a decisive defeat on the Vong at Ebaq 9]] in ''Destiny's Way''. Supreme Overlord Shimmra, introduced several books earlier, is set up as the final villain. [[spoiler:Then it turns out in ''The Unifying Force'' that his court jester Onimi is the real BigBad.]] |
| 204 | * DiscriminateAndSwitch: Jagged Fel's first meeting with New Republic officials doesn't go well when he walks right past Fey'lya, leading to him being accused of being a racist human. He shoots back that if he was, why the hell would he be working with Chiss? He ignored Fey'lya because he's a ''politician''. |
| 205 | * DisneyDeath: At the climax of ''Onslaught'' Corran is considerably injured and poisoned by one of his Yuuzhan Vong opponents. Resigned to his fate, he experiences a floating sensation and concludes that this must be what it must feels like to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Later, Corran is revealed to be alive, and that floating sensation is revealed to have been his companion using telekinesis to lift Corran out of his sticky situation. |
| 206 | %%* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:[[TheMole Viqi Shesh]]]] |
| 207 | * DoAndroidsDream: Picked up and dropped, depending on the author, but fairly prominent in the James Luceno novels. |
| 208 | * TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:The Yuuzhan Vong's leader is Shimrra, the Supreme Overlord, a god king who truly looks the part. At the liberation of Coruscant, it's revealed that he's been controlled through the Force by his jester Onimi, a being so far beneath him he was considered little more than a pet.]] |
| 209 | * DontThinkFeel: Jacen is caught up in this conundrum, dramatically overthinking about how he feels about the Force and being a Jedi and what their role in the galaxy should be. |
| 210 | * DirtyCoward: Fey'la's cabinet scram from Ithor the minute it looks like actual fighting is going to happen. Borsk himself sticks around, mainly because Leia's also there, and he doesn't want her getting any glory. |
| 211 | * TheDragon: Several levels in the Vong hierarchy. |
| 212 | ** The Warmaster's job is to lead the military and act as the Dread Lord's bodyguard and enforcer, so it's basically Tsavong Lah's job description. |
| 213 | * DramaticIrony: The Vong believe referring to a person by part of their name is a grave insult, which is why Tsavong Lah refers to Viqi Shesh by her first name only. She, meanwhile, things it's a sign of respect and their deep connection. |
| 214 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: Wonetun of the Wild Knights Squadron tends to fly his Skipray blastboat with the same sort of abandon usually reserved for starfighters whilst keeping the inertial compensator dialed down low enough that hapless crewmembers struggle between avoiding either falling unconscious or throwing up. |
| 215 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: |
| 216 | ** [[spoiler:Chewbacca gets a freakin' moon dropped on him]]. |
| 217 | ** Lusa, introduced in ''The Crystal Star'' and a recurring character in the ''Young Jedi Knights'' series, is mentioned in ''Star by Star'' as having been one of the voxyn's victims, ambushed in a field. Off-screen. |
| 218 | ** Eelysa, from ''The New Rebellion'', is mentioned quite a bit through the first quarter of the same book, until she took is suddenly cornered and killed by a voxyn, which is only mentioned via her students sensing it via the Force. |
| 219 | * DudeWheresMyRespect: Luke's saved the galaxy many times and he's still not trusted by some people in the middle of a war where he and the Jedi have the few resounding victories against the invaders. |
| 220 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 221 | ** The Vong culture and military presented in the first few novels were even more [[ScaryDogmaticAliens dogmatic]], masochistic, and incompetent than in later books. Explained in later books as being characteristic of the Praetorite Vong and Domain Shai, who made up the vanguard and may or may not have been [[UriahGambit put there so the rest of the Vong wouldn't have to deal with them]].[[note]]This is all but canon for the Shai; ''Ruin'' ends with Deign Lian proudly reporting to Tsavong Lah that he arranged Shedao Shai's death. It's more ambiguous with the Praetorite, but it's clear that Da'Gara and co. were not well-liked.[[/note]] |
| 222 | ** Several aspects of Vong culture were also clearly not hammered out as of ''Vector Prime''. Shapers are referred to as "alchemists", and don't seem to be a separate caste, as Nom Anor's dabbling in Shaping is presented as a path to advancement, while later books make it plain that it's eccentric and borderline-heretical. Too, Da'Gara and Nom Anor are presented as Yomin Carr's direct superiors, despite the fact that he's a warrior and they're intendents; later books would always structure the chain of command along caste lines. |
| 223 | ** The yammosk in the first book is also significantly more powerful and threatening than any others which would appear later and is revered as something close to a demigod by the Vong. Later yammosks are treated as, essentially, living supercomputers -- highly valued and useful, to be sure, but not the superiors or even equals of the Vong themselves. {{Justified}} [[{{Retcon}} retroactively]]: the yammosk in ''Vector Prime'' is said to have been defective. |
| 224 | ** "Coralskipper" is treated as the name for all Yuuzhan Vong craft in ''Vector Prime'', from small one-man starfighters to larger, multi-crew vessels. Later books would have the New Republic identify them by their closest analogue to a traditional craft, and would reveal proper Vong class names for many of their larger ships, while "coralskipper" was used exclusively to mean "starfighter". |
| 225 | ** One not related to the Vong: the series began before the movies had really clarified the idea that good guy Force users had green or blue lightsabers (or purple, if they're Mace Windu) and only bad guys had red (since the series began in the same year ''The Phantom Menace'' came out), so there are one or two Jedi using red lightsabers here and there, without being evil. |
| 226 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: |
| 227 | ** ''The Unifying Force'' for the series as a whole. The Yuuzhan Vong surrender and give up warfare, but dozens of planets have been devastated or destroyed, 365 trillion people lie dead[[note]]and that's just the agreed-upon figure; nobody has any actual idea what the real number is[[/note]], the New Republic has fallen, and the Jedi Order is in tatters. |
| 228 | ** There's also the Ithorians. While Ithor was devastated by the Vong, by the time of ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' its surface, while still requiring oxygen masks and pressure suits, is starting to regain some of its former plant life. |
| 229 | * EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Averted. It's not until the Galactic Alliance readopts the asymmetric warfare strategies that helped the Rebels beat the Empire and combines them with such Imperial tactics as OrbitalBombardment that they start to gain the upper hand. |
| 230 | * EldritchAbomination: Several different species of Vonglife, most notably yammosks and their cousins, dhuryams. Picture a giant octopus with hundreds of tentacles, a keen but utterly alien intelligence, and ''tremendous'' telepathic powers, and you have some idea of how freaky these things are. They're generally not as outright evil as their masters, but their alien-ness can be every bit as dangerous. Many of the Vong gods also have this feel to them. |
| 231 | * EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw: In ''Destiny's Way'', Luke has a less-than-cordial encounter with a New Republic politician named Fyor Rodan, who wants to [[DefiedTrope remove this trope from the Jedi]]. He seeks to make the Jedi Order a formal branch of the New Republic military, which among other things would make it possible to CourtMartial Jedi Knights who fall to the dark side or otherwise go rogue. Luke prefers to keep the Order independent, feeling, as the Old Republic's Jedi did, that their purpose is to serve the Force rather than the political and military needs of the Republic. |
| 232 | * EliteMooks: |
| 233 | ** An ordinary Vong warrior is more than a match for a Jedi, if they catch them unawares, mainly because Vong Force immunity means the Jedi's usual CombatClairvoyance trick doesn't work on them. Later in the series, they become ''somewhat'' less formidable as the Jedi become wise to their weak spots. They're still probably the most impressive mooks in the entire GFFA. |
| 234 | ** The GFFA develops its own MechaMooks countermeasure in ''Star By Star'' with Tendrando Arms Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids, equipped with self-healing structural materials, a blaster cannon that can bring down a coralskipper at full power, and a sensor package capable of ferreting out disguised Vong. They're devastating when deployed, though too expensive for common use. |
| 235 | %%* EnemyChatter |
| 236 | * EnemyMine: Anakin and Vua Rapuung, a Jedi and a disgraced Vong warrior who care little for each other, but team up to take on the Shapers. |
| 237 | * EnigmaticMinion: Vergere. Nobody's quite sure what she wants or why she's helping the Vong. [[spoiler:She was actually a good guy... or maybe she was actually a Sith double agent. She's complicated like that]]. |
| 238 | * TheEpic: Nineteen books, five years of in-universe time, and a borderline-apocalyptic war that shakes the galaxy to its foundations. It's the largest and most sweeping of any of the multi-book or comic arcs in Franchise/StarWarsLegends, and its scope is unmatched by anything in the entire Star Wars 'verse with the ''possible'' exception of the core twelve movies. |
| 239 | * EpicFail: On Anakin Solo's part at the Battle of Fondor. When the Vong unexpectedly attack the strategic shipyard world, Anakin takes control of Centerpoint Station (a PointlessDoomsdayDevice from ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy''), but then at Jacen's unexplained urging refuses to fire it (probably a result of the early books' poorly explained aversion to using leftover Imperial superweapons to fight the invaders). But the station is still active, so his cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo grabs the controls and fires it himself. The ensuing blast destroys half of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, ''and'' the Hapan fleet that just arrived to reinforce the defenders, ''and'' smashes part of Fondor's moon, ''and'' clips the planet on its way past (cue InferredHolocaust). The battle becomes a PyrrhicVictory for the Republic (and that only because the opposing general withdraws in fear of further such attacks) and causes a political shitstorm in the Hapes Consortium that tips the balance of power to its EvilMatriarch Queen Mother Ta'a Chume, while the sudden death toll carried through the Force causes her daughter-in-law Teneniel Djo to miscarry. Meanwhile Sal-Solo, who was the ''villain'' in his first appearance and did a stint in prison for an attempted coup against the Corellian system's New Republic government, is lauded as a war hero on Corellia and gets himself elected Governor-General (setting up part of ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce''). To cap it all off, Centerpoint Station is damaged to disablement by Sal-Solo's manhandling, and Anakin admits afterward that if he'd fired Centerpoint Station himself, he could have taken out the Vong fleet ''without'' causing all that damage. |
