Bitter and disillusioned, Thane joins the fledgling Rebellion—putting Ciena in an unbearable position to choose between her loyalty to the Empire and her love for the man she's known since childhood. Now on opposite sides of the war, will these friends turned foes find a way to be together, or will duty tear them—and the galaxy—apart?
Lost Stars is a Star Wars Expanded Universe young adult novel written by Claudia Gray. It's part of the Journey to the Force Awakens media campaign, Lost Stars gives readers a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe. From the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire, these major moments are filtered through the eyes of two childhood friends—Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell—who have grown up to become an Imperial officer and a Rebel pilot.
The series was adapted into a manga/webcomic starting on May 4, 2017. It was licensed by Yen Press for a release date of May 1, 2018.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Thane has scars from childhood that were still visible in adulthood because of how often and harshly his father would beat him. This background makes him somewhat cynical, in contrast with Ciena, who believes the best in people because she was raised by Good Parents.
- Ace Pilot: Half the main characters—Ciena, Thane, Kendy, and Nash. They're at pilot school from ages 16 to 19, so…
- Been There, Shaped History: Thane and Ciena were at numerous key points during the Galactic Civil War from the Battle of Yavin, to the Battle of Jakku, in some cases being present during major scenes. Thane, for example, was one of the scouts at Dantooine and after defecting, was one of the snowspeeder pilots on Hoth. Ciena helped Piett and his men sabotage the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive and also picked up Lord Vader's TIE fighter.
- Berserk Button: Bringing up Alderaan and stating its destruction was unnecessary is guaranteed to stir up Nash's ire. Similarly, Nash goes ballistic when he finds out Thane is a Rebel. Ciena finds this peculiar because up until this point she hadn't realized that Nash had dealt with Alderaan's destruction by doubling down on his fanaticism towards the Empire, justifying the destruction of his homeworld and family by believing anything they did was worth a utopian future and anyone who fought them was scum beyond compare.
- Benevolent Boss: Piett is this during the story, with him kindly reminding Ciena that he just got promoted to Admiral after Vader Force Choked Ozzell for jumping out of hyperspace too early and close to the Hoth system. He also discreetly thanks Ciena for following orders during the dogfight at the Hudalla System despite her letting Thane escape.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ciena and Thane are reunited, but she's a prisoner of the New Republic with possible war crimes trials for her actions—albeit with the chance that freedom may come sooner than she thinks. The Empire is also rebuilding in the Unknown Regions.
- Black-and-White Morality: The book still has the traditional Star Wars treatment, but has a Downplayed Trope example of the trope. The Imperials are, by and large, good people who are being unwittingly taken in by a terrible system that rationalizes evil actions until they become normal.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Nash develops a case of this after the destruction of Alderaan.
- Break the Cutie: By the end of the book Ciena is a jaded cynic, and her early idealism is completely destroyed.
- Broken Pedestal: Nash has always wanted to meet Princess Leia. After it turns out she's a rebel involved in stealing the Death Star plans, Nash's opinion of her is greatly reduced, the first of a snowball effect that leads into his Black-and-White Insanity.
- Bully Hunter: Thane hates bullies, mainly because his father and older brother were both bullies. In fact, he and Ciena become friends because Thane charges a bunch of kids bullying Ciena when she tries to sneak a look at Tarkin's shuttle. It also ultimately leads to his decision to defect from the Empire and join the Rebel Alliance.
- Call-Forward: Ciena's Star Destroyer, the Inflictor, is the crashed Star Destroyer seen on Jakku in The Force Awakens.
- The Cameo: In the manga adaptation, the main characters from Rogue One are shown from the back in an exposition scene.
