Line #32 Literature/TheCrystalStar


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_crystal_star_7755.jpg]]
2	''The Crystal Star'' is an oddity in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''. Released in TheNineties during the indecisive seeming period before the release of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', this book was the work of science-fiction author Creator/VondaNMcIntyre. She had previously written a number of books set in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'', and the influence certainly shows.
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4	In a ''Star Wars'' galaxy now populated by centaurs, "[[PhantasySpelling wyrwulfs]]" and strange creatures from other universes, ''The Crystal Star'' involves Luke and Han investigating a bizarre cult while Leia searches for her and Han's kidnapped children. There's also something about anti-Force, Han's ex-girlfriend and Imperial revivalists.
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7	!!Tropes featured in this work include:
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9	* AcademyOfEvil: Hethrir operates a Dark Side Academy on his worldcraft, seeking to train young Jedi to use the Dark Side and serve his Empire Reborn.
10	* AntiMagic: Substitute magic for the Force, and you've got the general gist of it.
11	* AntiVillain: Waru, Type II and IV. It simply wants to return to [[EldritchLocation its home]], and while it did heal people, it needed from time to time their energy to sustain itself, killing them.
12	* BigBadWannabe: Hethrir believes he has to sacrifice a baby to become this. No, seriously. [[spoiler: To be fair, the baby is Anakin Solo]].
13	* CoolShip: Hethrir commands the ''Rebirth'', effectively a mobile ''planet''. While officially a space station, it has real terrain inside, along with a miniature "sun" to mimic the effects of an actual planet.
14	* CoversAlwaysLie:
15	** Zigzagged -- the background of the cover shows Luke standing in front of what looks like the center of a spiral galaxy. Crseih Station, where the action takes place, is nowhere ''near'' the center of the galaxy. However, the "galaxy" ''also'' appears similar to the whirlpool deep within Waru's innards, with a seeming "black hole" at its core, which Luke is nearly drawn into near the end of the book before Han and Leia rescue him.
16	** The cover also depicts Han Solo as clean-shaven. Within the book, he's disguised himself by growing a beard for this mission.
17	* EldritchAbomination: Waru, a blob-shaped being covered in golden scales, who hails from another universe entirely and effectively houses a mini-dimension inside itself, letting it steal or give energy from those it absorbed. As described in the book:
18	-->"Hethrir's scientists breached the walls between dimensions and brought into existence a massive slab of meat covered with shining golden scales. Though this entity, Waru, lacked discernible sensory organs, it was highly intelligent and could communicate in a deep resonating voice."
19	* EldritchLocation: Crseih Station, an abandoned Imperial research facility which once investigates alternate dimensions and becomes the residence of its only discovery, Waru, who is central to Hethrir's plans and has a cult dedicated to his veneration.
20	* FantasticRacism: Hethrir is particularly racist against nonhumans [[InternalizedCategorism despite being one himself]].
21	* GenocideFromTheInside: Hethrir destroyed his own planet and people in an attempt to curry favor with his master.
22	* HeroicSacrifice: For all the criticism the book gets, it is often praised for its characterisation of Han at the very end of the Hethrir plot; [[spoiler: Luke and Leia have been consumed by Waru and Han realises he has to go in after them after asking Chewie to look after his family.]]
23	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Hethrir was the one who summoned Waru, so it's only fitting that in the end [[EvilIsNotAToy Waru eats him]].
24	* InNameOnly: A major criticism of this book is that it's not really very ''Star Wars''-y at all; if anything, the plot is more akin to a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' story. (Which is unsurprising, given that Vonda [=McIntyre=] had written a few ''Star Trek'' novels in the past.)
25	* MamaBear: Leia. As noted in [[http://web.archive.org/web/20100625042442/http://blogs.starwars.com/abelgpena/92 Abel G. Pena's blog]], [=McIntyre=]'s characterisation of Leia as a mother is one of the better examples in the EU.
26	* MeaningfulName: Hethrir sounds a lot like "Hitler"; Waru is apparently Japanese for "bad".
27	* PathOfInspiration: The "Cult of Waru", which mainly consists of beings coming to Waru to be healed by the energy within him. However, it's really just a facade of benevolence, as Waru willingly murders some of the believers in order to sustain himself, buying time until Hethrir can bring a Force-strong person to him who can give him enough energy to return home.
28	* PhlebotinumHandlingRequirements: Hethrir and Rillao's lightsabers lack a traditional on/off switch. Instead, igniting them requires one to use the Force to complete an internal electrical circuit. Hethrir uses the ability to do so as a test for his apprentices (and isn't above rigging it if he doesn't like the apprentice).
29	* PutOnABus: The ships containing what's left of the Firrerreos jump to hyperspace and are basically ignored by the rest of the book. ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species'' eventually established that they found asylum on the planets Belderone and Kinooine. A happy ending? [[HappyEndingOverride Not so much]]: ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Force Heretic I: Remnant]]'' gave a throwaway mention that Belderone was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who enslaved the Belderonians and rendered the Firrerreos [[BusCrash functionally extinct]] on that planet. While it seems the Kinooine settlers miraculously survived the Yuuzhan Vong, it is stated that Firrerreos have become even rarer at the time of the [[Literature/LegacyOfTheForce Second Galactic Civil War]].
30	* SeriesContinuityError:
31	** Luke's lightsaber is blue in this book. He lost said blue lightsaber in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and built a green one in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Although he got the blue one back in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', he gave it to Mara Jade.
32	** Also, because this book was written before the chronologically-earlier [[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy Callista Trilogy]]--which ended only a year before ''Crystal Star''--the early chapters in which Han ribs Luke about finding a woman and having Jedi children (even making jokes about what Obi-Wan was like in his youth) come across as rather mean-spirited even for the smuggler. (I.e., Luke is just coming off of losing Callista, [[RomanticFalseLead the woman he thought was]] the love of his life.)
33	%%* SmugSnake: The Proctors of Hethrir's academy.
34	* StarfishAlien: Waru, a gelatinous blob covered in thick golden scales and noted as matching no known grouping of beings in the universe.
35	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Almost nothing about this book is ever even referred to again by later material.
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Context Literature / TheCrystalStar