| 240 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Tsavong Lah is disgusted when he hears about the familial dysfunctions the Solos go through while Han is grieving for Chewie. Justified because the Vong considered loyalty to one's family/domain to be of paramount importance. |
| 241 | * EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: Subverted after the Yuuzhan Vong remake Coruscant in the image of their lost homeworld Yuuzhan'tar, Jacen (stranded there) sees the beautiful rainbow-hued planetary ring dominating the sky and realises how it inspired the Vong's brutal mindset by appearing to be a bridge to the gods. (Yuuzhan'tar is basically a DeathWorld, and with the gods so close to hand, they must want it that way.) |
| 242 | ** Also, Shimrra has rainbow-hued eyes. |
| 243 | * EvilerThanThou: |
| 244 | ** The Yuuzhan Vong share a lot of similarities with [[Literature/BlackFleetCrisis the Yevetha]], genocidal xenophobia and love of pain and bloody deaths among them. About halfway through the war, in exchange for having a group of planets that feared a Duskhan League resurgence surrender to them without a fight, the Vong dispatch a battle group to N'zoth and glass it, wiping out the whole species. |
| 245 | ** Ditto the [[Literature/TheTruceAtBakura Ssi-Ruuk]]: Like the Vong, they're a race of [[OutsideContextProblem invaders from elsewhere]] with a rigid [[FantasticCasteSystem caste system]], a [[ScaryDogmaticAliens fanatical religion]], a reptilian SlaveRace, and a fondness for [[BodyHorror truly]] [[PoweredByAForsakenChild horrific]] [[BrainInAJar technology]]. Infiltrated by Vong agents, their Imperium ends up subverted, thrown into disarray, and ultimately invaded. |
| 246 | * EurekaMoment: While working with Cal Omas to reform the Jedi Council in ''Destiny's Way'', Luke has a realization about the old Order and their relationship with the Old Republic -- or more specifically, the Supreme Chancellor. Because the old Order was insular and secretive, their primary link to the world outside the Temple was the Supreme Chancellor. While this arrangement benefited both parties, it was also a double-edged lightsaber. Once a malevolent figure like Palpatine got into the Chancellor's Office and became that link, it was game over; Palpatine was able to cut off, isolate, and destroy the old Jedi. This makes Luke realize the new Council must never again be so isolated. |
| 247 | * EvilOverlord: Shimrra, who's actually ''called'' the Supreme Overlord. |
| 248 | * ExactWords: |
| 249 | ** Shedao tells Elegos he plans to have him send a message to the New Republic they cannot misinterpret. [[spoiler:Said message is Elegos' corpse.]] |
| 250 | ** The Ithorians supposedly have it as a rule that no outsider can step foot on Ithor. Except not exactly. |
| 251 | ** Early in ''Hero's Trial'', Priestess Elan asks Vergere if she's ever seen a Jedi use the Force. In a move that'd make Obi-Wan seethe, Vergere states that yes, she certainly has. She just doesn't specify to Elan that this is by way of having ''been'' a Jedi before the Vong abducted her (which the reader might not necessarily know about, and Vergere doesn't make explicit in the book until the very end). |
| 252 | * EyeScream: |
| 253 | ** Corran Horn's first fight with a pair of Vong troopers has him take out the first, and more inexperienced, with a lightsaber to the eye, thanks to the unique design of his lightsaber (it has a second focusing crystal that he can engage to suddenly double the length of the blade). He notes it only worked because they didn't expect it, and it won't work on the second. |
| 254 | ** Vua Rapuung's method of taking out an opponent involves [[spoiler:gouging out his eyes with his fingers and then lifting and throwing him aside by his eye sockets.]] |
| 255 | * FamilyValuesVillain: To a degree. Brutal and vicious as they are, the Vong have an incredibly strong sense of familial loyalty and devotion, far stronger than most humans do, though they tend to aim this at their domains (extended families or clans) rather than at immediate blood relatives. [[spoiler:Played interestingly in the Force Heretic books, where Tahiri's Vong personality re-emerging makes her more unstable and violent, but also causes her to glom onto the Solos even more tightly than she ever had before, as they were the closest thing to living family she had. Other characters explicitly discuss how in-line with Vong family values she's acting]]. |
| 256 | * FantasticRacism: |
| 257 | ** The Ryn aren't well-liked, to put it mildly. |
| 258 | ** The Vong also hate all other species, and are only marginally fonder of their Shamed Ones. [[spoiler:That last bites them in the end.]] |
| 259 | * FantasticRankSystem: The Vong have one. See the trope page for details. |
| 260 | * FantasticSlur: The Vong call all other species "infidels". The inhabitants of the galaxy develop a number for the Vong, notably "scarheads", but the worst is actually the word "Vong" by itself- since the Yuuzhan Vong are named after their premier god, Yun-Yuuzhan, they get really [[BerserkButton touchy]] when his name is removed from theirs. |
| 261 | * FeelingTheirAge: Admiral Ackbar wasn't a young man when he was with the Rebellion. By ''Destiny's Way'', he getting very old and infirm, to the extent he can barely be out of water for very long. He's still got his military chops, though. |
| 262 | * FleshVersusSteel: GFFA vs. the Yuuzhan Vong. |
| 263 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Partway through ''Dark Tide: Ruin'', Mara sadly reflects that she'd like to have kids with Luke, but it's not really an option when she's got an apparently incurable disease and there's a war on. [[spoiler:Later on in the series, she ends up getting pregnant anyhow.]] |
| 264 | * FreakOut: Voxyn do not like ysalamir. Just being near one causes them to go berserk, and they will tear themselves apart to get at them. Voxyn hunt through the Force, and ysalamir block it out. |
| 265 | * FreudianExcuse: It's implied that being caught in the crossfire during the Silentum-Abominor war (a war between two races of robots) is the reason for the Yuuzhan Vong's vicious [[EvilLuddite technophobia]]. |
| 266 | * FullNameBasis: The Vong always go by their full names, which are compose of their personal name followed by their domain (extended family) name. So for example, Tsavong Lah is Tsavong of Domain Lah, and omitting the "Lah" would be incredibly insulting, implying he has no standing in his family (though members of the same domain seem to be allowed some leeway here). Notable exceptions include Priests (who rarely use their domain names) the Supreme Overlord (who's transcended his domain) and the Shamed Ones (whose domains don't want them). |
| 267 | * GaiasLament: Duros, thanks to centuries of mismanagement, but the Empire taking over ''really'' didn't help. The atmosphere is so polluted it's poison for pretty much everyone. The rich and powerful of Duros don't mind so much. After all, it's somewhere to send all the "troublesome" people they've got, and some of them are a little incensed that the New Republic is trying to ''fix'' this. [[spoiler:After the Yuuzhan Vong conquer Duro, they're shown to have cleaned it up.]] |
| 268 | * GambitPileup: Particularly in the last book, when Shimrra [[spoiler: actually Onimi]], Nom Anor, Drathul, Scaur, and the protagonists' plans all run into each other and create quite the spectacular mess. |
| 269 | * GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Used to horrifying effect by the Vong. |
| 270 | * GeniusLoci: Zonama Sekot, a living planet. |
| 271 | %%* GenocideDilemma: Alpha Red. |
| 272 | * GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: As Anakin starts going on a round of ItsAllMyFault, Jaina smacks him around the ear, since self-absorbed wangst isn't going to help while they're still in peril. |
| 273 | %%* GiantFlyer: See LivingShip. |
| 274 | * GilliganCut: When Han and Chewie "run the belt" in a two-seat TIE Bomber, the audience in the control room marvels at their effortlessly elegant piloting skill. Cut to the cockpit of the Bomber, where Han and Chewie (who barely even fits) are lurching from disaster to disaster, and their effortless and elegant maneuvers are half complete mistakes. |
| 275 | * AGodAmI: Invoked by both Jacen and Jaina at various times to mess with or deceive the Vong. [[spoiler:Played straight with a twist by Onimi- he believes that the twins (and several other Jedi) ''are'' gods, but that if he kills them, he can become a god himself]]. |
| 276 | * GoGoEnslavement: Downplayed. When Danni Quee is captured in ''Vector Prime'', she's described as wearing only a poncho, and pretty clearly naked underneath. Justified, as the conditions of her capture require the Vong to pretty regularly put an ooglith cloaker on her, and they require large amounts of bare skin to work (the Vong also likely found her machine-made garments offensive). When Jedi Miko Reglia joins her in captivity, he's only wearing a pair of tight shorts. Neither case is played for {{Fanservice}} (at least, not on the Vong's part), as Yomin Carr's internal monologue had made it quite clear he finds Danni physically repulsive. |
| 277 | * GoingNative: An interesting one with Nom Amor. He is totally onboard with the whole "take over the galaxy" bit, but as time goes on he becomes less dogmatic than some other Vong. |
| 278 | * GondorCallsForAid: The New Republic makes overtures for assistance from other galactic powers, like the Hapans, Imperial Remnant, and Chiss Ascendency. How helpful they are varies DependingOnTheWriter. |
| 279 | * GreaterScopeVillain: The Yuuzhan Vong pantheon, particularly Yun-Yammka, the WarGod. [[spoiler: Subverted. The entity the ''Yun'o'' are derived from, the GeniusLoci of the original Vong homeworld, was benevolent, and Yammka never actually existed at all]]. |
| 280 | * GroinAttack: Both of Aaron Allston's books have one somewhere. Vong warriors wear skirt-plates, but don't seem to have anything under them. Lando just shoots one and lets his YVH dispatch it while it's screaming in more pain than even a Vong can handle, and Mara... |
| 281 | --> [...] in the middle of a quite elegant snap-kick against Mara, was receiving her lightsaber thrust up and under his skirt plates. |
