History Literature / TheThrawnTrilogy

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance:
** Averted as much as is possible for ''Franchise/StarWars'': realizing that the galaxy has over a ''million'' inhabited worlds, Zahn (unlike some other ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' writers) doesn't recycle locations from the films without good reason. And at those times when the heroes know they need to find something on an unfamiliar world, they don't act like knowing what planet it's on will make things easy. Planets are ''big''.
** He also realize that a light-year is an enormous distance; when Luke's X-Wing is determined to be somewhere within a light-year of Thrawn's Star Destroyer, Thrawn hires mercenaries to find it since it would take too long to search for themselves. Just because hyperdrive allows ''traveling'' along such a distance very rapidly doesn't mean that finding a 40-foot ship in a cubic light year is an easy prospect.
** Zahn also employs a notable {{Retcon}} to correct one particularly egregious instance of this trope from the original series. When Luke returns to Dagobah to search the old site of Yoda's hut, he finds (to his surprise) that he has absolutely no problem landing on the planet this time, and wonders if he originally crashed on Dagobah in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' because Yoda intentionally pulled his X-Wing to the surface with the Force. For confused fans, this finally explains how Luke managed to "accidentally" stumble upon Yoda's dwelling when he had never even been to Dagobah before: Yoda sensed his presence and guided him there.
* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfUnits:
** Played straight in the numbers of ships aspect, which was apparent in the original trilogy. For the size of the galaxy, the 200 ship strong ''Katana'' ''Dreadnaught''-class Heavy Cruiser fleet should barely be considered a ''picket'' force, much less one that could turn the tables in a galaxy spanning war. Later sources clarify that at this point, the Republic and the Empire are almost perfectly matched in terms of materiel. The ''Katana'' fleet might not be much, but it's just enough to free up some other ships that are needed elsewhere, [[UnstableEquilibrium which will gradually lead to a snowballing effect and an insurmountable advantage]].
** Also, while bringing roughly 180 of the ''Katana'' fleet ships into his service did allow Thrawn to go more heavily on the offensive, it didn't ''decisively'' change the balance of power. Just tipped the scales slightly in the Empire's favor.

* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: ''Dark Force Rising'' - Creator/HarrisonFord is about to shoot you while Creator/MarkHamill is about to lightsaber you.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the ''Katana'' fleet?

*** And on top of that, FromACertainPointOfView she ''does'' briefly kneel before him... [[spoiler:in the process of stabbing him to death with a lightsaber.]]

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Thrawn, at least by this point, is not a good person: he has absolutely no qualms about betraying Mara to get to Karrde in ''Dark Force Rising'', kidnapping someone's children and delivering them to be corrupted by an AxCrazy clone, and his military strategy involves growing his own [[CloningBlues slave soldiers by the thousands]] and throwing them at the Republic. But unlike most imperials, he's not a CardCarryingVillain. There is also a practical reason for this in that by the time the Thrawn trilogy took place the Empire no longer [[WeHaveReserves had endless reserves]] of beings and equipment, meaning the Empire could not recklessly throw away the lives of its soldiers.

* CloningBlues:
** Poor [[spoiler:Luuke]].
** One of the goodies in the Emperor's Vault on Wayland is a collection of "Spaarti" cloning tanks that can brew up a clone trooper in a tenth of a time Kaminoan cloning facilities can.[[note]]This isn't an "alternative technique", at the time the novels were written this was how clones were created, before ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' completely {{retcon}}ned the circumstances of the Clone Wars.[[/note]] However, clones bred that fast go crazy because the Force resonates too strongly between large groups of individuals with similar minds. [[spoiler: This is solved by having ysalamiri placed in the cloning facility to keep this resonance from forming]].

** Zahn introduces the Stokhli Spray Stick, an unconventional weapon which can both stun people and also allow one to play at being Franchise/SpiderMan. The Noghri use it when trying to capture a pregnant Leia because the stun setting on normal Star Wars blasters have a better than fifty-fifty shot of inducing a miscarriage and Thrawn wants the kids alive.

