The Thrawn Trilogy / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Is Thrawn's continued use of the Noghri, Mara Jade, Ferrier, and C'baoth, despite it being painfully obvious they can and will disrupt his plans a case of him holding the Idiot Ball, or an indication of how unwilling he is to eliminate potentially useful people no matter how unlikely it is that they can be incorporated into his plans?
- In C'baoth's case, Thrawn deliberately keeps C'baoth alive because he intends to clone him, thinking that if he clones a young C'baoth and raises the clone from childhood that clone will be much more stable.
- Is Thrawn's analysis of art really how he comes to his conclusions or is it simply the myth of his own invincibility that he has created? (Later materials such as Outbound Flight confirm that even in his youth he could indeed get at least general cultural points from samples of a species' art.)
- Mara Jade claims that, as the Emperor's Hand, she was his top agent, near the pinnacle of the Imperial hierarchy, and the only one who might have outranked her was Darth Vader. Thrawn claims Mara was a glorified courier, whose only special ability was in relaying orders too sensitive for normal channels. Which one is right? Thrawn does have an incentive to take the wind out of Mara's sails, but he's not known for lying outright, indicating the Emperor did have other Hands and Mara was nothing special even among them. But Mara demonstrates an array of skills that indicate she was an exceptionally useful agent of the Emperor, and might well have had the authority to order around anyone up to, and possibly including, Darth Vader, yet she describes herself as "knowing how to give his orders" to anyone, hinting that that the only authority she had was as a relay for the Emperor's authority. Mara also notes that after the Emperor's death, there was no one highly placed enough to appreciate and make use of her skills, and she does have access to the hard-wired command codes placed in all Imperial ships by Palpatine as insurance. It's left nebulous if Mara was the elite operative near the top of the food chain she claims, the useful flunky Thrawn claims, or if the reality was somewhere in the middle.
Cant Unhear It:
- After the character's appearance on Star Wars Rebels, many fans have often found it hard not to read Thrawn's dialogue in the trilogy without hearing Lars Mikkelsen's voice in their head.
- Some fans can't hear Mara Jade without hearing either Heidi Shannon's (who voiced Mara in Mysteries of the Sith and Galactic Battlegrounds) or Shannon McRandle's (the model/actress who portrayed Mara Jade in numerous official photoshoots) voices.
Evil Is Cool:
- Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most famous examples in the entire Legends franchise, being a standout example of both The Chessmaster and Magnificent Bastard, and a genuinely polite and well-cultured one at that. Naturally, a lot of fans found him so cool that they couldn't help but wish for him to win.
- To a lesser extent, Joruus C'Baoth. He may lack Grand Admiral Thrawn's brilliant mind, but he makes up for it by being an absolutely insane Dark Jedi talented in the Force, being able to completely take control of peoples' minds, making him more than a threat to the heroes.
Harsher in Hindsight: Go here.
Heartwarming Moments: It wouldn't be Star Wars without any uplifting moments.
- Obi-Wan fades into the force but not before giving Luke words of reassurance which pull Luke out of his funk.
- Mara joining Luke at the end. It shows Mara has fully abandoned her past, Luke is on his way to restoring the Jedi, and is the first step to something beautiful.
- Luke giving her his original lightsaber, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, and the symbolism behind it (even though Mara snarks at how blatant the gesture is). Luke's last tie to his past, his last physical reminder of the good man his father once was, and he just gives it to her because he wants her to have it. Luke has made peace with his past, Mara has now made peace with hers, and the gift of the lightsaber is Luke telling her to recognize the fact that she is now truly free of her past, and it's time to embrace her future.
- Chewbacca's life debt extends not just to Han but to his family which he shows by protecting the pregnant Leia throughout much of the books.
- The birth of Jacen and Jaina Solo. There will be complications in the future but in the moment, it's a ray of hope.
Hilarious in Hindsight: See here.
Ho Yay: Pellaeon seems to admire Thrawn a good bit, respecting him and thinking of him in an arguably fond manner. He also takes Thrawn's death pretty hard. For Thrawn's part, he seems to respect Pellaeon and makes an effort to keep him in the loop and explain things even when it's unnecessary. This takes on an additional layer (ho yay squared?) considering that many have remarked on Thrawn and Pellaeon's similarity to Holmes and Watson, to the point where Zahn mentions the Holmes comparison in the 20th Anniversary footnotes.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Grand Admiral Thrawn is far too magnificent to be hated, up to the point where some readers actually want him to win. In contrast, Borsk Fey'lya is a corrupt, selfish, Jerkass of a senator who seems to take pleasure in being an Obstructive Bureaucrat, making him by far the most hated character in the trilogy.
Magnificent Bastard: Mitth'raw'nuruodo, known to all as simply "Thrawn," is the most brilliant mind to ever grace the Imperial ranks, a genius strategist and master manipulator. Having ascended to the position of Grand Admiral in the xenophobic empire despite his Chiss heritage, Thrawn leads the Imperial remnants following the death of Emperor Palpatine and the collapse of the Empire, embarking on a new galactic domination tour in which he is madly successful. Learning of entire races' war strategies and military tactics by studying their art, Thrawn handily dominates each and every one of his opponents, either through military prowess or his own persuasive charm, and utilizes the Ysalamir to gain the allegiance of the insane Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth. A polite, affable leader to his men — yet completely and totally willing to eliminate any who disrespect Thrawn or their positions — Thrawn is ultimately only beaten after conquering half the galaxy, solely by a completely unforeseen betrayal by his otherwise most loyal servant, and cannot help but spend his final moments remarking how "artistically" it was done.