| 282 | * TheGrotesque: Averted. [[spoiler:Onimi]] is hideously deformed, even by Vong standards. He doesn't turn out to be a very nice person at all. |
| 283 | * GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The Bothan cultural practice of ''ar'krai'', introduced in this series and which enlists every able-bodied Bothan to not only defeat their foes, but exterminate them altogether and grind their homeworld to dust. It's only been declared three times in their entire recorded history. After [[spoiler:the fall of Coruscant]] and [[spoiler:Borsk Fey'lya's HeroicSacrifice]], the Bothans declare ''ar'krai'' on the Vong, and the ''Literature/DarkNestTrilogy'' mentions that there are still extremists trying to carry it out. |
| 284 | * GunshipRescue: The arrival of the ''Errant Venture'' in ''Conquest''. |
| 285 | * HalfHumanHybrid: As a result of a Shaper's experiment, Tahiri ends up [[spoiler:half human, half Yuuzhan Vong]]. Her coming to terms with this is a huge part of her character development. |
| 286 | * HappilyMarried: Briefly averted by Han and Leia in the early part of the series [[spoiler:following Chewie's death]], but soon rectified; played straight with Luke and Mara. |
| 287 | * TheHeavy: Nom Anor gets by far the most face-time and development of the major villains. For a stretch in the middle of the series, he shares the spot with Tsavong Lah. |
| 288 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Most of the Vong in the end, most notably Nen Yim, Harrar, and Nas Choka]]. Subverted with [[spoiler:Nom Anor]], who sides with the heroes in the final battle, but for his own selfish reasons. And then tries to kill them after the conclusion of said battle. |
| 289 | * TheHero: Ultimately, Jacen turns out to be the hero of the story, as [[spoiler: his bond with the World Brain enables the invasion of Coruscant, and he kills Onimi, the true mastermind behind the war]]. Editor Sue Rostoni commented that, in many ways, NJO ended up being his series. |
| 290 | * HeroKiller: |
| 291 | ** The Yuuzhan Vong in general [[spoiler:and literally, in Chewie and Anakin's cases]]. |
| 292 | ** The voxyn, bio-engineered Vong creatures made from [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Myrkr's vornskyrs]], are ''Jedi'' killers. |
| 293 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 294 | ** Many, most memorably Jaina and Leia [[spoiler:when Anakin dies]]. |
| 295 | ** Jaina again at the end of ''Dark Tide: Ruin'', after her wingman dies in the fighting. |
| 296 | ** Han spends most of the first part of the series (up until the ''Agents of Chaos'' mini-series, at least) going through one over [[spoiler:the death of Chewie]]. Among other things, he grows a BeardOfSorrow and for a short time becomes estranged from his family. |
| 297 | * HeroicRROD: [[spoiler:Anakin Solo dies of this in ''Star By Star'', leading to the above.]] |
| 298 | * HeroicSacrifice: Practically every good character who dies and is important, and quite a few who aren't, probably a few villain characters, too. |
| 299 | * HeroWithBadPublicity: Corran, after the destruction of Ithor, gets saddled with ''all'' the blame for it by the New Republic, and he decides to distance himself from the Jedi so as to spare their name getting dragged into the mud with him. |
| 300 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: A major theme, especially with the Alpha Red arc. Also [[spoiler:the Yuuzhan Vong's backstory]]. |
| 301 | * HistoryRepeats: The Yuuzhan Vong capture Borleias as a stepping-stone to the New Republic's capital Coruscant, just as the New Republic itself did two InUniverse decades earlier in the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. |
| 302 | * HollywoodTactics: Played straight, averted, subverted. |
| 303 | * {{Homage}}: ''Traitor'' has many parallels to ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's Inferno]].'' |
| 304 | * HomeworldEvacuation: The Yuuzhan Vong underwent a home ''galaxy'' evacuation, after massive wars of conquest and then internecine wars they started devastated so much of it that it was rendered incapable of sustaining their civilization (their actual homeworld was destroyed first, and it's implied that they were the ones who did it). After travelling through the intergalactic void for millennia, they finally found the ''Franchise/StarWars'' galaxy--and decided to take over.\ |
| 305 | \ |
| 306 | Out-of-universe, it was also speculated that they were fleeing the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Silentium-Abominor_War Silentium-Abominor War]], which would explain their belief that technology is unholy. WordOfGod confirmed the reverse was true: a ''Franchise/StarWars''' blog [[http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/2013/07/05/the-droids-re-animated-part-2/ entry]] clarified a line by Harrar in ''The Unifying Force'' that the Vong had actually kicked out the two robot species, which also fled to the GFFA. |
| 307 | * HonorBeforeReason: Jacen gets so bent up about whether to use the Force or not that during ''Balance Point'' he vows off using it at all, even to do something like grab his lightsaber and save himself from being eaten by giant bugs. |
| 308 | * TheHorde: The Vong start off as this, and then morph into TheEmpire after taking Coruscant. |
| 309 | * HostileTerraforming: A specialty of the Yuuzhan Vong. |
| 310 | * IfYouKillHimYouWIllBeJustLikeHim: Played straight, averted, subverted, depending on which book you're reading. |
| 311 | * IllKillYou: Ganner does not take being pranked by Corran terribly well. At all. |
| 312 | * ImmuneToBullets: Voxyn are covered in scales which are, naturally, capable of deflecting laser bolts. Aiming for the weak points can help, but they're tough without those, and persistent enough to not care. |
| 313 | * ImperiledInPregnancy: Mara and Luke realizing she's pregnant means having to deal with the fact she's pregnant while she's got a disease that in every other case has proved fatal, along with the fear the disease might damage the baby in some way, in addition to everything else going on. It doesn't take Mara long to start having nightmares. |
| 314 | * ImprobablePilotingSkills: Blackmoon Eleven[=/=][[AcePilot Wedge Antilles]]. |
| 315 | * IncendiaryExponent: Han Solo, speaking of the Vong's yorik volcano cannons in the ''New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology'': |
| 316 | --> "During the civil war, the Imperials just chased us ''into'' asteroid fields. Now the enemy shoots the asteroids at ''us''. And they're on ''fire''." |
| 317 | * InsaneTrollLogic: |
| 318 | ** During a debate on the nature of the Old Jedi Order in ''Ruin'', one advocate for militarizing claims that since there are no records the Jedi ''weren't'' warriors, they can't prove they weren't, and anyone who says otherwise is just reaching, QED. For the record, the person saying such turns out to be going a little nuts. |
| 319 | ** When Luke tells Kre'fey about the time he and Mara found the Empire of the Hand, Krey states there are those in the New Republic who would take Luke's hiding this knowledge as proof he was trying to create a Jedi hegemony using the Chiss. Corran even points out how that doesn't make a lick of sense, which Krey acknowledges, just noting it's what might happen. |
| 320 | ** A guy from Obroa-Skai pleading for assistance from the New Republic somehow comes to the conclusion it's the Jedi's fault the Vong invaded and conquered his world. |
| 321 | * InternalReveal: The Vong don't learn Jacen and Jania are twins until some way in, which comes as a huge surprise to them (since the amount of times Yuuzhan Vong have had twins can be counted on one hand). Not even their double-agents bothered telling them because it was just such an obvious fact to them. |
| 322 | %%* InterspeciesRomance |
| 323 | * ItIsBeyondSaving: In ''Star by Star'', witnessing the New Republic senate ''continuing'' to engage in politicking, finger-pointing, blame shifting and currying even as the Vong are planning to kick down the door brings Leia to the realization that the whole thing isn't worth fighting for, and she therefore quits. |
| 324 | * ItOnlyWorksOnce: Corran figures his extending lightsaber trick won't work on the second Vong warrior he's facing. |
| 325 | * IWillOnlySlowYouDown: In ''Star by Star'', Ulaha tells Anakin that she'd only slow the infiltration team down thanks to her many injuries, and without her their chances of success skyrocket. She soon sacrifices herself to distract the Yuuzhan Vong. |
| 326 | * JediMindTrick: |
| 327 | ** One is attempted on Booster during "Star by Star", partly because of desperation. He shrugs it off. |
| 328 | ** A ''Sith'' Mind Trick is used on Anakin by Lomi Plo when she and her apprentice decide to get out of there, temporarily wiping his memory that they exist. |
| 329 | * JerkassHasAPoint: Given his severe physical frailty, Ackbar wonders whether Fey'la had a point not letting him come out of retirement. |
| 330 | * KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:The entire Yuuzhan Vong race. While genocide might go against Jedi principles and the entire morality of the ''Franchise/StarWars'', considering that the Vong destroyed entire planets, killed trillions of innocent beings, and even exterminated entire races (not only in the Star Wars Galaxy but their own home galaxy as well), it's understandable that many in-universe ([[RealitySubtext and among the audience]]) felt cheated when they were allowed to depart in peace after the war's end. [[DownplayedTrope This is arguable, though]]: among other things, the victorious allies forcibly disarm the Vong, and the Shamed Ones, previously the lowest of the low in their culture, become the new ruling class instead of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy previously exalted warrior caste]].]] |
| 331 | * KickTheDog: Almost all of the Vong do this at some point. |
| 332 | * KillerRobot: The Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids, who're programmed to kill Yuuzhan Vong and protect New Republic citizens and personnel. The ''Literature/DarkNestTrilogy'' later had them reprogrammed to hunt [[BugWar Killiks]]. |
| 333 | * KlingonPromotion: Viqi Shesh gives it a try in ''Star by Star'', hoping to bump off Borsk so she can be Chancellor. It fails, and Nom Amor is assumed responsible, which he's pretty annoyed about. |
| 334 | * KnightTemplar: Most of the Vong are like this, viewing the inhabitants of the galaxy as corrupt infidels who need to be converted or exterminated, and some on the New Republic side become like this against the Vong. Lampshaded by Nom Anor in ''Traitor''- "The problem with fanatics was that they had a tendency to take everything ten steps too far." |
| 335 | %%* LampshadeHanging |
| 336 | * LanguageEqualsThought: The Vong don't have a word for "peace". The closest they've got is "total, willing submission". |