- Cannon Fodder: Post-Endor, the Empire is so desperate to make up its losses to the Rebel Alliance/New Republic that it is throwing anybody it can into the fight. For example, Ciena is given command of a Star Destroyer at the age of 25. She realizes what this means; the only reason she has the command is because the Empire is simply desperate for competent officers to replace the ones killed or captured.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Ciena and Thane. They meet when they're little 8-year-old ship nerds. They fall in love a decade later.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Claudia Gray says many of the characters were modeled off of real world actors. Ciena Ree is a young Gugu Mbatha Raw, Paron Ree is Lennie James, Ved Foslo is Harry Shum, Jr., Kendy Idele is Parminder Nagra, and the Contessa is Michelle Yeoh. In a Hilarious In Hindsight moment, a few weeks after the book was released, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was cast in The Last Jedi (though she ended up casting out).
- Civil War: This book makes it clear that the Rebellion is one, and you end up with friends on opposite sides.
- Code of Honour: The valley kindred on Jelucan live by a strict set of principles mandating they never break promises, stand with those whom they believe have been falsely accused and undergo rituals for mourning.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Nash undergoes a transformation from an easygoing idealist to a brutal and ruthless fascist over the course of the book.
- Crapsack World: After Thane and Ciena leave Jelucan, each return they make to it has the planet in an even shittier situation than when they last saw it. And it wasn't a terribly pleasant place even before the Empire came. Before, it was just a podunk planet, with hard living for the first colonists who faced prejudice from the better-off second wave—but still not a terrible place to live. The last time Ciena sees it, when her mother is framed by the Empire for embezzlement, it's unrecognizable to her, covered in smog and filled with decay in the streets. Even by the end of the story, it's still under Imperial control.
- Culture Clash: Thane and Ciena come from two very different backgrounds. They also join sides which interfere with their beliefs.
- The Cynic: Thane thinks everyone is out for themselves and all governments are innately corrupt. It makes him the odd man out in the Rebel Alliance, which is a peppy, idealistic, band of do-gooders.
- Death Faked for You: Ciena tells her superiors that Thane had committed suicide out of grief over the destruction of the First Death Star rather than report his desertion, and says he did so in a way that would guarantee his body was eaten by scavengers. Thus any attempt by the ISB to prove she was lying would be futile, so long as Thane had enough sense to get off their homeworld.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The valley kindred on Jelucan, the first Human settlers there, have the looks of real world Black people and are fairly poor. Second-wavers, on the other hand, are described as looking like White people and have more affluence. They also have distinct cultures, both causing prejudices toward each other, though milder than most actual racism between Black and White groups.
- Face–Heel Turn: Nash Windrider is a decent enough man at the beginning, but the destruction of Alderaan drives him to full-on Black-and-White Insanity.
- Fate Worse than Death: Ciena starts to consider Imperial service this as well as a Ironic Hell due to how evil they've become. Her code of honor prevents her from ever stopping serving it.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: A downplayed example. Thane works for the Rebellion with Luke Skywalker living just down the hall, but continues to believe the Force is ridiculous nonsense. Doubly so with so many people in living memory who knew the Jedi. Also, despite the staggering amount of really weird happenstances that keep bringing him and Ciena back together. However, he's never shown as seeing any hard evidence (Luke doesn't appear on page in the book nor apparently use his powers where Thane can see, and witnesses don't interact with him), thus his view seems more reasonable at first, since he just hears people state their belief in the Force. In the end, he comes around to believing it's real from the aforementioned happenstances just becoming too much for explaining as being coincidences.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ciena's friend Berisse Sai is an Imperial officer from Lothal with somewhat similar views to Nash, but less outwardly fanatical. And she graduated from the Lothal Imperial Academy one year before Ciena graduated from the Royal Imperial Academy.
- Thane and Corona Squadron spend most of the year between the Battles of Hoth and Endor scouting out various planets. One of them is D'Qar, which is discussed as being a good potential base location.
- At the end of the book the Empire and the New Republic have signed an official peace treaty, but in secret facilities and bases in a nebula the Imperial Navy is secretly being rebuilt away from the prying eyes of the New Republic and plans are being drawn up for the next war...
- Frame-Up: Ciena's mother is framed for embezzling money from the mine on Jelucan, though her strict code of honor would make it unthinkable. Though the actual culprit is unknown, it's most likely an Imperial official with connections who made her into the scapegoat for their own crime.
