Line #19 Literature/OutboundFlight


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Outbound_Flight_SotG.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:330: Six Dreadnaughts around a central core; a Jedi-led mission to explore the unknown regions of this galaxy, then strike out for the next one. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong]]
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4	''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Outbound_Flight_%28novel%29 Outbound Flight]]'' is a ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' novel by Creator/TimothyZahn. ''Survivor's Quest'' is also included on this page.
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6	Somewhere between ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' and ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', a ship carrying three Corellian traders has a hyperdrive malfunction and ends up far outside of Republic space. They are taken into the custody of Commander [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mitth%27raw%27nuruodo/Legends Mitth'raw'nuruodo]] of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, and from them he learns how to speak Basic and about the Republic, potentially a threat to his people. Thrawn is currently testing/fighting an entirely different set of aliens, the Vagaari.
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8	At the same time, the domineering Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth seeks to approve Outbound Flight, an ambitious expeditionary project that sent a mission of six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights and 50,000 men, women and children beyond the borders of the Galactic Republic into the Unknown Regions where they hoped to pierce the edge of the galaxy and seek out extragalactic life. Unwittingly with a little help from [[BigBad Darth Sidious]], who is all too happy to get as many Jedi out of the way as possible, he succeeds and they launch.
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10	Sidious's agent, Kinman Doriana, is sent with a Trade Federation battle fleet to intercept and destroy Outbound Flight some time after they leave Republic space. They encounter Commander Thrawn, who [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] them despite having a much smaller force, and captures the survivors, including droids. Doriana gets Thrawn in contact with Darth Sidious, who tries to convince him that Outbound Flight is a threat to the Chiss. Thrawn is cautious, but when Outbound Flight shows up and Thrawn uses it to destroy the Vagaari forces, C'baoth screws up everything and Outbound Flight is destroyed. Fifty-seven people and one Jedi survive, and Thrawn's brother aids this Jedi in a HeroicSacrifice, causing Outbound Flight to crash in such a way that the survivors keep surviving, to no one's knowledge.
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12	Forty-seven years later comes ''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor%27s_Quest Survivor's Quest]]'', set between the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology and the Literature/NewJediOrder. Newlyweds Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade are contacted by the [[Literature/HandOfThrawn Empire of the Hand]] with a message from the Chiss, who invite them as New Republic representatives to come visit the wreckage of Outbound Flight, and reclaim the remains. They feel responsible for that rogue Commander's actions. Things are complicated when they are accompanied by a faux New Republic ambassador with his own agenda, and when the pair find that representatives from the Empire of the Hand, Commander Chak Fel and four stormtroopers of the Five-Oh-First, were sent along as their escort. Things are complicated more when some aliens show up claiming that the Jedi of Outbound Flight saved them from the Vagaari, and they want to pay their respects.
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14	Things are complicated the most when everyone arrives to discover that there were survivors, who left descendants. They don't like Jedi at all. And the Vagaari are back.
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16	The novels were published in AnachronicOrder; readers who picked up on the clues left in the wreckage and hints in the dialogue in ''Survivor's Quest'' in 2004 had to wait until 2006 for ''Outbound Flight'' to connect the dots.
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18	Both novels have a Zahn short story included in the paperback edition. ''Outbound Flight'' has "[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mist_Encounter Mist Encounter]]", about how the exiled Thrawn came into Imperial service; it was originally published in the Star Wars Adventure Journal. ''Survivor's Quest'' has "[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fool%27s_Bargain Fool's Bargain]]", about the Empire of the Hand's [[BadassArmy 501st]] before the events of the novel.
19	----
20	!!These books provide examples of:
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22	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: How Dean Jinzler saw his always-absent Jedi sister. And how said Jedi sister felt when she saw her master praising Anakin.
23	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted, neither the Chiss nor the Vagaari speak Galactic Basic, forcing the characters to use a more local language instead. By the time Outbound Flight shows up, Thrawn ''has'' learned Basic, which clues C'baoth in that something funny is going on.
24	* ArcWelding: While ''Outbound Flight'' is the earliest chronological entry in the Thrawn storyline, Zahn also weaves in threads from Greg Bear's ''Rogue Planet'' and the ''New Jedi Order'' series.
25	* AttackAttackAttack: The downfall of that Trade Federation taskforce. They were a fairly large taskforce, a tiny alien force showed up and asked who they were and what they were doing so close to Chiss space, and then they attacked the alien force. [[TemptingFate What could this Mitth'raw'nuruodo do to them, anyway?]]