| 337 | * LaserGuidedKarma: The Yevetha, the just-as-racist-and-genocidal inhabitants of the Deep Core that gave the New Republic some trouble several years before, is subjected to a brutal invasion by the Vong during the war. |
| 338 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In ''Vector Prime'', there's talk of how the new Jedi are beginning to rediscover how the old order used to operate, much like how ''Star Wars'' fans did with the contemporary release of ''The Phantom Menace''. |
| 339 | * LensmanArmsRace: A tactical variant, as both sides adapt and refine their tactics to overcome each others' special abilities: |
| 340 | ** Vong volcano cannons are easily shrugged off by New Republic deflector shields, until the Vong learn their dovin basals can yank the shields right off a ship's hull. The New Republic quickly learns to extend the acceleration compensator envelope to protect their shields. |
| 341 | ** To bypass the shielding singularities Vong ships use to protect themselves from enemy fire, the New Republic develops "splinter fire," lowering the power of their laser weapons so they can fire faster and quickly exhaust the dovin basals, then fire full-power to damage the ship itself. Late in ''Ruin'', the Yuuzhan Vong adapt to this by generating weak voids to defeat splinter fire, which the Republic quickly defeats by upping the power and smashing through with brute force. |
| 342 | ** Missile weapons such as proton torpedoes, being slower-moving, are even less effective against dovin basals. In response, Kyp Durron, a Jedi, fires a torpedo with the rocket motor switched off and aims it with the Force to hit enemy ships. With no active drives, the Vong dovin basals don't know the torpedo is incoming until it's too late. The Jedi Order quickly builds on this by introducing the "shadow bomb", a proton torpedo casing with the drive and warhead removed and replaced with baradium (the powerful explosive in thermal detonators). |
| 343 | ** Also used literally, as the New Republic works hard to find a way jam yammosk coordination. The Vong respond by deploying backup yammosks. |
| 344 | * LightningCanDoAnything: A couple of Dark Jedi encountered in ''Star by Star'' discover that Force lightning works just fine on the normally Force-immune Vong. |
| 345 | * LivingShip: The ships of the Vong. |
| 346 | * LoveEpiphany: Tenel Ka finally realizes she loves Jacen after he's captured by the Vong, and [[spoiler: she mistakenly believes he's been killed]]. |
| 347 | * LuredIntoATrap: |
| 348 | ** Shedao Shai's forces in ''Ruin'' run headlong into a trap on Ithor, the New Republic forces using their anti-technology attitude against them. By the time Shedao figures things out, one of his guys has already triggered the trap. |
| 349 | ** What finally does Tsavong Lah in during ''Destiny's Way''. Admiral Ackbar cooks up a strategy relying on the Vong martyrdom culture and their unwillingness to flee or disobey orders, baited with the Jedi. Tsavong falls for it, partly because he can't conceive that it ''could'' be a trap (he almost does, but then brushes it off because he wouldn't do such a thing). |
| 350 | * MadScientist: Most Shapers, Mezhan Kwaad most of all. |
| 351 | * MalevolentMutilation: Embraced by the Vong with religious fervor. |
| 352 | * MamaBear: While Mara doesn't go full gear until the next major series, there are definite and rather obvious shades of this trope, starting from the moment she discovers her pregnancy. |
| 353 | %%* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Onimi]]. |
| 354 | * MauveShirt: Many Jedi and some characters from past books. |
| 355 | * MeaningfulName: It's [[Literature/TheDivineComedy no coincidence]] that a figure named Vergere is the one who leads Jacen through his [[ToHellAndBack symbolic death and rebirth]] in ''Traitor''. |
| 356 | * MemeticBadass: InUniverse example. [[spoiler:Ganner Rhysode's]] [[DyingMomentOfAwesome incredible]] HeroicSacrifice makes such an impact on the Yuuzhan Vong that [[spoiler:he becomes a ''god'' in their minds, dubbed Yun-Ganner.]] |
| 357 | * MileLongShip: The series adds several more to the franchise's collection. These include the New Republic ''Viscount''-class Star Defender battleship originally designed as a counter to the likes of the ''Executor''-class star dreadnought; the Yuuzhan Vong ''koros-stronha''[[labelnote:translation]]"worldship"[[/labelnote]], primarily {{generation ship}}s but fully capable of defending themselves; and the Yuuzhan Vong ''kor chokk''[[labelnote:translation]]"grand cruiser"[[/labelnote]], warships such as Shedao Shai's ''Legacy of Torment'' that serve much the same command-and-control and heavy battleship role as super star destroyers. |
| 358 | * AMillionIsAStatistic: Discussed by Luke in "Ruin", when one of the Order starts seeking out a means of building superweapons to fight the Vong. Luke raises the point that you can talk about the horror of what happened to Alderaan, but... |
| 359 | -->'''Luke:''' We all know the story of Alderaan. We know what happened to Caridia. We remember the Krytos Virus, but somehow, getting your brain around the idea that billions of people are dead is very tough. You can feel very bad, devastated, over the death of one person, but can you multiply that a billion times when a planet is destroyed? |
| 360 | * MirroringFactions: Brought up metaphorically by both sides, but also seen literally in their military technologies. Take the [[KillerRobot YVH droid]] and the [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke voxyn]], for instance -- both are carefully engineered for their targets, both are [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill horribly beweaponed]] and MadeOfIron, both can sense the difference between their prey and regular humans. Later on, there are the [[EliteMook Slayers]], who consciously attempt to mimic the Jedi. In neither case does this end well for the Vong, though, since their culture and technology prevent them from mass-producing their elites. |
| 361 | %%* TheMole: Viqi Shesh |
| 362 | %%* MonsterClown: [[spoiler:Onimi]]. |
| 363 | * MoralMyopia: Shedao Shai is appalled that the evacuees of Dantooine at the end of ''Dark Tide: Onslaught'' leave their dead behind. Never mind that they were running from a Vong attack they couldn't resist, and didn't have time to pick up every corpse. |
| 364 | * MortonsFork: |
| 365 | ** The Peace Brigade ironically find themselves in this situation by the later stages of the war. By this point, the galaxy at large finally understands and accepts collaboration or cutting deals with the Vong is a fool's bargain; they've broken their word too many times to trust any more promises of peace or mercy. So the Brigade now has no choice, but to remain allied with the Vong to protect themselves from the Galactic Alliance (who will be coming for all their heads should they win the war). But it's ''not'' an alliance of equals, because the Vong are now using them as cannon fodder (and will have no more use for the Brigade if they win the war). Either way, the Peace Brigrade loses. |
| 366 | ** Vergere dryly observes that no matter how she answers, the New Republic will take it to mean she's a spy. Answer too vaguely, she's obviously hiding something because she's a spy. Answer in too much detail, it's obviously rehearsed, and she's a spy. |
| 367 | * MundaneUtility: The Force is what gives the Jedi their power. It allows them to move objects with their mind, influence the weak-minded and animals... during ''Dark Tide: Onslaught'', it's used by Kyp as a glorified umbrella to keep sand off him. |
| 368 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: |
| 369 | ** Saba Sebatyne's reaction to inadvertently killing hundreds of her fellow Barabels by destroying a Yuuzhan Vong slave transport in anger in ''Remnant''. She's troubled by what she had done, which leads her to [[MustMakeAmends attempt a daring capture]] of a similar slave ship later on in the book. |
| 370 | ** Nom Anor, of all people, has one after he sics a bunch of warriors on a gathering of Shamed Ones (Shamed Ones who were following ''his'' teachings, no less) and saw them get slaughtered. It didn't really lead to a full-on HeelFaceTurn, but it ''did'' show that Anor was starting to develop [[EvenEvilHasStandards standards]]. |
| 371 | * MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: In ''Star by Star'', Ganner Rhysode gets the Yuuzhan Vong terms for "low-caste person" and "dung of a rotting meat maggot" confused. |
| 372 | * MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: A couple of Vong examples, most notably Nom Anor (who's utterly evil in a way completely different from his fellows- they're fanatical Knight Templars and he's a manipulative power-grabber) and Nen Yim (who is too coldly logical to go along with the more... crazy beliefs of her people, though she only starts openly going against the grain near the end). Harrar, a Yuuzhan Vong priest who appears several times throughout the series, also shows himself to be a pretty reasonable and open-minded person. |
| 373 | * MythologyGag: Winking references to the movies are not uncommon here. Some books are just more subtle about it than others. |
| 374 | * NeverFoundTheBody: Nom Anor, leading to many fans speculating that he actually survived. However, he never reappeared after ''The Unifying Force''. |
| 375 | * NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Luke -- and later Kyp -- is able to manipulate the little singularities which Vong ships produce to absorb attacks, making them into somewhat bigger singularities which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard swallow the Vong ships]]. Neither of them does it more than once, though--Luke goes unconscious from the effort, and while Kyp doesn't pass out from his effort, he still ends up exhausted. Luke is also able to communicate with a tank of goo made of single-celled creatures that devour all organic matter, nanite-style, telling them "I am not food" so he can climb in and get something. This leads to him ruefully saying, "[[NakedPeopleAreFunny I should have told it 'My clothes are not food, either.]]'" |
| 376 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: |
| 377 | ** The antics of Kyp Durron and his followers in ''Vector Prime'' sabotage Leia's attempts to warn everyone about the Vong during ''Dark Tide''. |
| 378 | ** A particularly cruel variant appears in ''Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse''. The heroes are considering using Centerpoint Station to attack the Yuuzhan Vong fleet to save the critical shipyard world Fondor, but Anakin is torn over whether or not such participating in such a brutal attack would go against his Jedi training. Meanwhile, his evil cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo is all for using the station, and tries to push Anakin into pulling the trigger. In the end, [[spoiler: Anakin steadfastly refuses, so Thrackan jumps in and fires the station himself--proceeding to wipe out most of the fleet that the Hapans had sent to aid the Republic]]. Even worse, [[spoiler: Anakin realizes that if he ''had'' pulled the trigger, he probably could have successfully wiped out the Vong without hitting the Hapans, since his control over the station is much better than Thrackan's]]. |
