#in the end thrawn does everything for the good of ascendancy
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Thrawn and Che'ri bonding time 🥹
Girl, don't get me started... This is so self indulgent, let me believe that it actually happened
DAD/DAUGHTER MOMENTS
So Thrawn never had any children as we all know, but she's definitively the closest he will ever have for a daughter and he's reveling in that bond they share.
He loves to teach, and teaching he will with her. He helps her with her homework, teaches her to fly, teaches the basics of self defense combat, helps her with her drawings.
He even brings her to a studio for live modeling drawing (they keeped their clothes, don't freak out) and she went "Buddy, my guy, my man... That's too high level for me, I can't. I just draw fireflies and landscapes." And he just supports her throught the whole session, telling that she got it, that she can do it, that it looks great. And it does look great! She's very pleased with her final drawing and will keep going to the studio to practice.
Like in the magnificient art (done by @jun-c, shout out to them) he occasionally brought her with Thalias on Csilla for some sledge sessions and a little bit of Ice skating, she has a terrible balance at first and need to hold his hand but she quickly gets the gist of it.
Movie nights! Plenty of them, he will sit through all the animated movies and cartoon with her, circling her shoulders with his arm. They even ended up sleeping on top of each other in the Skywalker suite and Thalias had to woke them up.
He gots her art supplies for her starday and can't wait to try them with her. Paint, clay, felt-pens, embrodery frames, she gets to taste anything and everything.
Do'nt buy her toys cause he doesn't really knows with what children her age play with, he lets that to Thalias. Tried ONCE to buy her plushy and she winced, she too old for it now. (she hugs it each evening nonetheless but shhhhhhhh!)
She will beat his ass at any video games, no question asked.
Of course his favorite moment is their monthly game of Tactica together. He goes easy on her as she tries to grasp the basics of strategics games, with a cheese platter next to them. That's when he is in his true element and thrives, that's when he's the most expressive and open about his affection, so she keeps playing despite having her ass handed to her each game.
She once called him "dad" by accident, and while gently chastising her, that it was improper, his chest puffed up with pride and love.
We all know he would be a girl dad, so he's 100% into their bound, he cherishes it so much, can't have enough.
Tells her bedtimes stories, especially at the begining when she was younger, less now that she's a grown up. It pains his heart, but he's proud that she is growing up.
He actually draw along side her one time, and it was not good! At least she had a good laugh out of it!
Visits her when she's ill. Even if he remains professionnal and aloof he comes see here everyday.
He would be so supportive of her and her crushes, even if would be a bit worried but she's almost a teenager, that's her time. He would be cheering for her on the sideline if she went on dates, and she would tell him everything after.
She definitively got adopted by the Mitth after his exile, 100% wears his familly name now.
Once an adult she took a ship and flied to the planet they exiled Thrawn for closure. She didn't have hope to find him or anything, she just wanted to see for herself the last place he was (Ar'alani never told her anything about the Empire) and she had a good, freeing cry before coming back to the Ascendancy.
And finally Thrawn will come back to the Ascendancy with his new Empire behind him, save the day, save them all, hug her and will retire somewhere where she will visit him often (This will totally happen, I'm not delulu at all)
@bluechiss @thrawnalani @justanothersadperson93 @al-astakbar@thrawnspetgoose @readinglistfics @elise2174 @debonaire-princess @twilekchiss @pencil-urchin @ineedazeezee @mssbridgerton @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @Cortisolcosplay
☆Tag list
#thrawn#grand admiral thrawn#mitth’raw’nuruodo#che'ri#thalias#thrawn ascendancy#fanfic#vibratingskull
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How it ended:Epilogue. ThrantoxF!reader
Kinktober contribution.
Warnings: The completion to the thranto x reader series with some serious smut. There should be nothing said. Bandage guy on girl. Threesome anal oral teasing.
As always read at your own risk and enjoy.
It had been adventurous when you blue husband returned to the Ascendancy. And even more so when he declared he was going to marry you and Eli.
When conflict ended and everything was said and done, the three of you had settled down on a back water world in a decent house to raise a family.
Eli still worked for the CDF on his Skywalker data analysis while playing the homemaker to you and Thrawn, who were the breadwinners. Thrawn to still did the odd commission but was becoming a renowned art dealer, with your art being his main product.
Your family was big. Biologically you had 9 children on top of a handful of Skywalker who wanted to stay with Eli. Un'nee being one.
It was your anniversary, and Thrawn had booked a sex dungeon resort. Yes. A sex dungeon. An exotic resort with the purpose of being a place for couples to explore kinks.
It's been glorious, no kids, having left a begrudging Ar'alani and company to babysit, which meant the sex wasn't hurried.
Currently, Thrawn had tied you to a chair and was heartedly kissing your cowboy. Eli looked glorious his tan skin flushed, gorgeous dick standing at attention with a cockring at his base.
You whimpered at the sight straining wanting in on the action, only to jolt and whine into the gag as Thrawn pressed the remote springing to life the vibrator in your dripping cunt.
The blue bastard smirked at you, pulling away from Eli, who whimpered as he allowed Thrawn to gently pushing the younger man to his knees.
Eli eagerly engulfed the beautiful blue cock in his mouth which also had a cockring at its base. As the warmth of your cowboy's mouth took in your blueberry's cock the vibrator in your cunt stopped.
You whine only to whimper loudly as Thrawn reaches over, retrieving the device with gorgeous dexterous fingers and he lefts the vibrator to his lips. Tasting you.
"Mm. Exquisite as always" He pulls Eli off him who gasps and happily sucks the vibrator when it is offered. He moans as he tastes you and Thrawn looks very delighted watching him.
Eli's hands are tied behind his back but he looks happy to let Thrawn lead this room, one he had requested and wanted it to be the last room of the weekend.
Thrawn presses a kiss to Elis forehead before guiding him to kneel on the bed across from the table you're on.
"Keep it there." Thrawn instructs pressing the vibrator between Elis lips once more as glowing eyes turn to you roving your form.
Like a predator, Thrawn walks towards you, stroking his beautiful length as his eyes ravage your naked restrained form. He reaches out and runs cool blue fingers up your belly, stroking the stretchmarks left from 9 children. All beautiful like their fathers. But Eli claims that he sees you in all of them. Thrawn does to, and is mostly the reason you have that many. The man just loves you being pregnant and the knowledge that he and Eli did that arouses him.
He leans down, kissing you sloppily, not caring for grace, wanting you to taste yourself and Eli on his lips.
Eli moans as he watches you both eyes darkened with lust and desire for the two people he adores most.
The hand not holding the controller for the vibrator reaches down, and expert fingers slide through your folds and circle your clit barely pushing in.
You whimper, hips pushing up to meet those glorious fingers. Thrawn growls in warning delivering a quick slap to your pussy. It stings and burns pleasantly.
You moan loudly now that you are free from you gag and Thrawn smiles pleased. He deftly undoes the binds holding you to the table. "Be a good girl and remove my cockring."
You do as instructed watching as he exhales heavily before strong blue arms lift you up bringing your legs to rest around his hips as he lines up with your pussy before dropping you with practiced ease.