26	--> '''Mara Jade (in ''[[Literature/HandOfThrawn Vision of the Future]]'')''': So... just how badly did Thrawn slaughter them?
27	* AttackItsWeakPoint: Thrawn finds weak points in all of the larger Trade Federation ships.
28	* AuthorityInNameOnly: Outbound Flight's military commander, Captain Pakmillu, is increasingly sidelined as C'baoth exerts total authority, and after a certain point he doesn't even appear anymore, even for important matters like the parlay with Thrawn.
29	* BadassCrew: The four 501st stormtroopers in Survivor's Quest. They are ''awesome''.
30	* BatmanGambit:
31	** How Thrawn handles the Vagaari.
32	** Also, Kinman Doriana is told to kill Thrawn so that no word will get back about what happened to Outbound Flight. He almost does, but at the last minute thinks "Mitth'raw'nuruodo, brilliant tactician. Equally brilliant strategist. A being who could take on Republic warships, nomadic pirates, and even Jedi, and win against them all. And Doriana was actually considering ''killing'' him?"
33	--->'''Doriana''': ''(puts blaster down)'' Don't be absurd, Vicelord. I would sooner shatter a thousand-year-old crystal as kill a being such as this.\
34	'''Thrawn''': So I was indeed right about you.
35	** Formbi would ''never'' violate his people's principle of never striking first. However, if he were to dangle a tempting prize in front of known enemies, throw in some ObfuscatingStupidity and a couple of wild cards in the form of Luke and Mara, and let the enemies take the initiative...
36	* BeeAfraid: Schostri, black-and-yellow insects that the Vaagari have at their disposal, and kill people by stinging them. Apparently the results are incredibly painful.
37	* BestServedCold: The Vagaari wait ''fifty years'' for a shot at revenge at the Chiss.
38	* BittersweetEnding: ''Outbound Flight'' has either this or a DownerEnding, from a certain point of view.
39	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Chiss (except Thrawn) have a strong moral objection to the idea of pre-emptive strikes, and Luke offends Formbi at one point by implying that they only refrain from them for pragmatic reasons, showing how seriously they take it. There are also indications from General Drask that once battle is joined Chiss offer no quarter, perhaps another reason why they are so intent on never striking first.
40	* BoldExplorer: The story concerns an attempt by the Galactic Republic to mount an extragalactic expedition. Due in large part to the arrogance of the expedition's Jedi commander (though diplomatic sabotage by Darth Sidious was also involved), this expedition ran badly afoul of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force and was destroyed by Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
41	* BystanderSyndrome: C'Baoth gets as far as he did in dominating Outbound Flight despite not having the actual authority he's asserting because everyone knuckles under his domineering personality. This was starting to crack and people willing to stand up to him were beginning to come forward, but the project entered Chiss space before anyone could properly have it out with him.
42	* CallBack: There are calls back and [[CallForward forwards]] between the two books, of course. ''Survivor's Quest'' also has the young Force-Sensitive Evlyn. She wants to go with Luke while he's about to do something dangerous, and something about her eagerness and frustration reminds him of him on the first Death Star, when Obi-Wan went alone and to his death. Luke's spent a lot of sleepless nights fervently wondering if Obi-Wan would have lived if Luke had gone with him. Logic says he shouldn't take her, but his instincts say he should. And he does.
43	* ChekhovsGun: Luke and Mara find Lorana's lightsaber while exploring, and hold onto it during the final fight.
44	* ChekhovsSkill: In a way. The captured Trade Federation techs are ordered to program the remaining droid starfighters according to Thrawn's plan, and the captured Federation commander puts in a second layer so that he can take over. Thrawn has the second layer removed and casually drops that fact later, but thanks the commander for showing him this second programming layer, which he uses in a {{plan}}.
45	* TheChessmaster: Thrawn was this from the beginning of his career. Palpatine is a less prominent version, at least in this story. Judging by Formbi, it seems to be genetic (assuming that Thrawn isn't playing TheManBehindTheMan...)
