Okay, I know that I've been trying to stick to some semblance of a schedule on this blog, but I was out of town for a full week, so hopefully that explains the gap. Now, since my last post, I've decided that I'm going to do one of those things that I never wanted to, but for you, internet readers, just for you, I'm going to reread some of the old Bantam/Spectra Star Wars novels and read some I was too smart to read , or pay money for, in the first place. Luckily, my dear wife has access to a university library, so she will be able to provide many of these abominations so that I won't have to put money down on them.
But as of yet, I have not gotten to that. You'll just have to wait to feel my anguish, and I think there will be plenty of anguish.
In the mean time, you, the wonderful reader, will be getting a fairly short post. This post will be a bit of an explanation for one of my favorite expanded universe characters, but I will also be making some admissions about why he simply doesn't work.
So, the first book in the Star Wars EU that I ever read was... The Courtship of Princess Leia, a book that I've heard described, perhaps more accurately than anything else ever, as not so much a Star Wars book but as a runaway Bollywood film. The second book that I read was easily one of the best books in the EU, one of the few I read when I was ten that I like as much as then as I do now, Heir to the Empire.
So, it comes as no surprise to anyone at all that my favorite EU character is Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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| Somehow, despite being an inhuman color with glowing red eyes, he's not evil. |
That's right, the brilliant Chiss tactician that very nearly overthrew the New Republic with a fleet that was made up of less than 50 capital ships, which seems like a lot, sure, but consider he's competing with a galactic government with access to potentially hundreds of thousands of capital ships. I'm going to assume that if you're reading this then you already know more or less everything about Thrawn, so I'm not going to give you a history of the character. Instead, I'm going to try to explain my appreciation for the character beyond just his presentation.
Star Wars, at its heart, should always be about the struggle between two groups, a smaller, underdog fighting against a practically unbeatable opponent. Heir to the Empire does exactly that, but instead of doing it the way that Lucas and later authors did, the Empire is the smaller underdog. It gives us a rather incredible foil to the films, switching the roles of the factions. Additionally, we are also presented with something that we never would have expected from the original trilogy, the result of the Rebellion, the New Republic, has severe internal issues. The leadership of the benevolent government is fighting itself. The roles have been reversed to the point that even Luke has become the Darth Vader of the Republic, the symbol and sole well known force adept in the galaxy.
In comes our character, Thrawn. Now, many people would be willing to accuse the admiral of being evil by sheer virtue of being affiliated with the Imperial Remnant. I would argue the opposite. Thrawn has returned from the outer rim territories to take control of what's left of the fleet and lead the fight against what he continues to refer to as the Rebellion. He's not here to oppress his enemies or aliens, he is a non-human, he treats his soldiers well and uses means other than fear to motivate his subordinates.
Realistically, though, his greatest appeal to me is that he represents the abilities of a non-force using individual. While later books and the prequel films would have us believe that the best officers and commanders of the galaxy are Jedi or Sith, Thrawn manages to eclipse them all. He's fair, he's evenhanded and he shows us that just because the leadership of an organization may be immoral, the individuals who make up the whole are not. Thrawn isn't evil, he isn't killing people just for the sake of doing it like a Sith would, he's not interested in conquest just for the sake of control, he's trying to reclaim the territory seized by the Republic. But when you ask why he's doing this, you have to realize it's because he believes that the Empire represented the greatest force of order in the galaxy.
Thrawn is doing what he's doing because he knows that it's right thing to do. He's using incredible abilities, which are completely natural and do not require the force, to try to do the right thing. He's not a villain, he’s a charismatic leader.
Of course, there's a bit of a silly side. His tactical brilliance seems to be based on an uncanny ability to observe an opponent and formulate a strategy or, and this is the silly part, study the art of a species to the same end.
I’m willing to grant a few things here. Art can tell you a lot about a culture, it can tell you about the strength of religion in the society or how advanced it might have been and in some cases it can even tell you about how strong the mathematical skills of a civilization might have been. But once you get up to a certain level of sophistication, it might be able to tell you something about the history of the world it was created in, for instance you probably wouldn’t see much in the way of Georgia O’Keefe flower paintings in World War II era Britain. If you’re really good, you might be able to tell more about the state of mind and maybe the relative sanity of a particular artist.
The idea that you should be able to learn the military and tactical capabilities of a fleet is simply outlandish. The Republic is huge and, unlike the Empire at large, it’s also made up of a command structure that is as diverse as its population. So, even if Thrawn could unravel the thought processes of an entire race based on its art, he’d still have to contend with the fact that he’s dealing with a myriad of different races.
Later depictions of Thrawn have given us a bit more believable picture of his abilities. In the novel Outbound Flight, we are introduced to a younger Thrawn during the Clone Wars. He’s not interested in taking part in the war, he’s only defending Chiss borders. His tactical abilities depicted in the book are still incredible, just not based on this mysterious art critic strategy.
For instance, at one point in the novel, he is fighting a group of Trade Federation battleships and their fighters and he manages to observe and evaluate them and how they work quickly enough to take advantage of the fact that the Vulture fighters don’t have onboard processors needed for independent decision making, so he outranges them and turns them back against his enemies. He also arranges a conflict to take place so that it overlaps with another enemy that he uses to eliminate his Republic enemies and these aliens all at once.
Another example is his use of a piece of pre-existing technology for whole new purposes. Thrawn manages to liberate interdiction field technology in Outbound flight, which becomes important in the later books. An interdiction field prevents craft from entering hyperspace and pulls passing ships moving at hyperspace into real space. It’s good for keeping your enemies from running. Instead of using it normally, he uses it bring his own reinforcements into combat exactly where he wanted them. So, it’s brilliant tactically without being silly or force based.
Thrawn is my favorite EU character, if any of you readers have your own thoughts or favorite characters, please leave a comment explaining your own choice.
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