| 379 | ** Luke setting up a Jedi base in the Deep Core during ''Edge of Victory'' after the Yuuzhan Vong destroy his Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 will come back to haunt everyone during ''Fate of the Jedi''. In his defense, he had no way of knowing that [[spoiler:the Dark Side entity Abeloth was imprisoned in the Deep Core, or that she would turn the young Force users into sleeper agents in an attempt to free herself.]] |
| 380 | ** Also in ''Edge of Victory'', Talon Karrde uses his pet vornskyrs as a means of locating and rescuing the Jedi on Yavin 4. However the Peace Brigade make note of this and pass the information along to the Yuuzhan Vong, who then use vornskyrs to create the voxyn. |
| 381 | ** Under normal circumstances, the arrival of the ''Lusankya'' and its subsequent pasting of the Yuuzhan Vong task force at Borleias near the beginning of ''Rebel Dream'' would have been a GunshipRescue moment. However, prior to its arrival, the New Republic forces at Borleias were counting on stringing along a merely average Yuuzhan Vong commander and fleet in order to fulfill their goals. When the ''Lusankya'' killed that commander and wiped out his forces, the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil (all but called out by name by Wedge) dictated that the Yuuzhan Vong send a more wily commander with a stronger task force. |
| 382 | * NoOneGetsLeftBehind: At the times the Yuuzhan Vong are willing to exploit this through the use of refugees or other hostages. |
| 383 | ** Blackmoon Squadron is a clear believer. Despite being all but certain that one of their wounded members was evacuated already, they go back during a planetary evacuation when his abandoned fighter launches, saying they won't leave their own behind. This ends up saving the life of another pilot who was forced to use the damaged starfighter to escape the planet. |
| 384 | * NoOSHACompliance: Just when the Empire starts caring about workers' rights, along come some aliens who think that torture is a ''good'' thing. |
| 385 | * NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Explored from several angles through ''Dark Tide: Ruin'' regarding the Empire's long list of superweapons. The Jedi actually ''do'' have the plans saved in their archives, flagged in case anyone pokes around in them, but having the plans isn't enough - you'd need time, resources and secrecy to build them, and one of the builders had her memories of how she did that erased by Jedi some years back (which she's pretty happy about), and in the modern galaxy, a giant superweapon would kind of draw a lot of attention. Luke and Mara do wonder about whether the name "the Eye of Palpatine" means there's a back-up somewhere, since he did have more than one eye, but if there is, no-one's ever found it. |
| 386 | * NothingIsScarier: The Vuuzhan Vong don't appear for most of ''Onslaught'', only showing up in the flesh in the final third, but the characters see a lot of their handiwork in the meantime. |
| 387 | * NoTrueScotsman: Vergere is... not remotely approving of Luke's reforms to the Jedi Order, regarding them as not ''proper'' Jedi. Jacen's about the only one she figures is closest to her idea of Jediness. |
| 388 | * NotSoHarmlessVillain: Onimi is [[EvilOverlord Shimrra's]] court jester and personal slave--he's obnoxious and has a cruel sense of humor, but is largely harmless except when acting on Shimrra's direct orders. [[spoiler:Except that he's actually the BigBad, a ridiculously powerful Force-user, and an OmnicidalManiac. Shimrra was never anything more than his tool.]] |
| 389 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: Responsible for problems with refugees, governmental mingling of head with sand. |
| 390 | ** In the early stages of the war, this was the main weapon the Yuuzhan Vong had against the New Republic. Infiltrators and collaborators kept the New Republic from fully reacting to the Vong threat pretty much until they were knocking on Coruscant's doorstep. Notably, fleets that could have been sent to out slow, halt, or even turn back the Vong advance early were kept in defensive formations around valuable Core worlds that were in no danger whatsoever of attack. |
| 391 | %%* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:Onimi again]] |
| 392 | * ObviouslyEvil: |
| 393 | ** The Vong are religious fanatics who enjoy torture and killing, though it should be noted that BlueAndOrangeMorality is in play here; from the Vong perspective, it's the "infidels" who are ObviouslyEvil. |
| 394 | ** It takes Jacen one conversation with Shesh, which doesn't last more than five minutes, to peg her as being utterly untrustworthy, comparing her directly to pre-Clone Wars Palpatine. Once Jaina passes on this concern to Leia, it takes her only a few moments consideration to figure that, yeah, Shesh is super-suspicious. |
| 395 | * OhCrap: Everyone but the Bothans have this reaction upon learning that Alpha Red was deployed on Caluula, and an infected Yuuzhan Vong ship is heading to Coruscant. [[spoiler: The Bothans start to act a little more nervous when they finally accept that the virus mutated and is able to attack other lifeforms.]] |
| 396 | * OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:Onimi]], who explicitly tells Jaina during his MotiveRant that he's going to kill everyone and everything in the galaxy. [[spoiler:As he believed this would let him become a god, though, it's possible he intended to create a new universe to worship him afterwords, but as he never gets that far we don't know for sure. He's nuts either way]].) |
| 397 | * OnlyAFleshWound: Anakin takes a hit saving Jaina from some Vong warriors, but insists it's not that bad and he's fine, really. Eventually, medical examination proves it's ''not''. His spleen's ruptured and unless he does something soon he'll be in much worse trouble. |
| 398 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: The initial head of the Peace Brigade is a former smuggling associate of Han's who's just in it for the credits. Then he dies horribly. |
| 399 | * OrbitalBombardment: |
| 400 | ** The Yuuzhan Vong use the conventional ships-firing-on-planets form a few times, but they're also inordinately fond of the ColonyDrop. |
| 401 | ** Operation Emperor's Hammer in ''Rebel Dream'', a.k.a. Operation Infantry Can't Do Shit About Super Star Destroyers. |
| 402 | * OperatorIncompatibility[=/=]PhlebotinumHandlingRequirements: ''The New Essential Guide To Vehicles and Vessels'' mentions that the Skywalkers modified the bridge airlock on the ''Jade Shadow'' so that it could only be activated from outside if one used the Force to operate the internal mechanisms. |
| 403 | * OutsideContextProblem: This is a large part of why the initial Vong invasion is so successful. The Vong know the capabilities and limits of galactic technology, while the galactics do not know anything about Vong biotech. |
| 404 | * PaintItBlack: Partway through the series, the ''Millennium Falcon'' gets a new paintjob of solid black. It helps hide the laser scarring. |
| 405 | * PartingWordsRegret: Before ''Balance Point'', Han and Leia have a nasty argument. During the book, Leia really hopes that they meet up again, because she doesn't want their last words to one another to have been what's implied to be some heavy-duty swearing. |
| 406 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: Jacen's befriending and mind-bond with the World Brain not only saves his life and that of the Brain, but also sets in motion the events that topple the Vong from their rule. |
| 407 | * PlanetaryRelocation: After conquering Coruscant, the Yuuzhan Vong go to work {{terraform}}ing it into a replica of their original homeworld Yuuzhan'tar. This includes using their [[GravityMaster gravity-generating]] dovin basal creatures to move the planet closer to its sun to alter the macroclimate. They also shatter one of the planet's moons to create a ring system, and throw the other two moons out of orbit entirely. |
| 408 | * PowerfulPeopleAreSubs: There's a joke about this from Luke and Mara of all people in ''Destiny's Way'' after Luke has a less-than-productive meeting with Fyor Rodan, a New Republic politician who wants changes in the Jedi Order's role in the war.[[note]]Specifically, he wants them incorporated into the regular military chain of command with all that entails, especially in terms of accountability, whereas Luke favors the status quo of a largely autonomous order.[[/note]] |
| 409 | -->'''Luke:''' He kept calling me "Skywalker". Because I don't have a title--I'm not a senator, I'm not a general any longer, I'm not an ambassador. He used the word like an insult.\ |
| 410 | '''Mara:''' He could have called you "Master". Like I do sometimes.\ |
| 411 | '''Luke:''' I don't think it would be the same as when you do it.\ |
| 412 | '''Mara:''' It better not be... ''Skywalker''. |
| 413 | %% * PraetorianGuard: Shimrra's Slayers. |
| 414 | * PrefersGoingBarefoot: Tahiri Veila. It's explained as liking the cool floors after feeling only hot sands she previously lived with. |
| 415 | * {{Privateer}}: Han and Talon Karrde go on a series of raids against Vong-allied shipping transporting supplies and captives. He mentions to one aggrieved captain that since he's only targeting the Vong, he's a privateer, not a pirate. |
| 416 | * ProlongedPrologue: The prologue for ''Star by Star'' is eighty-six pages. |
| 417 | * PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: [[spoiler:Nom Anor]] spins a bunch of [[BlatantLies fanciful tales]] while claiming to be the Prophet Yu'Shaa... [[{{Irony}} then the tales come true.]] |
| 418 | * ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Vong put the Spartans to shame when it comes to being a ''psychotically obsessive'' warrior race. |
| 419 | * PunchClockVillain: Nen Yim. She's a Yuuzhan Vong "shaper" (a scientist and engineer) who pulls some nasty PlayingWithSyringes on Tahiri under the direction of a more senior shaper, but she's motivated by wanting to develop the clout to save her domain's dying worldship and is overall a pretty decent person by Yuuzhan Vong standards. |
| 420 | * ThePurge: The Jedi, again, but this time those poor droids get to join them. |
| 421 | * PurpleProse: During Corran and Shedao's fight at the end of ''Ruin'', the prose takes an unusually elaborate way to say Shedao licks the blood off his staff. |