46	** Jorus C'baoth wants to get Outbound Flight approved. Palpatine wants this so he can destroy Outbound Flight and get rid of eighteen Jedi quickly, but he doesn't just want to jam it down the Senate's throat, not yet. As Palpatine, he sends C'baoth to resolve a dispute. As Sidious, he sends an operative to build up and supply some fanatics on one side of this dispute, giving them a missile that's supposed to track down where the people meeting for the dispute. The missile is sent, C'baoth intercepts it, and then, while everyone is thoroughly shaken up, C'Baoth slams down a compromise that makes him look like a hero, giving him the political clout for Outbound Flight's approval.
47	* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler:Estosh]], the leader of the Vagaari in ''Survivor's Quest'' appears to be the youngest. Whether he is or just short even by their standards isn't clear.
48	* CloningGambit: Sort of. Jorus C'baoth dies, but from Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy we know that Palpatine decides he can still make good use of those genes. [[CallForward And, in Outbound Flight, it's mentioned that before they leave every member of the crew is given a thorough medical exam...]]
49	* ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory: Mara thinks this is might be the case with Dean Jinzler, since he's already proven to be lying about a few things and now claims he had a sister on the ''Outbound Flight'' who was a Jedi. The readers see that nope, that part is on the level.
50	* CreatorCameo: The Japanese cover for ''Outbound Flight'' makes Jorj Car'das look very similar to a young Creator/GeorgeLucas.
51	* CurbStompBattle: One room full of about thirty Vagaari versus two Stormtroopers. The troopers win.
52	* DivideAndConquer: Ultimately how Thrawn handles both the Vagaari and Outbound Flight, though he seems to regret that the GenghisGambit didn't work out.
53	* DontShootTheMessage: In-universe example: C'baoth leaves Thrawn with a very bad impression of the Jedi, which combined with them being [[OutsideContextProblem wholly alien to the Chiss]], seems to lead in future to consistently underestimating Jedi in general and C'Baoth in particular.
54	* DracoInLeatherPants: There's kind of an in-universe example, with [[WideEyedIdealist Ferasi]] always seeing Thrawn as completely noble and honorable. He's a morally complex character and nothing like a CardCarryingVillain, but he's still not what she thinks.
55	** Although oddly for a Zahn book, we're never actually shown Ferasi's point of view; the only female POV given is Lorana Jinzler. Every main observation about Thrawn comes from Kinman Doriana and Jorj Car'das (with one small section from Jedi Jinzler's point of view); the only one who sees Ferasi and Thrawn interact is Car'das, and Car'das could be imagining things. [[HoYay Or projecting his own positive opinions of Thrawn onto Ferasi]].
56	* TheDreaded: Noted about Imperial Stormtroopers, and why the Empire of the Hand retains them; the intimidation factor of a horde of Stormtroopers does a lot in convincing people to surrender.
57	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Bearsh]] is the leader of the Vagaari troops on the ground in ''Survivor's Quest'', but he's killed off along with a bunch of troops without any focus, Luke and Mara just finding his corpse after it's happened.
58	* EurekaMoment: Mara gets a sense that something is wrong when she sees the second of two transmissions from the Geroon ship, but doesn't realise it until later, when Luke makes an innocous comment about playing a game: [[spoiler:the children playing in the background did the exact same actions twice, showing they're just a backdrop recording hiding something]].
59	* EveryoneHasStandards: Uliar is a colossal jerkass, with a manic hatred for anything that remotely ''looks'' like a Jedi, but even he finds one of the other councilor's paranoid ramblings too much, and tells him to shut up.
60	** C'baoth is a tyrannical control freak straddling the very edge between the light and dark side by the end of the story, but he still finds the Vagaari absolutely abhorrent when he gets a look at their living shield war ships.
61	* EvilGloating: [[spoiler:Estosh]] begins a typical villain rant at the climax of ''Survivor's Quest''. Neither Luke or the narration bother paying attention, only cutting back in when he's wrapping up.
62	* EvilMentor: Jorus C'baoth to fourteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker. C'baoth likes Anakin, and Anakin thinks C'baoth is awesome because he doesn't try to appease people, he just gets things ''done'', unlike Obi-Wan or most of the other Jedi. There are clear parallels between this and Joruus C'baoth to Luke.
63	* {{Expy}}: The crew of the light freighter ''Bargain Hunter'' are a cynical smuggler, his idealist female love interest, and a callow but intelligent youth. Basically, they're darker versions of Han, Leia, and Luke.
64	* ExtremeDoormat: Lorana Jinzler, mainly because she's C'baoth's apprentice and he's never happy with anything. He repeatedly forces his decisions upon her and she never dares speak out against him. It isn't until he [[spoiler:tries to strangle Thrawn]] that she thinks he's turning to the Dark Side.