- Friendly Enemy: What Ciena and Thane morph into. The problem is that neither of their sides is particularly okay with this.
- Genre Blindness:
- Ciena has a lot of this toward the Empire's callous brutality and shocking For the Evulz.
- Thane, by contrast, mentally filters out just about everything which makes the Rebel Alliance an idealistic band of heroes out to save the galaxy. It takes a long time for him to realize they're actually as good as they say.
- Going Down with the Ship: Ciena tries to do this after the Rebels board her Star Destroyer and have sabotaged it's self-destruct mechanism in hopes of taking the vessel. She's required to prevent this, and knows that doing so while surviving would never be justified in the Empire's eyes (i.e. she'd be shot). Flying it into Jakku will accomplish this, plus be a means of suicide, as she's in despair over serving a government she knows is evil but feels duty-bound not to betray. Thane prevents her from doing so.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Thane Kyrell, of course, ever since the Death Star reduced Alderaan to smithereens, eventually deserting his post in the Imperial Navy and defecting to the Rebels.
- Kendy Idele also mutinied with most of her unit against the Empire on Miriatin, with the survivors joining the Rebel Alliance.
- Heel Realization:
- Alderaan causes this for a lot of characters in the book, Thane being the biggest one.
- Ciena holds onto her Genre Blindness right up until she sees the Emperor and senses, essentially, that he's a Humanoid Abomination.
- Hollywood Atheist: Zigzagged with Thane. He's initially a cynical atheist who disbelieves in the Force, an afterlife or any spiritual things generally, certain people are fundamentally self-interested (to him, the Rebels are just less bad than the Empire, rather than virtuous). However, he is still a nice guy and slowly learns he's wrong on all these things, which Thane easily accepts.
- Honor Before Reason:
- The defining characteristic of the valley culture of Jelucan; originally they were settlers who fled another world when their monarch was overthrown and they refused to swear allegiance to the new government. They place a massive emphasis on never violating an oath, even if it may be morally wrong not to do so. Ciena believes in this so strongly that it takes her years to realizes the Empire is evil, even Alderaan doesn't completely shock her out of it. Even after she comes to that realization she continues to serve it as best she can; although she feels miserable about doing so.
- Thane is the one person who shows up to support Ciena's family when her mother is framed for embezzlement. Years of Imperial rule and oaths have made all of her family's friends, those they stood by in their times of crisis, unwilling and afraid to openly support anyone the Empire has branded as a criminal. Thane is an outsider and a member of the Rebellion, and Ciena swore she'd turn him in if she ever saw him again. But he shows up just the same and Ciena can't bring herself to turn him away. His squadron thinks he's an absolute nutter for doing it, but he doesn't back down.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- Ciena has a major case of this regarding the Imperial higher-ups. She always thinks the best of them and their motivations, even when it becomes abundantly obvious most of them are only out for themselves or sadistic bullies.
- Nash believes that Ciena is a loyal, willing Imperial officer like him, never realizing she hates serving them but feels she has no choice. He also never figures out she's in love with Thane, even after she goes out of her way to save him during a dogfight. May be a case of Selective Obliviousness given his feelings for her and his hatred of Thane.
- Thane believes his fellow rebels are only fighting for revenge against the Empire, or in the case of rebel leaders like Leia and Mon Mothma, because they want to take over the galaxy for themselves. It takes years of fighting alongside them before he realizes that the Rebellion actually practices what it preaches, and really does want to make the galaxy a better place.
- Hotter and Sexier: The manga adaptation depicts several young male characters as pretty boys, female characters (especially Ciena and Jude) have some generous Male Gaze and even partial nudity when Ciena is taking a shower.
- Hourglass Plot: At the beginning of the story, Ciena is the idealist out to follow her values to forge a better galaxy, and Thane is the cynic turned bitter and wary of the world by his upbringing. By the end, their paths in life have left Ciena depressed, disillusioned with her beliefs and completely empty and useless inside, whereas Thane has found true trust in the world around him and a belief in ideals and right thinking that he never trusted before. At the close of the story, Thane is the one convincing Ciena that the world can be better than it seems, albeit with the promise that he'll make it that way if it doesn't comply.