Your back arches as you hiss with pleasure. Thrawn moves still standing, giving Eli a good view of the show about to begin.
Slowly. Agonizingly slowly Thrawn begins to bounce you on his cocktail as you choke back sobs of pleasure clinging to his shoulders.
Eli settles back watching, sucking the toy still between his lips as Thrawn increases the speed with which he is fucking into you, roughly bouncing you on his glorious blue cock.
Suddenly, you're slammed onto the bed beside your human husband, your back arching as you gasp and whimper, insuprise from this show of surprising strength.
Thrawn takes a moment, wrapping an arm under your hips to tilt them at an angle, letting him hit that spot that has you keening.
You openly whimper and wreath in the Chiss' grasp as Eli watches hips jolting as he watches his husband and wife fuck like lothcats beside him.
Reaching out a hand to touch Eli the man shudders when he feels your hand on his need seemingly forgotten length. Eli thrusts into you hand with abandon moaning around the vibrator as he chases relief.
Thrawn drops the remote beside you, his hand joining yours on Eli's dick.
You feel it it as a sudden crescendo stiffening and shaking as you orgasm around Thrawns cock. The man stiffens as this pulls his from him spilling inside you. He gives you a quick kiss remaining inside and leans over, undoing the cockring on Eli's dick. He dips down and takes the dick of his husband into his mouth sucking noisily teasing the younger man's balls.
Eli throws his head back moans as he finally gets the relief of Cumming. Thrawn collects all the spill before returning to your lips and delivers Eli's salty goodness silently, ordering you to swallow it. You do so eagerly before finally relaxing from orgasmic bliss as both men move to snuggle beside you, holding each other tight.
Taglist: @thrawns-babygirl @al-astakbar @khapikat222
"Thank you, my loves," You whisper, drifting in the haze of sleepiness that comes from rough play.
Eli smiles, kissing your temple, and Thrawn kisses your hairline, placing a large blue hand on your belly. "And we you." He replies in that gorgeous voice tired.
You smile. Yes the three of you were no longer young, but times like these are truly worth cherishing.
A couple of months later and from the ensure you share with your husband's, "FOR MAKERS SAKE THRAWN!!!"
Eli doesn't even need to ask and gives the Chiss who looks far to pleased with himself a look. "You are in for it."
A/N: thank you for reading. I hope you all liked this. I have some more Chiss content as well as some other stuff planned for kinktober plz enjoy and keep an eye out. Happy Kinktober
#thrawn x reader#thrawn x you#eli vanto x reader#thranto#thrawn#kinktober#thranto x reader#thrawn x reader x eli vanto#thrawn x eli vanto
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fic: strength of heart (tenderness of the soul), thranto, NSFW, WIP
Rating: Explicit
Relationship: Thrawn/Eli Vanto
Word count: 140,499 words so far (5000-word chapters are posted twice a week, 32 chapters overall)
Warnings: canon-typical violence, angst with a happy ending, mpreg, Thrawn dealing with his traumatic past
Excerpt:
They come to the Seekers' Shadehouse—or the Ardok ranch, as it is listed on the map—the day before the sky-walkers are supposed to be here. It is a long aircar ride from the nearest spaceport. Thrawn notices how Eli marvels at the Ool nature. It is the end of summer here, and the trees are vivid blue and dark purple. Now and then, the aircar passes spike-apple gardens. Ool spike-apples, especially the coral and gold ones, are considered the best in the Ascendancy. Thrawn, however, prefers the smaller, pale pink ones. They are not as sweet, and the juice does not drip on everything around you.
Where spike-apples fall on the ground, they are swallowed up by thick, emerald green grass with occasional purple streaks. The gardens in the aircar window turn into saari fields, oceans of pearly pink. Eli, a man who has seen many worlds and can hardly be surprised by anything, is glued to the window, like a child.
“I have not seen you this excited for a long time,” Thrawn says.
Eli turns to Thrawn, a blush spreading over his cheeks.
“Would be cool to move here, don’t you think?” he asks. “One day. When all this shit is over.”
“I would prefer to stay on Naporar,” Thrawn says. “The Stybla homestead has one of the best schools in the Ascendancy. Larass will go there.”
Eli’s facial heat jumps up, suddenly.
“No, I mean—”
He sighs.
“When we’re both old and cranky and tired of Naporar. I think this is the perfect place for me to be that old Lysatran man with a blaster rifle. Sitting on a porch. Drinking my k’haito.”
Some things, Thrawn notes mentally with amusement, are the same even on those worlds that could not be more different. Porch-sitting, a popular Lysatran pasttime, has almost become a national sport on certain backwater planets of the Ascendancy. The Chiss, competitive as they are, approach it as an endurance test—who can stay in a rocking chair for the longest time.
“When we’re both old,” Eli says, and Thrawn wants to correct, “If we ever grow old.” They are both warriors, first and foremost. Warriors do not die of old age.
Then he reminds himself that he has every reason to strive to achieve that. He wants to grow old with Eli. He also wants to see the man Larass will become.
Eli’s jacket does a good job of hiding the sidearm. Thrawn’s charric is hidden in the same backpack with all the other things that Thrawn packed just in case. A set of particularly loose and soft pajamas. Super-absorbent pads. A water spray. Strong pain inhibitors. Bacta. Disposable underwear. Baby clothes and diapers. One green pacifier.
Anticipating everything is Thrawn’s habit.
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Origin Story
Obligatory Note: The Chiss lore that I use in my SWTOR Fanfics is based off of the lore introduced in SWTOR, the original Thrawn trilogy, Outbound Flight, and the original Star Wars RPG. Although no longer considered canon lore, it suits me to continue to use it even now that much of it has been contradicted. I'll be happy to talk Chiss lore with you all day long, but I'm not likely to change my story to suit the new canon. <3
“So how exactly does a Chiss - ally of the Sith Empire and all that - become a smuggler running supplies for the Republic?” At Cip'rys’s cool scarlet stare, Risha gave a sweet smile. “C’mon, Captain, you’ve got to tell me. I’ve been dying to know.”
The turquoise-skinned alien grunted as she made a minor course adjustment and sent the XS-stock freighter rocketing out of orbit. “I don’t gotta tell you anything, Risha,” she corrected, the faint purr that characterized her voice more pronounced in her irritation.
The human was unphased by her employer’s - her friend’s - ire. They’d been together over a year now, and the partnership had more than proven itself. As far as Risha was concerned, it was time to have some questions answered. “You know all about me,” she pointed out as she leaned back in her chair, kicking long legs before her and smiling winsomely. “You know every detail of my sordid past, but you - you’re a closed book, and an object of even greater mystery than I ever was. I’ve been dying to know your story.”
The smuggler captain was quiet - long enough so that Risha began to feel a slick, nervous sweat slide down her spine. She trusted in her friendship with the Chiss, but she never forgot the Captain’s vindictive side - or the viciousness of her combat skills. And although her weapons were stowed away in her arms locker in her quarters, Risha had seen Cip'rys kill more than her fair share of men with a well-placed blow of her fist.