| 422 | * PyrrhicVictory: Wedge's forces on Borleias manage to hand one of these to the Yuuzhan Vong, sacrificing a Super Star Destroyer (but ''not'' its crew or weapons; they were all relocated to other ships) to destroy a worldship ''and'' one of the Yuuzhan Vong's best generals. The Yuuzhan Vong gain the planet, but with ''far'' greater losses than Wedge's forces suffered. Said general is fully aware that his victory was not worth the cost, and reports as much to the Warmaster, all but spelling out its a blow from which the Vong are unlikely to recover. Meanwhile Wedge achieved his primary objective--to delay the Vong while what was left of the Republic got itself sorted out and became the Galactic Alliance--albeit at a greater cost than he intended. |
| 423 | * TheQuisling: The Peace Brigade, ostensibly a group working for peace between the Vong and the GFFA but who are really under the direction of their infiltrators such as Nom Anor. |
| 424 | * RammingAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler:Vergere]] helps deal with the problem of taking out the two thousand Yuuzhan Vong troops on Ebaq-9 by flying an A-Wing into the military base. The result is a colossal fireball which takes out the artificial atmosphere, causing all the Vong troops to suffocate in seconds. [[spoiler:It also kills her in the process. And Tsavong Lah manages to survive.]] |
| 425 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Admiral Kre'fay for the Republic Forces, Palleon for the Imperial Remnant. Suffice to say, the whole war would go a hell of a lot easier if it were all up to them... but Kre has to answer to his bosses, and Palleon has to deal with the Moffs, and there's only so much rule-bending they can get away with. |
| 426 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Han's rant in ''Destiny's Way'' to an Imperial Remnant officer who says the Vong wouldn't have been a problem if Emperor Palpatine was still around. Likely a TakeThat to the out-of-universe argument about whether Palpatine had built the Empire as preparation for the invasion to begin with. |
| 427 | -->"What the Empire would have done was build a super-colossal Yuuzhan Vong–killing battle machine. They would have called it the Nova Colossus or the Galaxy Destructor or the [[TheTriple Nostril of Palpatine]] or something equally grandiose. They would have spent billions of credits, employed thousands of contractors and subcontractors, and equipped it with the latest in death-dealing technology. And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked. [[WeaksauceWeakness They'd forget to bolt down a metal plate over an access hatch leading to the main reactors, or some other mistake, and a hotshot enemy pilot would drop a bomb down there and blow the whole thing up.]] Now that's what the Empire would have done." |
| 428 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Borsk Fey'Lya, Nen Yim, Vua Rapuung, Ganner Rhysode (who wasn't ''evil'', but was a colossal glory hound and jerk), and Nom Anor.]] |
| 429 | * RedRightHand: The Vong do this to themselves for social, religious, and practical reasons. Special mention goes to Tsavong Lah, who goes so far as to clone a long-extinct monster just so he can kill it and use its talons to replace one of his legs. On the other hand, grafts that fail to take or otherwise behave abnormally are seen as ill omens from the Vong perspective, and are enough to permanently shame their recipient. |
| 430 | * RedShirt: 365 trillion, as summarized in the final book. |
| 431 | * RelativeButton: Shedao Shai is introduced examining the remains of two Vong warriors who were his cousins, killed by Corran Horn. He's incensed even further when it turns out the scientists Corran was protecting medically examined his grandfather. |
| 432 | * ReligionOfEvil: The Vong religion is half this, half PathOfInspiration because the gods are all either fake or horribly misrepresented. |
| 433 | * ReportingNames: Basically all Vong ships except for coralskippers. Since their vessels are grown rather than constructed, they don't follow a standard template very well. Therefore, the Republic takes to grouping them by size (e.g. "blastboat analogue", "cruiser analogue") or sometimes role ("[[TheBattlestar carrier analogue]]", "[[NoWarpingZone interdictor analogue]]"). |
| 434 | * ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Yuuzhan Vong's Chazrach slave army will lapse into a killing frenzy when their connection with their masters' influence over them is disrupted. Bossk's cameo in ''Hero's Trial'' also follows this trope. Subverted with the Barabel Jedi in later installments -- young Ben Skywalker even seems to take a shine to Saba in ''Remnant''. |
| 435 | * ResistanceAsPlanned: Discussed during ''The Unifying Force'' by [[spoiler: Harrar when he, Luke, and Mara discuss the revelation of Nom Anor being the Prophet. Harrar (correctly) concludes Nom Anor fell in with the Jeedai hersey as a means of surviving his downfall and disgrace after Ebaq 9. The Skywalkers agree, but if that's the case, why then would Nom Anor try to destroy Zonama Sekot -- an act which benefits Shimmra and thus weaknes the Executor's position? Harrar's just as puzzled and offers several theories. Among them, he (incorrectly) speculates that it's ''possible'' Nom Anor's actually secretly still working for the Supreme Overload. If so, it would mean the heretics are really being used by Shimmra to distract the elite from the ongoing problems with the war effort and terraforming Coruscant (and/or to provide a justiication for purging Yuuzhan Vong society of undesiriables).]] |
| 436 | * RetCon: A few early inconsistencies were explained away in later books. Stackpole's Vong being even more masochistic than the other writers' Vong was described as being a particular characteristic of Domain Shai. |
| 437 | * RetiredBadass: Czulkang Lah, Tsavong Lah's father and an old warrior who's brought out of retirement to fight at Borleias after the ''Lusankya'' kills the original commander [[SpringtimeForHitler earlier than Wedge had intended]]. |
| 438 | * TheReveal: Several, but the most prominent occur in ''The Unifying Force'', where we learn that [[spoiler: Shimmra was merely a puppet of Onimi, who had regained a link to the Force by grafting yammosk tissue to his brain, and that Zonama Sekot was the seed of Yuuzhan'tar, the Yuuzhan Vong's original homeworld which they destroyed after it stripped them of their connection to the Force for going genocidal on their home galaxy.]] |
| 439 | * RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Played straight, subverted. |
| 440 | %%* RichBitch: Viqi Shesh. |
| 441 | * RousingSpeech: Leia gives one of these during the fall of Coruscant. Many of those in the New Republic are moved by her words, but it fails in its goal to prevent senators from using badly-needed military vessels to flee the battle. |
| 442 | * ScarsAreForever: In ''Ruin'', Ganner consciously chooses to heal an injury to his face in such a manner that it leaves a scar, as an admonition to himself concerning the arrogance that led him to be injured in the first place. In ''Rebirth'', Tahiri says that she refuses to allow the scars on her forehead to be removed because she "earned" them from injuries inflicted on her in ''Conquest''. |
| 443 | * ScaryDogmaticAliens: The Yuuzhan Vong seem to be a combination of the Nazi and religious forms of this trope. Their culture has a rigid caste system, each of which has a patron god, allows only the use of biotechnology and they harbor an extreme revulsion towards "built things." Rites of passage involve the sacrifice of body parts, the grafting of new body parts, tattooing and [[GoodScarsEvilScars mutilation which leaves scars that they view as attractive]]. They also exhibit a more or less religious devotion to pain, and enslave or kill anyone who does not adhere to their beliefs. |
| 444 | * SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Played straight, or averted, or subverted, DependingOnTheWriter: |
| 445 | ** In ''Vector Prime'', Sernpidal apparently orbits its star at the same distance our moon orbits Earth. While this could potentially work were [[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110330150854.htm Sernpidal's star a White Dwarf]] it is also the third (or fifth; there are conflicting accounts) planet of that star system. |
| 446 | ** Averted with ehe estimated death toll for the war of an estimated 365 trillion lives. The Star Wars galaxy was stated to have over a million inhabited world, which lowballing an average population of one billion, would give a total population of at least 1000 trillion. 365 trillion casualties would be viable especially since the Yuuzhan Vong invasion caused an unprecedented amount of violence and destruction, with many planets completely depopulated, in the galaxies over 25,000 year history.[[note]] 365 trillion is about 182,500 times the number of people who died - 2 billion - when the Death Start destroyed Alderaan.[[/note]] |
| 447 | ** Also averted with the final battle over Coruscant. One of the most massive battles to ever take place in the galaxy, casaulties were massive on both sides. On the Alliance side along five million people were killed, 300 capital ships were destroyed, and over 11,000 starfighters were destroyed. |
| 448 | ** ''Star by Star'' has the Vong take a fleet of refugee ships containing millions hostage, as opposed to the billions you'd expect. [[SubvertedTrope The likely explanation]] is in how many people didn't survive long enough to ''become'' refugees. |
| 449 | * ScreamingWarrior: The Vong, being berserkers, tend to scream a lot in fights. |
| 450 | * SelfHealingPhlebotinum: During the Yuuzhan Vong War Lando Calrissian uses laminanium in the armor and structural components of his [[EliteMook Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids]] to make them able to take even more punishment. For their part [[OrganicTechnology all Vong technology is organic]] and can heal from varying amounts of damage depending on the item. |
| 451 | * SeriesContinuityError: One book mentions that Tenel Ka "held her mother's hands in both of hers". Tenel Ka's left arm was [[AnArmAndALeg severed in a training accident]] in ''[[Literature/YoungJediKnights Lightsabers]]'' and she refused a prosthesis at that time. |
| 452 | * SeriesFauxnale: James Luceno said he deliberately wrote ''The Unifying Force'' with the mindset that it could be the last Star Wars story ever. |
| 453 | %%* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Anakin Solo]] |
| 454 | * ShockingDefeatLegacy: |
| 455 | ** Ithor, for a start. The Jedi note that all the planets that have already fallen to the Vong vanguard haven't really been considered "important" enough (except for the people living there), being distant and isolated. |
| 456 | ** The Fall of Coruscant. The Yuuzhan Vong inflict a lethal blow to the New Republic and, for the first time in several thousand years, the lights of The City That Never Sleeps are going out. |
| 457 | --> '''Han Solo:''' [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The end of the world]]. Who’d’ve thought we’d live to see it? |