- Humanoid Abomination: Ciena senses something about Vader and Palpatine (latent Force-sensitivity?) which is manifestly wrong and horrifyingly evil. This is particularly the case with Palpatine, the more evil of the two. Just seeing him from a distance nearly makes Ciena sick to her stomach.
- Hypocrite: Ciena unwittingly becomes this as she continually focuses on her loyalty to the Empire, while becoming disgusted with Nash for doing the same. Ciena's own rationalizations about why to continue to serve the Empire despite it personally destroying her life aren't so different from Nash's.
- I Gave My Word: Ciena won't break her oath of loyalty to the Empire, even when concluding it's evil, because her culture holds any promise sacrosanct. She continues to serve reluctantly. Previously, her father had the same attitude even after the Empire wrongly convicts his wife (Ciena's mother) of embezzlement on false evidence and she gets seven years at hard labor. Ciena explains the principle to Thane, saying if a promise were always easy to keep this wouldn't be worth anything.
- Improbable Age: After spending months in the hospital following the Battle of Endor, Ciena is given command of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer despite being only 25 years old. Justified: This tells her just how bad a shape the Imperial Navy is in.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Combined with Sanity Slippage for Nash Windrider. No one actually expects him to remain loyal to the Empire, but because the Empire is all he has left, he contorts his brain into a pretzel to make not only Alderaan's destruction justified but a moral sacrifice for the greater good. It makes him a terrifyingly loyal Imperial.
- A lesser example is Ciena justifying Alderaan's destruction as a preventative measure to save the lives of billions, an action done with only the greatest regret and with deepest sadness. It falls apart when she sees the Empire built a second Death Star.
- Interrupted Suicide: Ciena tries to kill herself by flying her Star Destroyer into Jakku. Thane prevents her from doing it.
- Irony:
- The book starts with Thane being the cynic and Ciena being the idealist. By the end of the book, these positions are reversed.
- The most brutal die-hard fanatical Imperial is the one from Alderaan.
- The spiritual, poor, honorable, heroic idealist is loyal to the Empire; while the atheist, cynical rich boy is the Rebel soldier.
- Kangaroo Court: The Imperial courts no longer even permit citizens accused of crimes against the Empire to have a lawyer or put up a defense. Ciena's mother therefore is quickly convicted with evidence which she mentally notes could be easily faked (a good defense attorney could show this, but...).
- Karma Houdini: Nash is an interesting case as he never does anything bad except have repellent beliefs, which are very likely him trying to keep himself from going crazy. He ends up in a cushy position in the Empire with a fast-track to promotion during a time of relative peace for the next thirty years. He's still utterly nuts, though.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Thane and Smikes are both pessimistic about the Rebels' chances against the Empire, but both still fight with everything they have.
- Knight Templar: Nash becomes an Imperial fanatic. To underscore just how much he believes in the Empire's mission, he is glad the Empire built a second Death Star even though he is from Alderaan. And he wants them to use it, repeatedly.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: The Empire is depicted this way throughout the novel. They're still evil, but it's easy to see why otherwise good people would follow them.
- Luke Nounverber: Nash Windrider.
- Medal of Dishonor: Ciena receives the highest award the Empire can give for her suicide attempt with a Star Destroyer. This is after she considers the Empire a monstrous evil.
- Moral Myopia: Ciena looks at Nash like he's a madman for wanting to kill Thane despite the fact he just found out his friend had faked his death (causing them all to mourn him), joined the Rebel Alliance, and was trying to kill them.
- My Country, Right or Wrong:
- Ciena swore an oath when she joined the Imperial Navy, and she continues to abide by it long after she loses faith in the Empire as a nation.
- Nash is an even more extreme example. He was already a loyal Imperial officer, but after the destruction of Alderaan he becomes even more loyal to the Empire that destroyed his homeworld. In private, he admits to Ciena that with his home and family gone, serving the Empire is all he has left.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Rescuing your Star Crossed Lover from her ship during a battle between your forces? Yay! Wait, your side considers her a Prisoner of War? Crap.