Finally, Cip'rys rose, moving to the cockpit door. It slid shut beneath her touch, and Risha heard the locks engage. Glowing scarlet eyes flickered around the room, and with growing nervousness, the smuggler girl watched as her captain disabled the com system in the room. “Captain…” she began, then cut off when those alien eyes turned on her.
“You’re right,” Cip'rys said slowly, her voice losing the backwoods drawl Risha was familiar with, becoming more cultured, with the rich, rolling vowels of the Empire instead of the Republic’s staccato syllables. “I do know everything about you. Enough to know that you have a good head - and sense enough not to talk when you shouldn’t. So fair is fair - I’ll tell you. But you won’t tell a soul.” Chill scarlet eyes stared into Risha’s honey-hued gaze.
Wordlessly, Risha nodded, exhaling slowly as Cip'rys settled once more into the captain’s chair, gazing broodingly out into space. There was silence, long and thick and heavy with secrets, then the Captain began to speak. “It starts, I suppose, at the end. The end,” she sighed, “of everything else.”
~*~
She gazed out at the stars, and they gazed back, cold and shining and uncaring. Despite their indifference, however, Chaf’rys’nuru never felt so at home - so comfortable - as she did in the cockpit of her Chiss fighter, manning the silvery teardrop as it streaked through the Chaos, patrolling the Ascendancy’s space and watching for any sign of trouble or intrusion. In general, patrol duty was long and boring; few out there were willing to challenge the might of the Chiss Ascendancy, especially since the Sith Empire had come calling and left as allies, without a single shot fired.
But for Afrysnu, the long, quiet hours gave her time to think, to contemplate, to plan.
And yes, to listen to holonovels - but that would be telling.
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy the companionship of her fellow soldiers, or the joy of a party or a bit of carousing - but she tended towards solitary, like most members of her true Family. Although she bore the Chaf name now as a merit adoptive of the Ruling Family, she would always in her heart be a member of Cipari.
A small Family, their only worth was in their stewardship of Canidar, a small, resource-rich world on the edges of Ascendancy space. They owned the bulk of the land and resource-rights, allowing them to harvest, refine, export, and sell without needing an intermediary. Such rights were usually reserved for the Ruling Families or their offshoots, of which Cipari was neither - but only because other than Canidar, the ancient Family had shown little interest in ruling anything. An idiosyncracy that had raised eyebrows by many of their more ambitious contemporaries over the centuries - but as they provided many highly-sought after materials for Chiss trades, their foibles were accepted with good grace.
Why they chose to stay out of politics was another story, and one that would never see the light of day if the Family had anything to do with it. It was the same reason that at least one Cipari in each generation left the family homestead on Canidar and entered the Chiss Military Academy, to serve with distinction among the Expansionary Defense Force and build ties among the Ruling Families. Before Afrysnu, her uncle - a loosely appropriate term, as the true relationship was significantly more complicated - had entered the Defense Force and currently served at the behest of House Inrokini. She also had two other cousins serving - one in the Diplomatic Corps, and one with Homeworld Security.
Between them, the displaced scions of Cipari watched for two things: Chiss who showed signs of emergent Force sensitivity, and any indication that the Ascendancy had discovered that the trade that was the lifeblood of Cipari was merely a front for their smuggling operation.
In and of itself, smuggling was not particularly anathema to the Chiss, provided that it benefitted the Ascendancy. Even criminals had their place among the Chiss, and their actions were often overlooked as long as they paid their due tribute to keep the Ascendancy running. But there were certain goods which the Ascendancy would never condone trade in: Ascendancy secrets, and Chiss Force users.
Afrysnu didn’t know why the Family had begun smuggling Chiss sensitives from the Ascendancy, sending them to scattered enclaves among the sentients within the galactic Rims to train, ignorant of their heritage. They found no more than two or three every few years; few families greeted the sensitive among them with anything less than revulsion and hatred, and they were usually killed off long before Cipari got word.
But every now and then, blood-bond overcame familial bond and Cipari was able to smuggle free a child with nascent Force powers. In general, those children went to neutral Force enclaves throughout the Outer Rim, where the Chiss were little more than a myth and the Ascendancy never traveled. From there, Cipari had no idea what happened with these Chiss Force-users; better for all involved if they kept their hands clean once the child was free of the Ascendancy.
~*~
“Wait. You’re telling me the Ascendancy kills Chiss children if they’re born Force-sensitive?” Risha’s amber eyes were huge as she stared at the captain.
Cip'rys gazed out at the stars as they streamed by the freighter. “Depends. The wealthiest families have been known to drug their children until they lose their ability to sense the Force, or to undergo surgeries that turn them into nothing more than shadows of what they could have been.” Her scarlet eyes were sad as she stared into space. “You have to understand, the idea of Force users being anathema is hardwired into the very basis of our society - something to do with the Chaos, I believe. No one really knows why any more - only that Force users are unclean, genetic mutations that sully the purity of the Chiss.”
Risha sat back in her chair, gaping. “You’re serious. Wow. No offense, captain, but your people are messed up.”
The captain smiled slightly, a grim cast to the curve of her lips. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” she murmured. “If you think the genocide of force-sensitive children is bad, just wait.”
~*~
The first hint Afrysnu had that something wasn’t quite right was the shadow she tagged on her way back to base. It wasn’t unusual for more than one patrol ship to be returning around the same time, but it was unusual for them to approach so obliquely. She hesitated before pinging their com, her fingers curling into a loose fist, dropping away before she could toggle the channel open. She recognized the ship’s transponder; it was Chaf’ori’nuru’s patrol craft; her ‘cousin’ on the adoptive side. There was no bad blood between them; indeed, he was among her small circle of friends with whom she infrequently spent time and they’d been sharing a bed in those rare moments of downtime for months now. They’d even begun to talk of something more permanent...
Testing, she side-slipped before hitting orbit, spiraling towards the other side of the planet. It wasn’t a usual maneuver, but it wasn’t unheard of if one happened to ping something on the sensors. Forin’s ship kept cover on her, slipping in and out of her sensor shadow, often allowing no more than the faintest hint of its existence. If she hadn’t caught sight of him earlier, she might well have never noticed him following.
A chill flowed down her spine and she dug into her jumpsuit pocket, pulling free a holocommunicator. Unlike her official com, this one was older, practically an antique - meaning its communication protocols were unlikely to be detected. She keyed in a frequency and waited in humming silence as her ship arrowed towards the far side of the planet. Finally, it chirped its connection. “Chaf’rys’nuru-” she began, then found herself cut off.
“- gency protocol in effect. Breach of security has occurred.” Her skin chilled. “One or more operatives have been compromised. The Family is compromised. Repeat. The Family is compromised.”
Her blood congealed. “No. No, no, no,” she moaned, before keying in another frequency. When no one answered, she tried another, then another. After the fifth, she finally connected. “Uncle!”
“Rys, run,” he coughed. “They know - all of it. The Family is gone. Run!” The connection cut off with a finality.