65	* FallenHero: C'baoth does have some good and noble deeds behind him, as well as a warmer side to him, and a goal which does have some potential, but lets himself get DrunkWithPower and picks a fight that Thrawn would have preferred to avoid, and has the capacity to win.
66	* FantasticRacism:
67	** In ''Outbound Flight'', Doriana knows about his master's kneejerk distaste for nonhumans, but he thinks that Thrawn just might be impressive enough to make Sidious overlook species. In ''Survivor's Quest'', Mara Jade is told that the stormtroopers are from the Five-Oh-First, thinks back to her time working with them as Emperor's Hand, and remembers that the Emperor's xenophobia rubbed off on them. The Empire of the Hand's 501st is not the original 501st remaining in the Imperial Remnant, but if they decided to take the name they might also have taken the attitudes. Then she and Luke discover, to their shock, that at least one of the stormtroopers ''isn't human''.
68	** Also, the Survivors of Outbound Flight almost uniformly hate and fear the Jedi, and they lock away any children who show signs of being Force-Sensitive. One of the stormtroopers--appropriately, the aforementioned non-human--is angry about this. Locking up and 'disappearing' people who hadn't done anything happened on his homeworld, before the Empire of the Hand came. (The story "Fool's Bargain", included in the book, goes into this in further detail.)
69	* {{Foreshadowing}}: All over the place, both in Outbound Flight and Survivor's Quest (which came first, and foreshadowed the events of Outbound Flight).
70	** Early on, Barash asks about the possibility of the remains of the Flight having battle droids or destroyers on-board, despite that specific part of the Unknown Regions not having droids. It's only later, when it's far too late to matter, that Mara notes this.
71	* FrontlineGeneral:
72	** Chiss military doctrine; generals fight with the troops. Meaning Fel has to join in with the [=501st=] despite not being suited for ground assaults (he's an AcePilot).
73	** Meanwhile, the Vagaari do not practice this. Luke and Mara figure they must've been running low on troops when [[spoiler:Bearsh]] is found among the dead.
74	* TheFundamentalist: Jorus C'Baoth is the closest we've seen to a fundamentalist Jedi so far in the EU. He believes that the Jedi connection to the Force makes them superior to other beings and thus, they deserve to lead. He's confronted by some non-Jedi members of the Outbound Flight crew who call him out for his attitude and the other Jedi prepare an ad hoc trial to rein him in, but the project encounters Thrawn's forces before anything can come of it.
75	* GambitPileup: The first third or so of ''Survivor's Quest''.
76	** ''Outbound Flight'' is basically one of these between Thrawn trying to stop the Vagaari, Palpatine's minions trying to stop Outbound Flight, the Chiss leadership trying to reign in Thrawn, the Vagaari trying to expand their conquests, and C'Baoth trying to defend his control Outbound Flight from both external threats and internal resistance to his authoritarian leadership, all while Car'Das just wants to go home.
77	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: All Chiss have these.
78	* GoodIsNotSoft: Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master. Mara calls him "farmboy" because even after all this time he's still got some of that wide-eyed idealism, and always tries to spare the enemy. Once it becomes clear the Vagaari can't and won't be reasoned with, he throws his lightsaber through their troops, cutting them in half.
79	* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: No one ever learns what Thrass and Lorana did. When Luke and Mara find their remains (only identifiable as a Jedi and a Chiss by their weapons), the best theory they can conjecture is that the Jedi was defending the ship against a Chiss invader.
80	** This whole story was originally one of these. In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', Thrawn tells us that he destroyed the Outbound Flight Project and killed the original C'baoth (and his vehemence then is now explained) and in ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' Soontir Fel and Voss Parck give more details about the way Thrawn was outnumbered.
81	* GuileHero: As per usual in Zahn stories, the Jedi in ''Survivor's Quest'' use their brains as much as Force powers and lightsabers. Formbi in ''Survivor's Quest'' (and, [[AntiHero arguably Thrawn]]) also count.
82	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Jerv Riske, a former renowned bounty hunter and chief of security for the Corporate Alliance who crosses paths with the Jedi a few times and is also working to prevent any assassination or insurrection attempts during the negotiations. Given the nature of the Corporate Alliance, he might also count as a VillainOfAnotherStory, except that he doesn't appear to have stayed with them after they joined the Separatists.