| 458 | * ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:During the attack on Coruscant, the Vong use captured refugees as shields, banking on the New Republic forces not daring to shoot. Some don't. Some, like General Iblis, do. When Fey'lya orders the military to shoot regardless, several of them point-blank refuse.]] |
| 459 | * ShoutOut: |
| 460 | ** Take a look at a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YVH-series_battle_droid Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droid]], then compare it to a Franchise/{{Terminator}} minus its human disguise. Wholly deliberate, since the Vong (minus scars, tattoos, implants, skin color, and possibly absence of nose) look basically human, and the YVH droids were meant to look like mechanical mockeries of Yuuzhan Vong specifically to piss them off. |
| 461 | ** A pair of Vong creatures are named [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Beater and Biter]]. |
| 462 | * SilenceYouFool: Warmaster Tsavong Lah's first scene has him telling Dieng to shut up before the guy can say him name, even though they're communicating in private. |
| 463 | * SlaveRace: The Chazrach. |
| 464 | * SlowDoors: Averted with near-disastrous results for Han and Droma during their run through Ruan's irrigation channels. |
| 465 | * SnubByOmission: Jagged Fel's first meeting with New Republic officials doesn't go well when he walks right past Fey'lya, leading to him being accused of being a racist human. He shoots back that if he was, why the hell would he be working with Chiss? He ignored Fey'lya because he's a ''politician''. |
| 466 | * SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: {{Discussed}} in ''Rebel Stand''. |
| 467 | -->'''Gen. Wedge Antilles:''' We were hoping to get a Yuuzhan Vong commander of average skills, with an average fleet, and I suspect that we did. We were going to string him along for as much time as we could, but circumstances today dictated that we wipe him out right away. The next one they send is going to be much tougher, and that's going to make things more difficult for all of us. |
| 468 | * SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness: [[spoiler: Anakin Solo's]] a 3.5. |
| 469 | * SpaceIsCold: Played straight. Han manages to kill a bunch of voxyn that get stuck in the ''Falcon'''s airlock. The combination of cold and exposure to space does them in... eventually. |
| 470 | * SpaceElves: Vergere's species are somewhat like this, being long-lived and strange-looking bird folk who don't tend to get out much. They're so obscure that the New Republic don't even realize she's a local, thinking she's some species the Vong brought with them. |
| 471 | * SpaceNomads: The Ryn, who aren't even sure where their homeworld is anymore, and wander the galaxy. This doesn't make them very popular. |
| 472 | * SpacePirates: Urias Xhaxin and his band of privateers in ''Onslaught'' are of the "normal" variety outlined on that trope page. |
| 473 | ** [[LesCollaborateurs The Peace Brigade]] are more like Space Privateers in some books (notably ''Edge of Victory I''), aiding the Yuuzhan Vong for their own profit (though this generally just evens out to earning a fast death). |
| 474 | * SpottingTheThread: In ''Hero's Trial'', Han notices something very suspicious with Elan and Vergere's apparent defection, capture and escape, along with the fact the Vong ship pursuing the ''Falcon'' is missing way too much. He manages to single-handedly scupper Elan's entire plan then and there. |
| 475 | * SpringtimeForHitler: PlayedForDrama in the ''Enemy Lines'' duology. Wedge's plan at Borleias was to string along a less-competent Vong commander for a while to buy time for the Republic. A snafu (see NiceJobBreakingItHero, above) results in that commander's death, and the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil spits out a much more dangerous one to replace him (Warmaster Tsavong Lah's father Czulkang Lah). PlayedForLaughs during the snafu: |
| 476 | --> '''Wedge:''' Tycho, we're about to achieve a tremendous victory we don't want.\ |
| 477 | '''Tycho:''' We'll put that in your biography. General Antilles was so good he couldn't fail when he tried to. |
| 478 | * SpySatellites: Played straight in ''Jedi Eclipse''. |
| 479 | * StarCrossedLovers: Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila have been good friends since ''Literature/JuniorJediKnights'', and start to fall in love after escaping from Yavin 4 in ''Edge of Victory I: Conquest''. [[spoiler:Then he's killed during the Myrkr mission in ''Star By Star''.]] |
| 480 | * StarterVillain: Prefect Da'Gara, the Vong leader from ''Vector Prime''. |
| 481 | * SteppingStonesInTheSky: The final battle of Luke, Mara, and Tahiri vs. Lord Nyax had this, though they had both the Force and the fact that the "stepping stones" were building size making things easier. |
| 482 | * StormingTheCastle: The battle of Coruscant. |
| 483 | * SubspaceAnsible: |
| 484 | ** Yuuzhan Vong villips, paired creatures engineered to reshape and recolor their bodies to resemble the person on the other end. Because each villip can only communicate to one other villip, mass communication requires them to be organized into "villip choirs". |
| 485 | ** There's a subplot in the penultimate novel, ''The Final Prophecy'', that the Yuuzhan Vong have started targeting relay satellites for the Holonet, which allows galaxy-wide real-time holographic communication. As such, small, fast ships like the ''Millennium Falcon'' get put to use as couriers for a time. Of course, [[FridgeLogic it then begs the question of why the Vong didn't do this earlier in the invasion]]? |
| 486 | %%* SuperPrototype: Subverted. |
| 487 | * SuperSoldier: Vong Slayers, warriors genetically engineered to counter the Jedi. |
| 488 | ** The rank-and-file Vong warriors probably count, since they have armor and weapons that can withstand lightsaber strikes, are ([[DependingOnTheWriter mostly]]) immune to Force powers, and frequently have implants that make them more formidable than their species baseline (which is already heavily implied to be larger and stronger than the average human). |
| 489 | * TakeAThirdOption: Vergere tells Jacen that he, as the one with the power, is the gardener; he must decide if the ones around him are flowers or weeds. The first time we hear this, it's in the context of Jacen trying to treat the wounds of the other slaves on the seedship, and with no way to save them all; naturally he interprets this as his responsibility to choose who lives and dies. But as time goes by he realizes Vergere's true meaning: ''all'' the slaves are worth saving. The warriors who kill them? The ''dhuryam'' who use them as tools? ''They're'' the weeds, and they have lessons to learn. |
| 490 | * TakeThat: ''Destiny's Way'' gave one to the Bantam era's overuse of superweapons, as well as the assertion by some EU authors that Emperor Palpatine was trying to prepare the galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. In response to an Imperial Remnant officer's belief that the invaders wouldn't stand a chance if Palpy was still in charge, Han Solo retorts: |
| 491 | -->"What the Empire would have done was build a super-colossal Yuuzhan Vong–killing battle machine. They would have called it the Nova Colossus or the Galaxy Destructor or the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Nostril of Palpatine]] or something equally grandiose. They would have spent billions of credits, employed thousands of contractors and subcontractors, and equipped it with the latest in death-dealing technology. And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked. [[AchillesHeel They'd forget to bolt down a metal plate over an access hatch leading to the main reactors, or some other mistake, and a hotshot enemy pilot would drop a bomb down there and blow the whole thing up.]] Now ''that's'' what the Empire would have done." |
| 492 | * TakingYouWithMe: Fey'lya tries this, hoping to lure Tsavong Lah in and get killed so he can blow him up with a dead man's switch. Thanks to Vergere, it doesn't quite work, as Tsavong doesn't show, but it does take out the guy he sent instead. And his warriors. And their fleet. [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill And quite a lot of the buildings nearby]]. |
| 493 | * TarotTroubles: In ''Hero's Trial''. Only since this is ''Star Wars'', sabbac cards are used instead. But it's the same gist. |
| 494 | * TeenGenius: Nen Yim is somewhere in her late teens/early twenties (or at least the Vong equivalent) and as far and away the most brilliant Shaper in the whole series. Of course, a lot of that comes from her being one of the few willing to practice a certain heresy called the scientific method. |
| 495 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: Ganner and Corran through ''Dark Tide I: Onslaught''. |
| 496 | * TemptingFate: Jaina swears in her first conversation with Jagged Fel that she refuses to fall for a guy who thinks grim is a perfectly normal state of being. [[spoiler:She fails.]] |
| 497 | * ThatsNoMoon: Worldships, where the Vong are born and raised. |
| 498 | * TheyLookLikeUsNow: The Vong use ooglith masquers to hide among other races. In ''Onslaught'', some of them hide among refugees from one of their attacks. |
| 499 | * ToHellAndBack: A symbolic example. Jacen is told early on in his captivity by [[TricksterMentor Vergere]] that he's dead; that story arc, ''Traitor'', focuses on his maturation as an adult as he journeys through the hell of the Yuuzhan Vong worlds--and his eventual ascent and rebirth. |
| 500 | %%* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Anakin]] |
| 501 | * TortureForFunAndInformation: Most Vong are ''seriously'' into torture, though it's a bit hard to call it "cold-blooded" when they see it as an act of religious devotion. Then there's Duman Yaght, the commander of the prisoner transport from ''Star By Star'', who goes out of his way to make his captives suffer just because he's a titanic jerk. |
| 502 | * TransferableMemory: The Vong can generate, remove, and implant memories using advanced shaping techniques. Tahiri finds this out firsthand. |
| 503 | %%* TricksterMentor: Vergere. |
| 504 | * UncertainDoom: In "Star by Star", Lomi Plo and her apprentice briefly work with Anakin's team, until they decide they far prefer living and run for it, taking a ship with an injured member of the team with them. The others can't see what happen, but figure they won't get far before the Vong shoot them down. [[spoiler:After the series is over, it turns out they survived... sort of.]] |
| 505 | * UnrealisticBlackHole: Dovin basals generate temporary black holes to absorb enemy weapons fire (as well as being ReactionlessDrive). Realistically, this ''should'' result in the energy equivalent of whatever was shot in (a ''lot'' of energy, recall E=mc^2) being released as Hawking radiation when the black hole is switched off. |