With a vicious yank on the stick, she sent the fighter spiralling up away from the planet’s atmosphere. Immediately, her shadow flashed into the open and her ship’s com signaled. Even as she feinted left, she answered. “Forin, what is the meaning of this?”
“Rys’nuru,” came the chill voice, and she bit back a wince as he deliberately accorded her no Family name, “you are ordered to land and submit yourself to arrest.”
She dodged towards him as he came up beside her, and he side-slipped to avoid her engine wash. “I’ve done nothing for which I should be arrested,” she protested.
He spun beneath her and tried to slip in front of her, but she adroitly avoided him. “You were Cipari. Cipari is no more by edict of the Syndicure. Your Family is already gone, Rys’nuru. There is nothing left for you; submit, and it will be over quickly.” There was a pause, and that cold mask cracked just a bit. “Rysn- Rys,” he corrected, almost too softly to hear. “Don’t make me fire, please. This is hard enough.”
Her response was pithy; she could hear his indrawn breath through the comm. “How could you, Chaf’ori’nuru,” she spat as she spun away from him and began to run through her hyperspace calculations, “after everything? I thought we-” She cut herself off, biting her lip.
“Rysnu, please!” She felt his hesitation as he sighted on her and used the brief moment of indecision to dart out of his line of fire. “I can’t spare you,” he said softly. “Cipari is under extermination edict; your Family was smuggling Force-users, Rysnu.” The disgust in his voice vibrated through the air. “I know you didn’t know, but-”
The final number came up and she punched it in. “Oh no, Forin,” she replied grimly as she rolled away. “I knew.” She could feel his shock vibrate through the comm. “And I’ll tell you, the murder of innocent children is a far worse crime than anything committed by me or by my Family. Cipari will live on in me.”
Even as he fired, she punched the hyperdrive, and the stars leapt towards her as she sped away.
~*~
Risha was silent for a long, humming moment. “Your entire family?” she finally asked, her voice hushed.
Cip'rys gazed out at the darkness around them. “I am the only Cipari still living,” she finally confirmed. “That is the way of the Ascendancy. When a Family commits treason, it is eradicated. There might be a secret child somewhere - but I doubt it. Such things are rarely seen outside of the Ruling Families, and Cipari wouldn’t have risked an association with any other Family.”
The smuggler girl was quiet for a long moment. “I know my father did some pretty terrible things,” and she sniffed as Cip'rys leveled an ironic look on her, “but I can’t even imagine the systematic extermination of an entire family.”
“Down to my baby niece,” Cip'rys murmured, and Risha blanched. “She would have been a year old.” The Chiss drew in a ragged breath. “Objectively, we knew the penalty for our actions - we’d known it for generations. We were guilty of treason; we simply thought it worth the risk. It was abstract to us - surely the Syndicure wouldn’t exterminate an entire family just for a couple of Force-users.” She sighed. “We knew better. History was full of examples otherwise.”
~*~
It had taken three different used starship dealers before she found one willing to trade for her patrol craft. The first two hadn’t recognized the design and had been leery of dealing in anything they didn’t know. The third, though - there had been a knowing look in the Duros’s dark eyes as he looked over the shining silver teardrop that told her that he’d seen Chiss craft before. Given their proximity to Imperial space, she wasn’t terribly surprised.
When he lowballed his offer, testing her, she countered with a smirk and a shrug, turning to walk back to the ship. “Wait!” When she turned back, he frowned at the ship. “You know I can’t off-load it as is - all it would take is one of your people seeing it to have the whole blasted lot of you on my case. Did you even disconnect the transponder..?”
Her scarlet eyes blazed with contempt. “Both of them, and the tracker,” she replied coldly. “I don’t care if you sell it whole or strip it down for parts; it is an intact Teardrop with hyperdrive, shields, and weapons. Its parts are interchangeable with most Imperial fighters and some Republic. I’m looking for a trade - something inconspicuous, an armed freighter, perhaps.”
The Duros rubbed his chin as he studied the Chiss standing hipshot before him, then named another price. Her eyes narrowed, her foot tapped, and he bumped it up slightly. At her nod, he gestured. “Follow me. I think I have what you want.”
It was old, battered, and if it was memorable, it was only because anyone seeing it would wonder exactly what kept it together, much less let it fly. Beneath the grime and disrepair, however, Rysnu could see the additions - the smuggling compartments, the hidden weapons, the top-of-the-line communications array. “What’s the catch?”
The Duros smiled. “You’ll need to pay someone to slice her a new ID. She’s a wanted girl; I was supposed to strip her down, too, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
The Chiss paced, studying the XS Stock Light Freighter. “No, I can see why,” she murmured. “A fair trade. Do you have the name of a good ship-slicer this side of the Rim?”
Holding out his hand, the Duros nodded. “Give me your datapad.” When she handed it over, he keyed in the slicer’s information, encrypting it. “My cousin - he’ll do good work for you, and I’ve added a note to do it at cost. When you are ready to make your mark in the underworld, Captain, come back to me. There are benefits to helping a star smuggler get her start.”
“Captain.” Rysnu tasted the word. “Yes. I will do so.”
The Duros nodded. “What are you called, Captain? Who shall I keep an ear out for?”
Rysnu gazed at the cold, uncaring stars. “Cip… rys,” she decided slowly. “Cip'rys.” Cipari was no more, and Rys was no longer nuru - no longer a lieutenant in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet. Now she was syn. Anathema.
But the Family lived on in her. From Cipari’rys’syn was born Cip'rys, Chiss Exile.
Republic smuggler.
~*~
The Chiss had fallen silent, and Risha stared at her, heedless of the tears streaking across her cheeks. “So,” the human finally murmured, her voice more throaty than usual, “that’s how you got this ship. A good trade,” she decided. The smuggler girl nibbled at her lip. “You know, I know your Family is gone, Cip, but…”
“But you’re family. I know.” Scarlet eyes tore away from the stars, turning thoughtfully on the girl as she tapped her fingers on the console. The Imperial accents faded once more, leaving the far more familiar drawl that the Chiss had long affected. “We’ve talked about this. You’re my sister now, Risha. You, and Akavi and Bowdar, and Guss, and yes - even Corso,” she added with a wry smirk. “I’ll never stop missing Cipari. I loved them so damn much. But I got you guys, and you know - that’s all I need.”
Risha couldn’t help but smirk. “All evidence to the contrary, given the way you rack them up, Captain.”
The Chiss was startled to a laugh. “What, don’t you know? Just keeping with good smuggler tradition - one in every port. I’m a healthy woman, Risha, with healthy tastes. Don’t worry, I’m not trading in this heap for a house and a legit job any time soon.”
The smuggler girl leaned back in her chair and grinned. “Hardly worried about that, Captain. Just thinking if anyone deserves a little happiness, it’s you.”
Cip'rys rose, reenabling the com and unlocking the door. “You know what makes me happy? Knowing that, despite everything, I still got a family. That’s all I need.”
Risha eyed the Chiss. “As you say, Captain. So, where are we headed, anyway?”