83	* HeroWithBadPublicity: The Jedi aboard Outbound Flight catch a lot of heat for their increasing domination of the mission when that is due to C'Baoth's own actions. Best shown when Chas chews Lorana out for a new rule the Jedi have imposed. It's only after she responds with genuine confusion that he concedes she wasn't involved and tells her Master Ma'Ning was the one to announce the rule. When she speaks to Ma'Ning about it, he tells her the rule was made on C'Baoth insistence and asks her to talk to him about rescinding it. Near the end of the novel, Ma'Ning informs C'Baoth that the rest of the Jedi are forming a Judgement Circle over his abuse of his authority while watching crewmen assume the Jedi are all united in their desire to control the project.
84	* HeroicSacrifice: Thrass and Lorana.
85	-->'''Thrass:''' It appears we will both be giving our lives for your people.
86	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: A few examples in ''Outbound Flight'', most notably in the battle between Thrawn and the Trade Federation space force:
87	** The Hardcell-class ships get destroyed ''by their own missiles,'' thanks to some brilliant maneuvering by Thrawn. He [[AttackItsWeakPoint attacks the same weak point]] that Anakin uses in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones.''
88	** Thrawn figures out that the Vulture starfighter droids are set up to self-destruct if they lose their signal from the mothership to prevent capture. Thrawn then uses this to make an entire battleship's compliment of Vulture droids self-destruct ''while they're still inside said battleship'', resulting in said battleship's loss.
89	** The Neimodian captain [[spoiler: is killed by his own laser pistol shot bouncing off his own personal forcefield, which Thrawn reconfigured behind his back.]]
90	** Car'das [[spoiler:voluntarily allows himself to be captured by the Vagaari so that he can give the Vagaari leader a platoon of Trade Federation battle droids. He gives the Vagaari leader a computer pad with full control of the droids, which is promptly tested on some hapless slaves. The Vagaari leader is thoroughly impressed and under the impression that the droids are his personal weapons and playthings... until the battle against Outbound Flight when he discovers that Thrawn still has command over the droids' secondary communications channels.]]
91	*** [[spoiler:It's implied that either Car'das came up with this plan after a late-night conversation with Thrawn, the contents of which the reader is never directly told, despite being informed of the conversation taking place; or that Thrawn himself came up with this plan for Car'das to follow, and told him during that conversation. Car'das has enough time to think 'What in the worlds could Thrawn have had stashed aboard the shuttle?' while onboard the Vagaari ship, however, heavily suggesting that while he knew Thrawn wanted him to take that shuttle, Car'das wasn't aware of this part of the plan. By the end of the book, Thrawn and Car'das trust each other enough to use their personal names ([[FirstNameBasis Thrawn and Jorj]]), while Choices of One makes it clear that Jorj is the person Thrawn trusts most in the galaxy.]]
92	* HonorBeforeReason: The Chiss dedication to ''never'' firing first. Mara is pretty astounded by it, mentioning that most people don't hold so tightly to such beliefs when it comes down to it, but the Chiss really do.
93	* HopeSpot:
94	** Chas, Pressor and several of the other dissidents against C'baoth attempt to approach Thrawn during his parlay visit to the ships (Chas on a speeder bike, the rest on a shuttle) to prove that not everyone supports C'baoth and/or request asylum. C'baoth easily senses what they're doing through the force and uses his telekinesis to immbolize Chas and keep the shuttle door from opening (casually releasing his magic once Thrawn is gone, causing Pressor and the pilot to pour out with such force that they'd evidently been shoving pretty hard).
95	** Just before the final battle of Outbound Flight Justyn Ma'Ning calls out C'baoth for his abuses of power, and states that the other Jedi onboard are forming a Judgment Circle that will probably make him step down from the leadership role he's been exerting over the colonists. The CurbStompBattle that follows ruins any chance of that.
96	* HyperAwareness: Luke and Mara can rewind their memories to take another look at what they saw. One might wonder if Zahn would like this trick for himself, as it's [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy the second time he's featured it in his Star Wars works]].
97	* IChooseToStay:
98	** Mara is still mulling over the offer Parck gave her to join the Empire of the Hand, but in the end decides to stay with the New Republic.
99	** Dean Jinzler, figuring there's not anything waiting for him elsewhere, stays with the Outbound Flight survivors.
100	* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Thrass and Lorana.