- Odd Friendship: Thane and Ciena come from very different and opposed cultures, and that was before Thane joins the Rebellion. Played with, as when they get to Coruscant, Thane realizes how incredibly unimportant those little planetary differences are, and that on a galactic level, they're very similar: pilots from the same world.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Played for Drama. Thane and Ciena have two discussions after Alderaan and Yavin but before Thane deserts. Because Thane is paranoid about being spied on, he uses coded and vague language, while Ciena is still working on accepting the rationalization for blowing up Alderaan. End result: Thane thinks Ciena's agreeing they should leave the Empire, Ciena thinks he's resolving to continue serving the Empire.
- Pet the Dog: Grand Moff Tarkin, of all people. When he catches young Ciena and Thane playing near his personal shuttle, he gives them a personal tour and inspires them to join the Imperial military when they grow up. Of course, it was probably just to gain future recruits.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Wedge Antilles finds out that not all people view the Rebel Alliance as heroes and saviors, especially those with family and friends in the Imperial Army who were killed by them. While they are fighting for an oppressive government, many of the cogs within that government are simply common decent folk who are trying to make a living.
- Rank Up: Both Ciena and Nash are promoted several times throughout the book, which is not unusual since the book spans a period of over a decade.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Because we don't witness him committing the atrocities he is best known for, Tarkin, of all people, comes off as this in his treatment of Ciena.
- Revenge: Nash wants this against several targets during the book. First, he blames the Rebel Alliance for the destruction of Alderaan and wants to see them wiped out at any cost. Then he learns Thane defected to the Rebellion, and the only thing he wants to do is kill Thane painfully. Finally, he swears vengeance upon the Rebellion again after he thinks Ciena died when she scuttled the Inflictor on Jakku.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: After a dogfight between Thane's X-wing squadron and Ciena and Nash's TIE group, Nash chews her out for deliberately blocking his shot at Thane during the battle. He incorrectly believes she wanted the "honor" of killing him for herself, not realizing she did it because she's still in love with him.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Contessa is an aristocrat who is fighting to bring down the tyrannical Empire.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: The Rebels board the Inflictor, the Star Destroyer commanded by Ciena, and she seeks to trigger its self-destruct sequence per protocol. However, they anticipated this and sabotaged it, so she tries to fly her ship into the planet's surface instead. Thane stops her however.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Whenever Ciene and Thane are clearly about to have sex, the scenes end.
- Shower Scene: The manga adaptation added a scene which has Ciena in the shower, with explicit nudity blocked by her arms and legs' positions (though the sides of her breasts are visible).
- Slap-Slap-Kiss:
- Ciena is furious with Thane for joining the Rebellion, after promising her during his desertion it was just about being unwilling to serve the Empire. Thane is incredulous that she dragged him all the way to their old hideout just to yell at him when she kisses him fiercely.
- By the end of the book, Ciena is trying to kill herself by going down with her ship to fulfil her obligation to the Empire and finally free herself from its grip when Thane arrives. Refusing to leave with him, and Thane refusing to leave without her, they begin a brutal fist fight to knock each other out and drag the other to safety. Thane notes that, to any outside observer, it would look like they were trying to kill rather than save each other.
- The Smart Guy: In their Academy days, between both the boys and the girls Ciena's best friend Jude Edivon was the smartest and most studious of their class—and even after graduating, sees many things as if they were scientific exploits. Notably, this doesn't save her. She is explicitly revealed to be the analyst who discovered the tactical merit in the Rebels' attack on the first Death Star (via its Achilles' Heel) and sent the message to Tarkin, who—as we all know—didn't listen, leading to the deaths of everyone posted to the space station, with Jude and Tarkin among them.
- Spoiler Cover: The meaning of the cover will not be immediately apparent to the first-time reader. But once they reach they end of the book, what it is, and what event they may already know of that it represents, is much more clear.