The captain punched in the last coordinate and triggered the hyperdrive, gazing out at the stars as they elongated into lines. “The Fleet. Got a message from some droid, tells me some hotshot in the SIS wants to have a word. Probably another recruitment drive, but hey, I’ll give ‘em a listen. Never hurts to have the SIS owe me a favor or three, you know?”
The smuggler laughed. “Maybe he’s cute,” she teased.
Scarlet eyes glinted merrily. “What, a spy? Last thing I need is some spook getting a little too close and personal in my life. Still, wouldn’t mind a chance to practice a little. Been getting a bit rusty lately.”
Innocently, “Maybe you just need a little lubrication?”
Cip'rys’s laughter filled the cockpit, and lifted Risha’s heart.
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Something that's been bugging me for years since the Legends finale. If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do you think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out? On the one hand, from Legends Thrawn's portrayal I imagine he would without a second of hesitation. On the other, Canon Thrawn has been much more... restrained? And on a third point, there's the fact that Legends and Canon Thrawn seem like they really could be the same person just at different points of time. cnt in next
...I'm just curious if anyone else was curious if Zhan agreed with that direction taken. Which, on that note, did Zhan ever say anything about his thoughts on how Rebels handled Thrawn? Both from a writing standpoint as well as an acting and musical one (Thrawn's various leitmotifs)?
Oh man. Ohhhhhhhh maaaaan. My friend, you have asked exactly the right person this question, because not only have I wanted to talk about this multiple times before, but I also have ~receipts~. 👀
⚠️Spoiler warnings for Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian, the canon Star Wars novels Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, Thrawn Ascendency: Chaos Rising, and Thrawn Ascendency: Greater Good, and the legends Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, and Outbound Flight.⚠️
Oh man. Where to begin.
Lets start with who Thrawn is, because depending on who you ask, you're gonna get different answers—whether you're strictly a Legends fan, Dave Filoni, a guy who's only seen Thrawn in Star Wars: Rebels, Timothy Zahn, or just a writer/artist fan like me.
To Timothy Zahn, the man behind our favorite chiss, Thrawn is a character that is constant in both attitude and personality throughout all of his content. In multiple interviews, ranging from Thrawn's debut in Rebels to the latest about the writing of the Ascendancy Trilogy, Zahn states that Thrawn in canon and Thrawn in Legends are indistinguishable.
And so I present the receipts:
In a 2017 interview with The Verge on writing the first canon Thrawn book Thrawn, Zahn is asked the following question and responds as such:
How do you navigate bringing back a character who already has an extensive backstory and audience expectations, with telling a new story that fits in the new continuity?
Actually, I didn’t find that to be a problem. I’d never written Thrawn in this part of the Star Wars timeline, so it was simply a matter of bringing him into the Empire and chronicling his rise through the ranks. It’s still the same character as in the 1990s books, just a decade or two younger and in a very different military and political environment.
In another interview with The Verge in 2018 (a few months after the finale of Rebels aired) about writing Thrawn: Alliances, he repeats this sentiment twice:
Thrawn feels like if it had been written before the canonization purge a couple of years ago, or if you squinted a bit, it would serve as a perfect setup for Heir to the Empire.
Oh, I don’t think you need to squint at all. I wrote him in these two books to fit in with everything else I’d done. So if someone at Lucasfilm snapped their fingers, and suddenly all of my other books were canon, and there would be no real retrofitting that would have to go in. It would all fit together.
Thrawn: Alliances feels more at home in the new canon, especially because Thrawn has been fleshed out a bit more in Rebels. Was there any adjustments for that?
Not really. I’m getting to play with more canon characters like Vader and Padmé and Anakin, but the character himself, I still see him as the same person. He’s got goals, and he won’t necessarily share them with you, but he as long as you’re going the same direction, he’s happy to cooperate and assist along the way.
...and this is referenced again in a 2020 interview with Polygon about writing Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising:
Along with Thrawn’s appearance in Rebels, Zahn would pen a new novel, Thrawn, that chronicled the character’s early days as an Imperial officer. Zahn didn’t have to change anything with the character, telling me in 2017 that “he’s like an old friend who I understand completely.” While Heir to the Empire was no longer canon, a reader could easily read Thrawn as a precursor to that classic novel. Thrawn went on to become a major presence in Rebels, and Zahn continued to explore his origins in Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason.
The next day, an interview with IGN was published on the same subject:
Thrawn is an especially unique case because Zahn has been able to effectively continue the work he started way back in 1991 with Heir to the Empire. That novel may not be a part of official Star Wars lore any longer, but as Zahn explained, Thrawn himself is basically the same character regardless of continuity.
[....] The closest comparison between Chaos Rising and Zahn's earlier EU work is probably 2006's Outbound Flight, which is set during the Clone Wars and details the first encounter between Thrawn and the Galactic Republic (while also retroactively laying the groundwork for elements of Heir to the Empire). That novel is no longer canon, but Zahn told us he prefers to operate as if it were. He's making a concerted effort not to retread the same ground as Outbound Flight and to avoid contradicting the events of that novel as much as possible.
So yeah. In Zahn's opinion, Legends Thrawn is Canon Thrawn is Book Thrawn, and there is no difference whatsoever between Thrawns in, say, Outbound Flight, Heir to The Empire, Alliances, and Chaos Rising. I wholeheartedly disagree, but lets move on.
Now that the books are out of the way, its time for Rebels.
In July of 2016, after the trailer announcing Thrawn's canon debut aired, Dave Filoni had the following to say about Thrawn's character in regards to Timothy Zahn:
“I was pretty adamant with a couple of people saying, ‘Listen, we need to have Tim sign off on this. This is kind of a waste of time [otherwise],'” says Filoni. “We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns, but without Tim’s okay, what does it mean? That’s not going to be good. Once we had some stuff, we wanted to do what we thought was right and make the character. Then we brought him in. We had the production fully prepared. I said, ‘Look, if there’s something that Tim says that I think is really valuable, even if it changes something dynamically, we need to be ready for that and see what we can do.’ I wanted to make sure we did this right by everybody. We brought him in and we didn’t really tell him why. We just flew him up to Lucasfilm and sat him down in a theater and said, ‘Hey, we’re bringing Thrawn into the show.’ He was like, ‘Wow.’ and I said, ‘Yeah, wow. And I’m going to show him to you right now and you let me know what you think.'”
(Before we continue, keep that first highlighted sentence in mind for future reference. I'm going to come back to that later.)
Fortunately, Timothy Zahn was delighted at the show’s approach to the Empire’s imposing blue-skinned Chiss.
“We showed him some of the scenes with him,” Dave Filoni recalls. “He looked like a kid in a candy store. I think it meant a lot to him not just because it was his character, but because you have to imagine what he went through when it was announced that everything is Legends now, not Expanded Universe. I get that and I’ve always appreciated the work that goes into the Expanded Universe… For Tim, I think it was us saying, ‘No, no, no. We really like your character. We want him to be part of the real thing. The canon universe.'”