This trilogy was one of the cornerstones of the now AlternateContinuity ''Legends'', being the first major work set after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' (five years after to be exact), the first truly popular entry of the franchise since ''Return of the Jedi'', and serving as the introduction of some of the most beloved figures in ''Legends'' canon, like [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Admiral Grand Admiral]] [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mitth%27raw%27nuruodo Thrawn]], [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mara_Jade_Skywalker Mara Jade]], [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gilad_Pellaeon Gilad Pellaeon]] and [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Talon_Karrde Talon Karrde]]. Back before [[Film/TheForceAwakens the]] [[Film/TheLastJedi Sequel]] [[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker Trilogy]] was made, many fans considered these stories to be the closest thing to an ''Episode VII'', ''Episode VIII'', and ''Episode IX'' that they would ever get. Years later, these stories are still regarded highly despite showing their age in some places.

* MisfitLabRat: Karrde's top computer slicer, or hacker Zakarisz Ghent counts as one. Ghent was born a prodigy and was cracking high level Imperial codes at the age of 12.

** Although he still gets taken down a peg or two when he seizes control of all but a few of the 37,000 minds aboard the ''Chimaera'' in order to go and capture Leia's kids--and then Thrawn starts pointing out that yes, he's got a ship, but he's also got to actually ''get'' the ship to Coruscant over a minimum of five days, keeping control of the entire crew all the while, bypass Coruscant's defenses... and that's with one ship against the entire defense fleet of the capital of the Republic; he'd almost certainly need to bring along a support fleet...

** Hyperdrive speeds are quoted as "Point Three, Point Four, Point Four Five, Point Five" in increasing order of speed -- this being based on the line in the first ''Star Wars'' film that "The ''Falcon'' can push point five past lightspeed". This was based on a logarithmic scale Zahn devised where 0 was a dead stop and 1 was infinite speed. Later ''Star Wars'' material changed this to the (arguably less logical) setup that the ''lower'' the number is, the faster it is -- specifically, it's all based on the idea of 1 as the "baseline" hyperdrive speed, so the "number" of a hyperdrive became the modifier to travel time. i.e., the ''Falcon'' is about twice as fast in hyperspace as most ships.

Given the BigBad is an alien, this trilogy introduced a slightly more human Galactic Empire -- still certainly villainous, but no longer a ZeroPercentApprovalRating organization. In movie terms, it is somewhat closer to Admiral Piett and Captain Needa than Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. Thrawn himself (the aforementioned alien BigBad) was certainly a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] of the highest caliber, one whom the reader did not hesitate in respecting. The trilogy also reflected the RealLife movement into the Information Age, with Thrawn (and Karrde opposite him) being able to [[HyperAwareness connect esoteric and obscure bits of data together into a much larger picture]]. Thrawn in particular was able to practice an [[SherlockScan almost obscene version of psychoanalysis]] on people and cultures by studying their artwork, using it to identify weaknesses in their thinking or perception patterns, and then exploiting said weaknesses in devastating ways. The trilogy, as implied by its name, concerns the adventures of the New Republic, particularly Luke, Han and Leia, to deal with Thrawn's plans, leadership and genius.

Given the BigBad is an alien, this trilogy introduced a slightly more human Galactic Empire -- still certainly villainous, but no longer a ZeroPercentApprovalRating organization. In movie terms, it is somewhat closer to Admiral Piett and Captain Needa than Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. Thrawn himself (the aforementioned alien BigBad) was certainly a MagnificentBastard of the highest caliber, one whom the reader did not hesitate in respecting. The trilogy also reflected the RealLife movement into the Information Age, with Thrawn (and Karrde opposite him) being able to [[HyperAwareness connect esoteric and obscure bits of data together into a much larger picture]]. Thrawn in particular was able to practice an [[SherlockScan almost obscene version of psychoanalysis]] on people and cultures by studying their artwork, using it to identify weaknesses in their thinking or perception patterns, and then exploiting said weaknesses in devastating ways. The trilogy, as implied by its name, concerns the adventures of the New Republic, particularly Luke, Han and Leia, to deal with Thrawn's plans, leadership and genius.

[[caption-width-right:350:The covers for this trilogy were designed by the same man who did the posters for the Original Trilogy. [[DoingItForTheArt Gotta love that]].]]