101	* ItRunsInTheFamily:
102	** Admittedly, [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Joruus C'baoth]] was already crazy from being a flawed clone, but it's pretty easy to see where he got his, well, ''everything'' from.
103	** And like father, like son. Anakin and Luke were both fascinated by Jorus and his clone, respectively. But the clone was more obviously unhinged, and Luke has always been more good, so unlike his father, Luke rejected whatever C'baoth was trying to teach him.
104	** Pressor is hinted to have some mild force sensitivity, which gets passed down to his granddaughter.
105	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Jorus C'baoth, even before he goes off the deep end, is an utter piece of work.
106	* KickTheDog: The good old Jedi and their "no attachments" rule. When the Jinzlers turned out to have a daughter with Force sensitivity, the Jedi took her in... and the Jinzlers, who worked as lowly technicians at the Jedi Temple, were unceremoniously given their walking papers. Lorana, meanwhile, did want to know them, but with a master like C'Baoth... that wasn't happening.
107	* LastNameBasis: Early in ''Outbound Flight'', Thrawn uses Jorj Car'das's full name. Car'das tells him to use his last name, since in his culture first names are reserved for friends. Thrawn asks if Car'das doesn't consider him a friend, and Car'das sarcastically asks "Do you consider ''me'' one?" Thrawn, thoughtfully, says "No, not yet. Perhaps someday." At the end of the book, saying goodbye, Thrawn says "Farewell... [[FirstNameBasis Jorj]]."
108	* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: As of ''Survivor's Quest'', [[Literature/XWingSeries Booster Terrik's]] Star Destroyer has finally been painted red. Doesn't change the fact that it's a Star Destroyer and needs a ridiculous amount of maintenance and an enormous crew complement, and Booster can't keep it in anything like military shape.
109	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler:General Drask was not in on Formbi's plans, though being a Chiss he still managed to figure out a lot of the general details anyway. It's implied this contributes greatly to his tetchiness.]]
110	* LuredIntoATrap:
111	** Evylyn lures everyone into her uncle's turbolift traps seperately.
112	** [[spoiler:The entire plot of ''Survivor's Quest'' is the Vagaari being lured into a tactical one, so the Chiss can blast their asses into dust.]]
113	* MamaBear: Part of Rosmari's problems is the knowledge her daughter is clearly Force sensitive and will get exiled if caught. For all she doesn't want that to happen, she's not willing or able to go up against the elders.
114	* TheManBehindTheMan:
115	** In ''Survivor's Quest'', Aristocra Formbi believes that [[spoiler: the Vagaari have allied themselves with someone more powerful and dangerous]]. While it's never outright confirmed, [[spoiler: the Vagaari's pack of Wolvkils and swarms of Schostri are reminiscent of [[Literature/NewJediOrder Yuuzhan Vong]] biots. The absence of either creature during Car'das' time on Vagaari ships in ''Outbound Flight'' supports Formbi's fears, suggesting the Vagaari are being backed by the Vong to help weaken the Chiss Ascendancy in preparation for the imminent invasion.]]
116	** Then gets played with at the end of the novel as Mara believes that [[spoiler: Formbi couldn't have come up with the plan to instigate a Chiss-Vagaari war on his own. The scheme's complicated and convoluted nature goes against the Chiss' cultural and personal beliefs. It's more along the lines of something Thrawn would have cooked up. And while they [[Literature/HandOfThrawn destroyed]] the clone on Nirauan, it's possible the Grand Admiral had another clone hidden in the Unknown Regions. The drastic changes in Formbi's personality in the decades since ''Outbound Flight'' lends credence to Mara's theory]].
117	* MartialPacifist: The majority of Chiss. Thrawn is the exception.
118	* MexicanStandOff: The climax of ''Outbound Flight'': [[spoiler: a three-way battle between Thrawn's Picket Force Two, Outbound Flight and the Vagaari fleet. Thrawn naturally lets Outbound Flight and the Vagaari neutralize each other before finishing off both.]]
119	* ModernStasis: Star Wars Tech Stasis is averted here. In ''Outbound Flight'', we see that both Republic and Chiss forces think of a gravity-well generator as purely theoretical until they see one in action. Droids are unknown to the Chiss, and the Corellian traders are shocked to see that the Chiss ships can perform microjumps, very short and precise hops through hyperspace. (The last is not necessarily a technical development as it is a demonstration of the precision that is expected of Chiss astrogators.)