So in 2016, before we even saw Thrawn in action beyond a trailer, we were told that Zahn gave the OK, and he was chill with the way Thrawn was created in the show. In 2017, he gave a little more of the background of this process in an interview with FANgirl Blog:
The events of Thrawn dovetail closely with Rebels and shed light on some of Thrawn’s more seemingly surprising actions on the show, like when he appears to lose his temper and yell at Lieutenant Lyste. What was it like to see Thrawn come alive onscreen? Is he how you’ve pictured him in your head?
I don’t see my characters in terms of voice or appearance, but rather as personality or attitude. That said, I very much enjoyed the way the Rebels team brought him to life, in his appearance, voice, and actions.
I also appreciated the freedom I had to tweak certain incidents, such as the one you mentioned, and give additional or alternate explanations for the viewers who may have thought those were somewhat out of character for him.
He doesn't really elaborate on this, but we can assume he had SOME creative input on Thrawn's character, and he was overall pretty happy with the choices made in the show.
But then, we have this from that earlier 2017 the Verge article:
When did you learn that Dave Filoni was intending to bring Thrawn to Rebels, and did you have any input into how the character would be handled?
[...] I didn’t have any real input into how Thrawn was going to be handled, mainly because the lead time of an animated series is so long that much of season 3 had already been finished. But I trusted Dave and the team to do the character right. After all, why bring him into Rebels if you were going to drastically change him? Having seen the entire season now, I think we can agree that my trust was completely justified.
So... he didn't have "any real input," but was satisfied with it in the end? I guess? I don't know. We're getting into some contradictions now.
The last thing I've got in regards to Rebels is an interview Zahn did with the YouTube channel Star Wars Explained after the finale aired, where he responds to the following:
“So, maybe let's jump over to Rebels for a little bit. Now that it has wrapped up, how do you feel Thrawn was represented in Star Wars: Rebels?”
“They did a really good job—they not only understood the character and how to write for him, but they also understood the meta around how you defeat him. The only way to defeat Thrawn is to throw something at him he can't control, or can't anticipate. Given perfect knowledge and control, Thrawn will always find a way to win. But they understood, this is how you defeat him, these are the things we can use against him... so his portrayal in general, is very good; he's smart, he's anticipating, he's a step ahead of everybody, he's looking at clues and picking up on them, so I was very pleased with how the Rebels team handled the character."
I think these quotes answer many of your questions, so to answer your initial question: If Zhan had been the writer for Rebels, do I think he would have had Thrawn bomb Lothal to bring Ezra out?
Yes—but ONLY because at that point, the only established™️ Thrawn content was found in Legends, where Thrawn was a ruthless and calculating warlord.
However!
I do believe that if given the chance to re-write the Star Wars: Rebels finale using his now-canon novels as a solid background TODAY, Zahn would choose to not let Thrawn bombard Lothal's Capital City.
I believe this because he made one single very interesting creative choice when writing Thrawn that completely overwrote Thrawn's pre-established Rebels character: Thrawn was not responsible for the civilian deaths on Batonn—Pryce was.
And that's that on that.
A few months ago I would have ended it there, but today, Thrawn's story is no longer just contained in the novels and Rebels, but also in that of The Mandalorian.
This is where I will proudly say I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Before The Jedi aired, I was 100% sure that the next time we saw Thrawn, it would be nowhere NEAR the Empire, because Zahn was pretty adamant in the novels that Thrawn was only in the Empire to help. His. People.
So now he's apparently doing fuck-knows-what in fuck-knows-where and is STILL associated with the Seventh Fleet and Imperial Warlords???
Huh??? Despite the fact that he held no true loyalty to the Empire or to the Emperor??? It's been months and I'm still confused as fuck. Add to the fact that Zahn also doesn't know what the fuck is going on to the equation and we get a big fat question mark with one pretty clear answer that Filoni said himself that we have to keep in mind:
"We, of course, can do what we want with a character that Lucasfilm owns."
So I don't think Zahn has much control over Thrawn as we would all like to think. We can hope he gives us the crazy Thrawn and Ezra Space Adventure™️ novel all we want, but ultimately, Thrawn's fate does not rest in his hands.
If you guys have more to add please let me know!!! This is, obviously, a topic I am very passionate about, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!
#tye answers asks#not the post youre looking for#thrawn#timothy zahn#thrawn trilogy#legends thrawn#star wars#rebels#lothal#star wars rebels#dave filoni#thrawn ascendancy#chaos rising#greater good#thrawn alliances#thrawn treason#thrawn books#wow this took a while#but I like the way this is looking
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No choice
Prompt: double agent
Pairing: Thrawn x F/reader
Masterlist
Summary: You are force-sensitive and have been keeping yourself hidden form the Emperor. But Vader and Thrawn know of your ability and both plan to use you. At the Ascendancy week party, Thrawn managed to get you to the balcony outside and get closer to you when Vader found you two.
A/n: This is actually from my fanfic, but with few tweaks here and there it fit perfectly for this prompt. My previous post have the link for the whole story.
Thrawn and Vader had their little staring contest like they had many times on Chimaera. And just like then I was close to a nervous breakdown. Vader walked closer to Thrawn. In a way, it was a good thing. It meant that he won’t choke him. But it also meant that Vader wanted some answers.
“It has come to my attention that you have been very interested in my aide.” Vader said with a warning tone.
“I am not going to claim otherwise.” Thrawn said not caring for the dangerous tone Vader used.
“What is that you want from her?” Vader interrogated.
“My Lord, I wish to court miss (Y/n).” Thrawn said.
What the Kriff? I was having a heart attack just now and Thrawn is asking for permission to pursue me. If I wouldn’t be sacred of Vader and close to faint, I would shout out in disbelief.
“You wish to court her?” Vader asked confirming that he heard correctly.
“Yes, my Lord.” Thranw confirmed.
Vader seems to be pondering something. He was quiet and didn’t give any indication of refusing or agreeing. I wasn’t sure what to hope. Maybe only that none of this ever happened. After a moment, Vader made a decision.
“Leave us for a moment.” Vader said to Thrawn.
No, don’t leave us. That’s what I wanted to say but my mouth didn’t move. It felt like I was abandoned in a storm when I watched Thrawn walk away. Before he disappeared from my sight entirely, I saw him spare a glance at me. And then he went inside. Vader had kept his eyes on me the whole time after he had ordered Thrawn to leave. I had no courage to face him, so I lowered my eyes and set them to stare his boots.
“Explain.” Vader ordered.
“I-i-i… I came here to get some fresh air. The Grand Admiral found me here…” I began.
“That is not what I asked.” Vader said coldly. “How did this happen that he is interested in you?”
“I’m not sure when it happened. He… he has been treating me kindly almost since the beginning… We met first time at the last years Ascendancy week… I didn’t mean this to…” I tried to explain.
“Regardless, he has now approached me and asked to court you.” Vader spat at me grabbing my arm.
He was mad, I knew it. I didn’t dare to face him. If only I could get away from this situation some way. His grip hurt.
“Then again, this is a good chance.” Vader said facing away from me and letting my arm go. “Despite everything that happened at Batuu and Mokivj. I still don’t trust him. If he wants to keep you near then maybe…” Vader voiced his thoughts.