* SpannerInTheWorks: In ''The Last Command'', the New Republic tries a double bluff to make the Empire think they're going after the crystal gravfield trap at Tangrene when they're actually going after the one at Bilbringi. Thrawn sees through it, and ''would'' have beat the Republic forces at Bilbringi... except the Republic accidentally succeeded in fooling ''Karrde's Smugglers' Alliance'', who think because the Republic is going to Tangrene, they can try for the one at Bilbringi, and they end up in a position where they can open up a second front in the battle.

* TooCleverByHalf: Thrawn slips into this at times. Several of his mistakes actually come from assuming his enemies are smarter than they are, and that they are making moves against him that in reality they didn't even think of. Possibly the best example is when he concludes that Leia took the ''Millenium Falcon'' to Endor in search of something from the wreckage of the second Death Star for information that she believes the Emperor may have had with him when he died, like the location of the Mount Tantiss cloning facility. Leia and the New Republic had no idea Mount Tantiss even existed, let alone that it was critical to Thrawn's plans and that they really should be looking for it. In ''The Last Command'', Wedge subtly lampshades this by noting that overestimating your opponents can be just as dangerous as underestimating them, and Thrawn's ultimate downfall is basically the result of several unrelated over- and underestimations of his opponents all coming to a head simultaneously.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** [[MemeticMutation Internet memes]] were still a few years away from developing, but upon running into a huge fleet of warships set in ambush by Thrawn, Admiral Ackbar observes that "[[CaptainObvious it appears to be a trap]]". And again, in the first book, Han says his smuggler contacts are unwilling to work for the New Republic because they suspect a trap. Admiral Ackbar, on the New Republic's ruling council, wryly says "Because of me, no doubt." [[MakesSenseInContext It makes sense in-universe]], since Ackbar's species has gotten a reputation for being hard on smugglers.
** Early in the second book, Luke's looking through Imperial records and annoyed at how they, and the Old Republic before them, kept on setting up a new YearZero, hoping the New Republic wouldn't do anything like that. They ultimately did, with the Battle of Yavin (that is, the original movie) being classified in-universe and out as the new YearZero. Prior to this in-universe change, the out-of-universe YearZero was the Battle of Endor (that is, the third movie); novels would have a note at the beginning of how many years after Endor they took place. This made sense because prior to the prequel movies, almost all EU stories were post-Endor.
** Also this bit in book 3, in light of the rocket boosters Artoo used in ''Attack of the Clones'':
--->'''Threepio:''' Excuse me, sir, does [having to go on foot] also apply to Artoo and me?\\
'''Han:''' Unless you've learned how to fly.

This trilogy was one of the cornerstones of the now non-canon ''Legends'', being the first major work set after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' (five years after to be exact), the first truly popular entry of the franchise since ''Return of the Jedi'', and serving as the introduction of some of the most beloved figures in ''Legends'' canon, like [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Admiral Grand Admiral]] [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mitth%27raw%27nuruodo Thrawn]], [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mara_Jade_Skywalker Mara Jade]], [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gilad_Pellaeon Gilad Pellaeon]] and [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Talon_Karrde Talon Karrde]]. Back before [[Film/TheForceAwakens the]] [[Film/TheLastJedi Sequel]] [[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker Trilogy]] was made, many fans considered these stories to be the closest thing to an ''Episode VII'', ''Episode VIII'', and ''Episode IX'' that they would ever get. Years later, these stories are still regarded highly despite showing their age in some places.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Jorus and Joruus C'baoth. "Jorus" is pretty easy, simply "Jor-us." "Joruus" has alternately been pronounced "Jor-oos" and "Jor-oo-us." "C'baoth" has alternately been pronounced "Sah-bowth" and "Sah-bay-oth" (according to Zahn, the latter is correct). To a lesser extent, Karrde's smuggler aquaintance Mazzic, alternately pronounced "Mah-zeek" and "Mah-zik."

** Thrawn gleans details about a species' psychology from the arts of work they create, and even about an individual's psychology from the works of art they collect, and uses this knowledge to discern weaknesses and predict behaviors with uncanny accuracy.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Prompted by a Force suggestion from Mara, Leia surrenders to the Imperial commandos attempting to kidnap her and the twins early in ''The Last Command''. Once the shooting stops, Mara is able to come in behind the commandos and gun them down without getting herself caught in the crossfire.