| 506 | * UnusableEnemyEquipment: Justified, in that despite its usefulness (who wouldn't want a weapon that could coil up out of the way, spit poison, be used as a whip, cut up metal, and block a lightsaber blade?), using Yuuzhan Vong equipment generally results in a lot of pain even (or ''especially'') if you do it right. And that's not even counting things like the Vonduun Crab Armor, which will usually try to kill anyone but a Vong who wears it. |
| 507 | ** In the chronologically later ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'', several characters, most notably Jariah Syn, ''do'' use Vongtech regularly, and it's pretty useful, especially against Jedi or Sith, though by that point the Vong were much friendlier and more willing to share their secrets--Jariah had a Vong warrior as a mentor who taught him a lot. |
| 508 | %%* VestigialEmpire: The Imperial Remnant. |
| 509 | * VeteranInstructor: Czulkang Lah is depicted as the epitome of wisdom (for the Vong) and far more reasonable and rational then many of his counterparts. Rather then delivering brutal punishment as a DrillSergeantNasty, he uses very small punishments, the minimum he can for his society, and emphasizes personal honor as a reason to succeed. He is comparatively soft spoken, thinks carefully before acting, and is willing, [[spoiler:much like his son]], to dirty himself with technology to gain a better understanding of his foes. It helps that he is also a retired leader from before the invasion, reduced to training the next generation of officers after he was forcibly retired. |
| 510 | * TheVirus: Alpha Red, a virus developed by New Republic Intelligence and the Chiss to destroy the Yuuzhan Vong and their biots at a cellular level. Many of the good guys are against it, and those who insist on using it are portrayed as monstrous. [[spoiler: Turns out the protagonists were right, as the Chiss failed to make it perfect and it started attacking other lifeforms.]] |
| 511 | * WarIsHell: Probably one of the most brutal examples in Star Wars. |
| 512 | * WarringNatures: Tahiri has this problem after a failed attempt to turn her into a half-Jedi half-Yuuzhan Vong SuperSoldier leaves her with two distinct personalities who are on opposite sides of the war. She finally resolves the issue near the end of the series, integrating both personalities to form, in effect, a completely new one with the strongest traits of both. |
| 513 | * WasOnceAMan: The Vagh Rodiek. Nearly happened to Tahiri, but she was rescued before more than mental alterations were made. |
| 514 | * WasntThatFun: Tahiri's reaction after a hair raising insertion (only for the adults, naturally) into a [[spoiler:fallen Coruscant]]. |
| 515 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Coralskippers and their dovin basals can generate singularities to soak up laser-fire... but at the cost of manueverability, and vice-versa. |
| 516 | ** The dovin basal also turned out to have a major weakness when used for shielding that was eventually exploited by the Alliance. Specifically, the singularity they generated was great for intercepting laser blasts, but it took the same amount of energy to generate the singularity regardless of how powerful the incoming shot was (contrast standard shields, which lose power relative to how damaging the hit was). All you had to do was use a MoreDakka approach with low-power shots, wear down the dovin basal's energy reserves (or, more accurately for biotech, it just plain got tired), and it couldn't protect the ship any more. |
| 517 | * WeedingOutImperfections: Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon has a personal garden that he enjoys keeping in order, removing the weaker plants and nursing the stronger ones, as a euphemism for the militaristic law of the New Order. |
| 518 | * WeHaveReserves: Yuuzhan Vong combat doctrine teaches warriors that to sacrifice their lives and their subordinates is the highest honor. Tsavong Lah follows this trope until they eventually ''run out of reserves.'' |
| 519 | ** Supreme Overlord Shimrra actually yells at him for "sending out troops over a rampart of their own dead!" The fact that the Yuuzhan Vong dramatically overextended themselves in rushing to Coruscant, and took heavy casualties along the way, is just about the only thing that lets the New Republic/GFFA regroup and successfully counterattack. Even then, it's a near thing. |
| 520 | * WeWillNotUseStageMakeUpInTheFuture: Played straight in the Vong's ooglith masquers. Also averted: in addition to the captured masquers and actual vonduun armor, the Coruscant insertion team used liberal amounts of makeup and synthetic armor. |
| 521 | * WhamEpisode: Several, many of which involve major character deaths. |
| 522 | ** The [[spoiler:death of Chewbacca]] in ''Vector Prime'' |
| 523 | ** Mara learning she's pregnant part way through ''Balance Point''. |
| 524 | ** The [[spoiler:fall of Coruscant and the death of Anakin]] in ''Star by Star''. |
| 525 | * WhamLine: ''The Unifying Force'': |
| 526 | -->'''Onimi''': [[spoiler:Shimrra was Shimrra. I am I.]]\ |
| 527 | '''Jacen''': [[spoiler:The Supreme Overlord.]] |
| 528 | * WhatExactlyIsHisJob: {{Discussed}} somewhat obliquely in ''Destiny's Way'', which includes a scene where Fyor Rodan, a New Republic politician, gets into it with Luke over the proper role of the Jedi Order in the war. Rodan wants to incorporate the Jedi into the regular military chain of command with all that entails, including subjecting them to the military justice system when they screw up. Luke prefers the status quo of an autonomous Jedi Order where the Jedi can follow the will of the Force and intervene in the war as needed. |
| 529 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 530 | ** A number of characters criticize Jaina for her use of Force lightning after her brother's death, spending too much time with [[EvilMatriarch Ta'a Chume]], providing a test subject for a MadScientist, abusing a life debt and sending pilots on suicide runs, to name a few in ''Dark Journey''. |
| 531 | ** Kyp Durron explodes at Luke when it looks like after years of lecturing about what not to do, Luke's suddenly gone and changed his mind. He's slightly mollified when Luke explains his reasoning. |
| 532 | * WhatOtherGalaxies: The Yuuzhan Vong are from another galaxy, which earned the nickname of Far Outsiders. They act akin to how humankind sees aliens -- an [[AlienInvasion invading species]] undetectable by common means (in this case, The Force). With an added flavor of ScaryDogmaticAliens and organically-built technology. |
| 533 | * TheWorfEffect: |
| 534 | ** Midway through ''Vector Prime'', the New Republic Defense Force sends an ''Imperial''-class star destroyer, one of the most feared ships in ''Franchise/StarWars'' and practically a naval task force unto itself, to take out the Praetorite Vong's beachhead. It gets blown away with relative ease (although that's partly because its captain was tremendously overconfident). |
| 535 | ** Early in the series, Leia's Noghri bodyguard, Bolphur, takes out a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, but is clawed to death in return. Leia's reaction: "If the Yuuzhan Vong are powerful enough to take out Noghri with their bare hands..." Leia's Noghri bodyguards suffer this depressingly often, especially in the first half of the series. Arguably, this was also the reason Chewie died. |
| 536 | * WorshippedForGreatDeeds: The Jeedai heresy is based around this. After Anakin Solo helped the yuuzhan vong Shamed One (dishonored outcast) Vua Rupaang prove his innocence, the word spread among the other shamed ones that a Jedi (or Jeedai as the word was corrupted into) had helped a shamed one regain his honor. Soon after, cults started popping up that revered the Jeedai as savior figures who could redeem shamed ones. This was further encouraged by the prophet Yu'shaa (really the spy Nom Anor in disguise), who united the various cults into an entire offshoot of the main Yuuzhan Vong religion that saw the Force as the last breath of the creator deity, and the Jeedai as emissaries or avatars of their gods. |
| 537 | * WorthyOpponent: |
| 538 | ** [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shedao_Shai Shedao Shai]] to Corran. His actions are 100% consistent with his code of honor, he openly admires the enemy when they live up to his high standards, sticks to his ethics even when they put him at a disadvantage, and in spite of being even more fanatical than usual for his species is both [[AffablyEvil affable]] and a pretty good strategist. [[spoiler:Unfortunately his second-in-command goes back on the deal Shai struck with Corran after [[YouAreInCommandNow Corran kills Shai in an honor duel over the fate of Ithor]].]] |
| 539 | ** While Nom Amor is panicking over being tricked by the false intelligence that leads to the defeat at Ebaq-9, which has ruined his career and marked him for painful death, he does at least respect the effort. |
| 540 | * WronskiFeint: Wedge Antilles pulls one of these off in ''Rebel Stand''. Pursued by a coralskipper during the evacuation of Borleias while protecting a New Republic freighter from a rakamat (essentially the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of an AT-AT), he flies his X-wing through the rakamat's legs and the enemy pilot impales the rakamat with his craft. |
| 541 | * YouShallNotPass: Ganner's LastStand in ''Traitor''. |
| 542 | * YoyoPlotPoint: The position of Kyp Durron's overzealous faction of younger Jedi zigzags back and forth. They seem to have learned their lesson to respect Luke's authority and not be jerks as early as ''Ruin'', but AesopAmnesia and different writers complicate this. |
| 543 | * ZergRush: The Yuuzhan Vong's slaves. |
| 544 | ** The Yuuzhan Vong strongly favor these tactics, which gradually bites them in the ass as the war goes on and they can no longer adequately defend their territory; following the Battle of Coruscant, Shimrra furiously berates Tsavong Lah for having "earned your victories by sending your troops over a rampart of our own dead!" and the Galactic Alliance estimates that nearly a third of the warrior caste has been destroyed by that part. |
| 545 | ** Played with in that while "charging full-tilt at the enemy with amphistaffs raised" may be the Vong's ''favorite'' tactic, but that doesn't mean it's all they're capable of doing. They're actually quite canny if the situation warrants it. |
| 546 | ** Especially early on, they're shown to be remarkably adept in all aspects of warfare, including political and psychological, to the point where one of their favorite sayings translates as "Weaken the hinges of the enemy's fort." |
| 547 | ---- |
| 548 | -->''"Sith? Jedi? Are these the only choices? Dark or light, good or evil? Is there no more to the Force than this? What is the screen on which light and dark cast their shapes and shadows? Where is the ground on which stands good and evil?"'' |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Literature / NewJediOrder
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