“Maybe what?” I asked carefully.
“That little rumor that you are my spy. Why not make it real?” Vader said more to himself than to me.
“Y-you… w-want me to… s-spy the Grand Admiral of the seventh fleet?” I asked.
“Yes. He may have provided reasonable claims that his loyalty is to the Emperor. But I still believe that he is planning on leaving and helping his people. I just don’t know when or how. But since he wishes to keep you near, you can report to me when that happens.” Vader said.
“B-but.. But, my Lord. He could... He could learn something else…” I tried to come up with an excuse.
“You mean your ability? If he hasn’t learned it by now, then it is up to you to keep it hidden. I don’t need to remind you how significant it will be for your own interest.” Vader warned me.
“Y-yes, my Lord.” I said meekly.
“And what comes for the Grand Admiral.” Vader faced me again and leaned only a bit closer. “I do not care what he does with you, even if you end up in his bed, as long as he doesn’t learn of your ability or kill you.”
That last comment sank like a knife to my heart. I knew Vader was sometimes cold towards me but never had he expressed his contempt in such words. I felt like crying. But not in front of him. He already knew what I felt. He had to. But I will not make it obvious to anyone else.
“As you wish, my Lord.” I said calmly. I felt a lump forming in my throat but it wasn’t heard.
“Good. I’ll tell Grand Admiral that he has my consent to pursue you. The rest will be up to you.” Vader said and walked away. I saw his cape bellow behind him and soon vanish from my sight as he went inside.
Once he was gone, I rushed to the railing to hang on to something while my emotions almost choked me. I gasped for air but every attempt turned into sobs. I wanted to yell out my frustrations. I wanted to cry out. But I couldn’t. Not here and not now. I had to get myself to calm down and hang on till Vader would inform us to leave and I would be back in the safety of my room. Now I had to calm down. It took several attempts to get myself to quiet down. Soon, I was in control again. Now I just have to keep it up.
“Have you calmed down now?” I heard Thrawn ask. Forget keeping it up. I turned to face him feeling new wave of angry hot tears coming. I’m not hiding this from him.
“What do you want?” I hissed at him.
“Just confirming that you are alright.” He said as he walked closer to me. “Now that we are in a relationship, it is proper for me to care for my companion.”
“No. I do not agree to this… relationship.” I said coldly.
“Really? I thought we work together very well.” Thrawn commented. “Is there something dissatisfying you?”
“How about suddenly asking Lord Vader to let you pursue me? Without my consent.” I argued. “I never agreed to be that close to you. What is your plan here?”
He ignored my outburst completely as he came even closer. He was just as close as he had been before Vader interrupted us. I swear, if he tries anything I will fight back.
“If I ask to court you, he won’t suspect why I wish to be close to you.” He said in quiet voice just loud enough for me to hear.
“What?” I breathed.
“I admit that this measure was risky but it has worked for others. I have witnessed this working on Cyphar. Their target was a vein of ore but they made it look like a land dispute. This way they hid their true intentions and harvested not only ores but also pre-spice. I thought that I could use same tactic but it required your assistance.” Thrawn explained.
“In other words, you have made everyone believe that you are pursuing me romantically when it was just a ruse, and you are only after my ability.” I summarized. “Ever since you confirmed my ability, you made sure that some of the crew would gossip about us and that would make its way to Lord Vader. From the beginning, it was all just a fraud to you.”
“Not quite.” He said and made me lock eyes with him by lifting my chin with his hand. “I can not control what people say but my plan was to at least make it look like we have something together. I hoped that later Lord Vader would trust your care in my hands. But as I saw how he treated you, I had to adjust my plan and make it look as if I was enamored with you. It seems that it worked.”
“Now that you got what you wanted then you can stop touching me.” I hissed and slapped his hand ay. “I will take no more part of this hoax.”
“Why do you think it is a hoax?” Thrawn asked and leaned closer. “Why can’t it be real?”
I wanted to get away so I tried to move past him. But he saw it and blocked my way by his arms, and soon he had me caged again between him and the railing of the balcony.
“Is there a reason why you resist me so much?” He asked.
“I don’t want to be accomplished with you in this..” I began but he cut me.
“I said that it isn’t a hoax.” Thrawn said a bit growling. That made me freeze right there. He has never shown anger. Not that I know. “Besides your ability, you have potential to become something much more. If Vader isn’t going to help you cultivate your potential then I will. And as I said why not make it all real?”
“I…i…” My mind was clouding. I was scared and I had no idea what to do. Vader has already left me to this predicament. And Thrawn had clearly a plan for me. One that I had no clue of what it was.
“It will take time but I plan to make you mine. You should begin in getting used to some intimate contact that I will make in the future.” He whispered to my ear. My skin tingled. There was still lingering anger bubbling inside of me. “I did take on account that you may be a little defiant. But I can’t let you ruin this one."
"Just because you have my art work doesn't mean you can manipulate me." I hissed.
"I'm not trying to manipulate you, but I do wish that we could work together... Closely." Thrawn said softly. Seeing that I wasn't pleased by any of this he decided to change the subject.
"Will you grant me the honor to dance with you?" He asked extending his hand at me.
“I rather not.” I said with a cold tone.
“What a shame.” Thrawn said dropping his extended hand and took a step back. “I guess then I'll look for something else to do. I think I saw the Emperor somewhere near. Maybe now, I could report to him about the situation in Mandalore. And then later maybe discuss with him a bit of my art collection.”
All the anger vanished and fear took over me. He can’t do it. If the Emperor sees my work in his collection…
“No! Please.”
Forget Vader, forget my people's culture, traditions, and rules. Nothing matters if my identity is known. Was I stupid or what that I forgot the very leverage Thrawn has over me? He had just barely taken a couple of steps away from me but stopped when he heard my plea. I had no way out of this.
“I'll dance with you.” I said giving up all of my anger and preparing for what was to come. He looked at me with that stoic expression on his face. He didn’t step any closer he just stood there and placed slowly his hands behind his back.
“No.”
What? No, what? I felt the panic rising inside of me. What is he planning?
“You already refused me, so it is only right that you will ask for the dance.” He said as if it didn’t really matter to him. I had to fight myself for not to make any faces. He is really making me work for it. But then again I did refuse him a moment ago. But I had completely forgotten that Emperor could learn about me. No, now I had to swallow my pride and simply accept whatever is coming. And play this part that he has planned for me.
“Will… will… will you…” I tried to get the words out but a lump in my throat made it difficult. I had my eyes lowered thinking that it would make this easier. I only saw tip of his boots and luckily not his face. I can already imagine the smirk forming on his lips.
“Grant me the honor.” Thrawn helped.
I’m losing it for sure. I was even needing help to form a simple sentence. But the feeling was awful. If I didn’t do this the future would be lost. But if did this who knows where it takes me.
“Will you… grant me the honor..”
I couldn’t help but follow his guide. My mind wasn’t working so well anymore. Instead of thinking what to say. All I could think was a way to get out of this. But there was no way out.
“To dance with me.” Thrawn kept helping.