- Stalker with a Crush: Nash becomes more and more obsessed with Ciena as time goes on, even managing to get transferred to the Star Destroyer Ciena was given command of so he could still be around her on a daily basis. Nash attempts to come across as a Childhood Friend Romance and Nice Guy, unaware that he profoundly creeps Ciena out.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Thane and Ciena: aristocrat and farm girl; Rebel pilot and loyal Imperial officer, both facing a series of tragic and rather traumatising events as they try to maintain their relationship amidst war.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the group of friends that decides to stay loyal to the Empire following the destruction of Alderaan, Ciena is the only one who doesn't turn into a fanatic or a fascist. In fact, she tries to use her position as an Imperial officer to do some good every now and then.
- Tragic Keepsake: Jelucani valley kindred keep bracelets for family members who have passed, though it is not exactly "tragic" for them: they truly believe that in wearing them they allow the spirits of those passed to see through their eyes. Ciena keeps one for her sister and "shows" it events—good and terrible—throughout her life. It is systematically destroyed after her survival of Endor by the Imperial medical team that saved her for being "contraband", despite her being regaled as a hero for her actions. This only adds the capper on her complete disillusionment with her life.
- Undying Loyalty: Ciena and Nash have this to the Empire. For Ciena, it is because her culture demands that she honor the oath of loyalty she swore, while Nash slowly transforms into an Imperial fanatic and true believer in Palpatine's New Order. But what tears Ciena apart is that ultimately, she has this for Thane too. Even at the height of her anger over his desertion and signing up with the Rebellion, she admits she will always love him. The best compromise she can come up with is to be loyal to him for a night, and then the Empire the rest of her life. Nash, on the other hand, ended up having a Black-and-White Insanity as he grows more fanatical and loyal for the Empire.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Nash honestly comes to believe that once the Empire crushes the Rebel Alliance, the galaxy will know an era of peace and order that puts the glory days of the Old Republic to shame. Therefore, the Imperial Military is thus justified in doing whatever it takes to win the war. This is partly a coping mechanism on his part to deal with the destruction of his homeworld by said Imperial Military.
- Villains Out Shopping: Imperials out clubbing post-graduation. The book also describes in detail the way the Death Star—being the size of a small moon—had recreation and casual activities that a military base doesn't. Ciena and Jude even hang out in a classy bar a few days before the Battle of Yavin (and Jude's death).
- We Used to Be Friends: Nash mourned Thane's death for years, but then he learns that Thane is both alive and a member of the Rebel Alliance. Within seconds of acquiring this information Nash is furious and tries to kill him. Likewise, Kendy considers Ciena to no longer be a friend after joining the Rebellion as she believes someone who continued serving the Empire as long as Ciena had would be too corrupted to still be a good person. Kendy does eventually come to realize that Ciena is still the same person.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Averted in the context of the franchise by this book, as some of the protagonists are Imperials. One of the major supporting characters is killed when the Death Star is destroyed. Especially notable is Ciena Ree's horror at the TIE pilots killed chasing the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Both Ciena Ree and Nash Windrider. They both believed in the Imperial propaganda, that it was bringing law, order and prosperity to a corrupt galaxy. After Alderaan is destroyed, Nash trades his idealism for fanaticism while Ciena becomes increasingly bitter and miserable in her service to the Empire.
- Written by the Winners: One of the history lessons Ciena and Thane learn in their Imperial school is that the Clone Wars started when Jedi Master Mace Windu led a criminal gang to interfere with a legal execution of a peace mongering Republic Senator who hated Clones on Geonosis.
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Ciena thinks she's in a story with Black-and-White Morality at first, but then concludes that she's in a Gray-and-Gray Morality war story when she was actually right the first time. She just assumed she was on the side of the good guys.
- Thane isn't much better as he assumes he's in a Black-and-Gray Morality gritty war picture where he's out to destroy the evil bad guys but his side just wants to take over. It takes a long time to realize that, no, the Rebellion really is a bunch of idealistic do-gooders.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Ciena was born to the poorer valley kindred, as First Wavers on Jelucan are often known from living in its valleys.