120	* MilitaryMaverick: Thrawn, particularly to his own people. They don't believe that preemptive strikes are [[MartialPacifist moral]], and [[LanguageEqualsThought don't have a word or phrase for the concept]]. He does them all the time. Unusually for this trope, they actually take offense to his rulebreaking and exile him after the events of ''Outbound Flight'', leading to the Empire picking up their greatest strategist.
121	* ObfuscatingStupidity: How the [[spoiler: Vagaari]] got in position in ''Survivor's Quest''. A few of the Chiss knew or at least suspected, but the others didn't.
122	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: C'baoth sees every bureaucrat as an obstructive bureaucrat, and believes that the Republic would be so much better run by Jedi.
123	* {{Omniglot}}: Thrawn learns Basic ''ridiculously'' fast.
124	* TheOnlyOne: Thrawn's tiny force of three small cruisers and seven fighters takes on two huge Trade Federation split-ring battleships and all the droid starfighters on board, six armed Techno Union ''Hardcell''-class transports, and seven escort cruisers. Without a single Chiss casualty. This is what happens when you fly remote-controlled fighters against someone who can adapt to that and find weak points in all the larger ships.
125	* PaintingTheMedium: Humans are biologically incapable of speaking Cheunh properly, shown when Car'das calls himself a fishing boat instead of a merchant. When Thrawn speaks the two words to show the difference, they are spelled exactly the same.
126	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In addition to all their other personality traits, the Vagaari are sexist, with their repeated sneering at Luke for letting a ''female'' do the talking, never mind she's slicing them and their pets up like so much wheat.
127	* {{Prequel}}: ''Survivor's Quest'' actually came out two years before ''Outbound Flight'', and they can be read in either order.
128	* PresentAbsence: Car'das is mentioned in ''Survivor's Quest'', and is the reason Jinzler gets involved in the plot, but never actually puts in an on-page appearance.
129	* PsychicStrangle: In ''Outbound Flight'' [[spoiler:Jorus C'baoth falls to the dark side and tries to kill Thrawn this way. He's stopped when Doriana hits a BigRedButton Thrawn set up earlier, triggering radiation bombs that kill C'baoth instantly along with most of the inhabitants of ''Outbound Flight''.]]
130	* PunctuationShaker: Chiss full names, with the exception of Ar'alani, always have two. Apparently they're glottal stops. Car'das mangles Thrawn's name into Mitthrawnurudo, Doriana manages to get it right, and Kav doesn't even try.
131	* RagnarokProofing: Lorana's lightsaber goes through the Flight's crash, sits in the dust for fifty years, and yet still manages to pretty much work when Luke and Mara find it. Elegant weapon indeed...
132	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: C'baoth delivers one to each side in the dispute between the Corporate Alliance and the people of Barlok, due to [[{{Understatement}} neither side covering themselves with glory]].
133	* RedOniBlueOni: Kav is the red to Doriana's blue.
134	* TheResenter: Dean Jinzler, thanks to a childhood of his parents putting Lorana the Jedi on a pedestal. He feels guilty over her disappearance, and the whole reason he gets involved is to find out one way or another what happened.
135	* ResolvedNoodleIncident: The Outbound Flight Project, which was a piece of exposition during ''Heir to the Empire'' and then further fleshed out during ''Vision of the Future", finally gets dramatized here.
136	* {{Retcon}}: ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' had just established that Jedi Knights were not allowed to fall in love, which conflicted with the lack of such rule in Luke's new Jedi order from earlier EU books. ''Survivor's Quest'' solves this, by mentioning that Yoda had told Luke about this rule offscreen during his training on Dagobah in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Ultimately, Luke decided this rule wouldn't apply in his new order.
137	* SavedByCanon: Palpatine personally intervenes to pull Anakin and Obi-Wan off ''Outbound Flight'', keeping them from getting caught up in his plan to wipe out the ship.
138	* SayingTooMuch: Here and there in ''Survivor's Quest''.
139	** Feesa, on first meeting Luke and Mara, nearly lets a few important details slip.
140	** Talking with the ''Outbound Flight'' survivors, Jinzler mentions his career as an electronics technician... except he'd been claiming to be a ''diplomat''.
141	* SecretTestOfCharacter: The dramatic incident with the rogue cable when Luke and Mara first board the Chiss vessel turns out to be one. [[spoiler:Drash wanted to see what they were made of. He's satisfied.]]