Memetic Badass:
- Grand. Admiral. Thrawn. AKA General Sherlock Holmes In Space He's so magnificent that as far as fans are concerned, he can win a galactic war with nothing but a TIE Fighter and an art history book. He's even an In-Universe example, especially since he's the antithesis of the Empire's "strength over smarts" philosophy, scaring the hell out of the New Republic.
- Thrawn's second-in-command and successor Gilad Pellaeon is a Badass Normal — no Jedi powers, no Mandalorian training, no crazy alien strategy powers — and yet he kept the Imperial remnant together, more or less on his own, for approximately fifteen years. He even (kinda) overcame the Jedi Mind Trick of Joruus C'Baoth.
Memetic Loser: In comparison to Thrawn, Joruus C'Baoth gets hit with this, thanks to being a whiny Psychopathic Manchild who can barely keep his temper in check and falls for ploys and tricks that Thrawn never would have fallen for. Even worse is that despite Joruus having an extremely strong connection to the Force, Thrawn arguably still manages to remain the biggest threat, despite not even being a Force-user.
Nightmare Fuel:
- One of the plots in Heir to the Empire has Leia pursued by Thrawn's Noghri commandos. Thanks to Indy Ploy after Indy Ploy she escapes them each time, but no matter where she runs and what tricks she and her family pull to throw them off, they find her. She's not safe anywhere. And she's pregnant. Thrawn might be Affably Imperial, but he wants to take her children away.
- What Joruus C'baoth did to that one Imperial in The Thrawn Trilogy. We don't see it happening, but for a little while after it's over the Imperial is the viewpoint character, and he's basically nothing more than an extension of C'baoth's will. A few pages later and Captain Pellaeon sees a report that the Imperial who was escorting C'baoth just... died a few hours after being separated from the mad Jedi. Worse, Covell had already been the viewpoint character once before, and the contrast between the highly competent Deadpan Snarker that he was and the worshipful puppet he was Mind Raped into was utterly horrifying.
- Joruus' fondness for controlling and moulding people is pretty creepy in general, but it gets extra disturbing when Thrawn buys his loyalty by promising to give C'baoth Luke and Leia and Leia's unborn children.
  Thrawn: Consider what a man of your skill could do with brand new Jedi. Mould them, change them, recreate them in any image you choose.
- A literal example occurs when Leia, on the Falcon waiting to meet up with Khabarakh, is sleeping... only to have the orbiting ship pass right through where the second Death Star was destroyed, so that she encounters the lingering traces of Palpatine's mind and emotions at the time of his death.
- Late in the series, C'Baoth tries to take over the Chimera by mind raping everyone on the bridge. Thrawn talks him down, but after C'baoth leaves, he and Pellaeon realize their entire bridge crew has been reduced to trembling, broken wrecks.
Older Than They Think:
- Zahn used the Star Wars role-playing game as a mine of source material, apparently on the advice of Lucasfilm. If his foreword to the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook for the RPG (West End Games d6 version) is to be believed, he was fairly put out when all the new research material arrived at his doorstep, fearing it would undermine what he'd already figured out. Turned out to be a great boon, since whenever he needed a particular kind of ship or piece of technology, odds are it had already been detailed in one of the RPG books. One wonders if Thrawn's masterful use of Interdictor cruisers was already thought out and the books just gave him the name, or inspired by their write-up in the RPG manuals.
- In the sidebar notes of the 20th Anniversary Edition, Zahn mentions a few cases where fans accused him of referencing stuff from current culture, not realizing that the references were older.
  - Some complained of him ripping off Star Trek when mentioning the 'borg implant' that Lando's assistant had, but 'borg' is just a abbreviation of cyborg, a term that had been around for many years before (and, in fact, was used as a slang term in at least one issue of Star Wars (Marvel 1977)).
  - A reference to a Corellian Corvette (you've seen one; Princess Leia was escaping in one at the start of the original Star Wars) had some claiming he named it for the car, not realizing the car had been named after a type of small Age of Sail warship. The fact that the name for the ship predated Zahn's writing also was a factor.
Only the Author Can Save Them Now: By the author's own admission, he'd basically written himself into a corner writing up a plausible ending due to Thrawn being that good of a bad guy. It took what most would consider a series of improbable setbacks in the last quarter of the books to give the good guys any chance to win.
Rooting for the Empire: The downside (or upside?) to making Thrawn such a competent and likable villain is that you want him to win, mainly because it'll be awesome to read about. Him arguably being A Lighter Shade of Black than most Imperials can definitely further this.
Sacred Cow: The trilogy is among the best received Star Wars literature ever, with some fans going even further and declaring it to be one of the best Star Wars stories ever. It also kickstarted the Legends Universe and brought the franchise back into the spotlight. As a result, criticizing it will not be taken lightly by fans.
Take That, Scrappy!: Several of the books make jabs at the Ewoks, despite how crucial they were to ultimately defeating the Empire the first time around.
Tear Jerker: Obi-Wan's ghost leaving Luke for the last time in the beginning of Heir to the Empire:
And now, farewell. I loved you as a son, as a student, and as a friend. Until we meet again, may the Force be with you.
Tough Act to Follow: No other post-Endor Star Wars story, both in Legends and in Disney canon, has matched the reception of this trilogy. The Mandalorian and the Hand of Thrawn duology have come close, but the larger scale attempts with the Sequel Trilogy and the New Jedi Order series have been quite contested. Tellingly, much of the Legends works following this trilogy tried to copy its formula: three books, with a villain who is (allegedly) extremely competent, creating a galactic crisis in which the Heroes of Yavin must step up to save the New Republic from certain destruction. Not only did most authors miss the points that made this trilogy work so well, and not only did the formula wear out its welcome among fans quickly, but few of the authors tackling these ambitious trilogies were successful in making their villains and crises' credible to the audience.

YMMV / The Thrawn Trilogy

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