142	* SelfServingMemory: Dean Jinzler, thanks to fifty-ish years of resentment towards his dead big sister. It's only after he comes to terms with the fact she is long dead that he realizes this was all crap, and his parents did love and support him.
143	* SequelHook: At the end of ''Survivor's Quest'', Luke and Mara point out the Vagaari have managed to slither away from the Chiss before, and there's every chance some of them might have managed it this time. Adding that and their possible backers and there could be trouble. No ''Legends'' fiction showed them showing up after this, though.
144	** Additionally, Mara also speculates that Formbi's plan to begin a war with the Vagaari seemed much more like something Thrawn would have cooked up, and suggests that another clone of the admiral could be out there working behind the scenes. This also never came up again in future books.
145	* SherlockScan: Thrawn, art, [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy you know how it goes]].
146	* ShootTheDog: Thrawn, capturing ships with [[HumanShield living shields]], says that those hostages were already dead, though he does advise his gunners not take a shot they don't absolutely have to.
147	* SiblingYinYang: Downplayed with Thrawn and Thrass (although both are portrayed sympathetically). Thrawn is a military commander willing to preemptively seek out conflicts when necessary to eliminate threats. Thrass is a politician who seeks to preemptively ward off a threat by keeping the fight from breaking out by stealing and disposing of the empty Dreadnoughts the Chiss factions are longing to fight over (which also involves saving the surviving Colonsits once he discovers them).
148	* SmugSnake: The Vagaari are nowhere near the dangerous operators they like to think they are. Luke and Mara cut through their goons like cheap butter. They're also completely outplayed by the Chiss, thanks to being so overconfident in their abilities.
149	* TheSociopath: The Vagaari are basically an [[AlwaysChaoticEvil entire race of these]], each being completely self centered and [[EvilCannotComprehendGood incapable of seeing why anyone would care about someone besides themselves]].
150	* SparingTheAces: Complete with ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' reference. Sidious orders Doriana to kill Thrawn for being too dangerous, but he refuses.
151	* TestedOnHumans: When the Vagaari commander gets his hands on the droids stowed away in Car'das's stolen shuttle, one of the first things he does is test their firepower on Geroon slaves.
152	* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Vagaari have never seen a Jedi, or indeed any Force user, before. Formbi makes sure that Luke and Mara don't show off their lightsabers, so that when the time comes they have no idea how to handle them.
153	* UnreliableNarrator: A few of the sections from Car'das' point of view turn out to be lies, [[spoiler: presenting his actions as being a rebellion against Thrawn that the other manipulated him into instead of a plan he agreed to in advance.]]
154	* WastelandElder: Forty-seven years after the people of Outbound Flight are largely slaughtered while trying to colonize uncharted space, Chas Uliar, Brace Tarkosa, and Jobe Keely fill this role among the stranded survivors. They are the only remaining adult male survivors of the original tragedy who aren’t bedridden. The trio’s stubbornness and anti-Jedi biases cause some problems, but ultimately they never endanger the main characters.
155	* WhamLine:
156	** "They aren't [[spoiler:Geroons. They're Vagaari]]."
157	** And from Outbound Flight: "We have (met the Yuuzhan Vong)."
158	* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The Geroon ship in ''Survivor's Quest'' looks like a hodge-podge held together quite possibly by hope and sheer inertia. Luke even compares it to how decrepit the ''Millennium Falcon'' looked when he first saw it. And probably should've thought a little harder on that, because [[spoiler:it turns out to be hiding a nasty surprise.]]
159	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It is never revealed what happens to the crew of the ''Darkvenge'', the only surviving Trade Federation ship from Doriana's task force, after they return home [[spoiler: minus their captain, after he dies trying to kill Thrawn]].
160	* WhatOtherGalaxies: Jedi Master Jorus C'Baoth commissions an extra-galactic expedition, the Outbound Flight Project, in the last years of the Galactic Republic to seek out new life and civilizations beyond the galactic disk. Unfortunately, it ends disastrously thanks to [[BigBad Chancellor Palpatine]] who sees it as a [[{{Exploited}} nice way to get rid of some Jedi ahead of schedule]].
161	* WideEyedIdealist: Maris Ferasi.
162	* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Jorus C'baoth isn't as bad as [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy his clone]], but he's still not the stablest of beings. You can see why he and [[EvilChancellor Palpatine]] get along.
163	* XanatosSpeedChess: How Thrawn takes down the Trade Federation task force.

Context Literature / OutboundFlight