I had to close my eyes. There was no way out. I thought I was ready to face even death when I began to work for Lord Vader. But I was not prepared to become a pawn in Thrawn’s schemes, much less his fake lover. I had to remind myself what was at stake. Once I had that cleared in my head, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Will you grant me the honor to dance with me?”
I bet there was a smirk on his lips, for sure. But I didn’t look up. If I did I might ruin this last chance as well. I saw his feet come closer, so he was standing right in front of me. I saw his hand reaching and taking mine. Good thing that he had gloves. My hands were sweating and cold. Otherwise, he would have noticed that. He brought my hand closer to his face and I couldn’t help look at him. There was no smirk. Just a faint soft smile. And something in his glowing red eyes that I couldn’t point out.
“It would be my pleasure.” He said before he pressed a soft kiss to my hand and made it last a second longer than I had hoped. He pulled me closer and began to lead me into a dance. I had enjoyed the dances with him before but now I couldn’t even register the moves. I didn’t remember how many times he lifted me, twirled me or dipped me during the dance. I can’t even remember the music that played during the dance. Was there even music? I just tried to keep my eyes away from his red ones. But all that effort got wasted when he made me look at him after the dance ended by lifting my chin with his fingers.
“It has been a pleasure, miss (Y/n). We shall meet again soon.” He said and placed a soft kiss to my forehead. I couldn’t feel anything anymore. I simply wished to get back to my room and cry out all my twisted emotions.
After that, he left. Leaving me alone with my thoughts on the balcony. The night felt cold. I did not move from there. Not until Vader came to collect me and said that we would leave the palace.
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I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry
Okay but what if... What if you dated both brothers back-to-back at around the same time? First Thrass, then Thrawn?
Maybe you were drawn to Thrass initially, and you loved him for his kindness and sincerity, but his duty as a Syndic started causing a rift between you two. The paranoia and manipulation of Chiss politics maybe started mingling with his personal life instead of staying at work, and usually peaceful nights became wrought with anxiety and doubt.
"How can you lie to someone's face like that?" "These people would see Thrawn die, and you're not trying to protect him?" "How do I know you won't turn against me if the Ascendancy decided-"
The arguments only got more intense, and with heavy hearts the two of you agreed to spend some time apart.
And then, you started working closely with Thrawn. Thrawn, who kept nothing a secret and who's transparency and straightforwardness eased your previous anxieties. You fell in love with his mind and mannerisms, and before you knew it the two of you were kissing behind a sculpture in his favorite art gallery.
All this to say, you ended up choosing him. Thrass could only pretend he was fine for so long - you'd been decent enough to tell him directly that you were now dating Thrawn, and yet he couldn't decide if he'd rather you just ghosted him instead. Some would say you moved on a little too fast, but Thrass understood. He knew you intimately after all, and he always regretted not being able to be completely open with you about everything the way his brother could.
However, speaking of things moving too fast...
He would rather have gotten a call about literally anything else that day. He would have more easily accepted news of the Ascendancy going to war, or that he would be losing his position. Even excommunicated from the Mitth entirely. That would have sat better with him than-
"I'm going to be a father." Thrawn explained matter-of-factly in his signature Thrawn fashion, though there was the slightest bit more excitement in his tone than normal.
"That's..." He felt his heart sink to the depths, any hope of possibly ever returning to you tarnished in a single sentence. You'd only been with Thrawn a few months, and already... "Congratulations."
Thrass couldn't fully pay attention after that. He heard the core words like "union" and "family" and "marriage", and something about if he'd be willing to officiate as a representative of the Mitth. He must have absent-mindedly agreed, since that's what he ended up doing.
It took everything in him to pretend. Part of him was happy for you of course, but it still pained him to see you together. He couldn't decide if it pained him even more that he was still so directly involved in your lives, witnessing every milestone you achieved together. It's not like you were never concerned about how he felt either, though, always asking him if he was okay or if he ever wanted to talk. He'd always dismiss any inquiries with a smile and convincingly content demeanor, even sharing a dance with you at the ceremony.
The moment he excused himself from the premises, the tears wouldn't stop. Even now, years later, they'd sometimes sneak up on him from out of nowhere. It was difficult to even identify the triggers anymore. Maybe this time it was due to those intrusive late-night thoughts of what could have been, or worse, what potentially currently was.
He was a good uncle, always making time to watch the kids when it was needed. The oldest one, the one who had been often told "you take from your uncle" and "your uncle looked like you at your age" was particularly fond of him. They would spend time bonding over something or another when the younger one was content to play off on their own. This oldest kid, who was allegedly born two months early, according to the timeline. This kid...
It could very well all be coincidental, but this kid...
Somehow, he didn't think it was a coincidence. You would get sick every now and then around the time you broke it off, before you had ever even gotten close to Thrawn. He wondered if you had ever suspected, if Thrawn had ever suspected. If the two of you had it was never discussed with him, and that was probably for the best.
Because if he offically had a child with you, the regrets and pain and dreams of what could have been would not only haunt him as they already were, but they'd be literally staring him in the face - with those eyes on a face that resembled his own.
He was fine being uncle Thrass.
He was fine not being yours, anymore.
He was fine drowning himself in his work and drinking all those bad thoughts away.
He was fine.
That’s it. I’m revoking your Author Pass. You’re fired.
But goddammit now I’m thinking...
Thrawn’s... not stupid. He knows the math doesn’t add up. He knows the kid was too healthy to be premature. He knows good, fucking well, that no matter what happens, no matter what his brother tells himself, he isn’t going to handle that knowledge as well as he thinks he will. Thrass has a habit of showing up in places he doesn’t need to be, and when it comes down to it, he will be around these children on a frequent, if not constant, basis, just by virtue of being family.
And he’s not possessive. It only makes sense that they would attach themselves to him. After all, he was always the more obviously emotional of the two, being the one that can outwardly express himself in easier ways. Of course the children would respond well to it. But he isn’t blind either, and he can see clearly that the way Thrass interacts with the eldest is simply, undeniably, different. And uncharacteristically, against every way he’s ever reacted to a scenario, he finds that he hates it. He despises every word his brother speaks to the child, so naturally similar to the way they talk, their facial features so glaringly close that even the most distant of passerby could see it.
He holds to that child, almost in desperation, teaching them what he knows, trying and trying again to relate to them in some way, his attempts failing at every turn as the disinterested child looks to the interests they share with the other. The spare. But he doesn’t stop, he tries, tries again, even attempting to endure the things they enjoy instead, tedious and ridiculous as he may have otherwise found them, just for a moment’s taste of a connection. The others relate to him easily, a perfect combination of who you are with who he is, and he wants it with the eldest, no matter what it may cost him. Yet their eyes never stop searching for Thrass, only making Thrawn’s bitterness turn to resentment.
And there does come a time when the brothers are alone together, Thrass sadly organising the shelves in his home while Thrawn sits darkly in thought. And eventually, Thrawn asks,
“How much do you know?”
Thrass stops in his tracks, setting down the books in his hands, failing to hide the guilt displayed on his face. “Know about what?”
Thrawn’s eyes narrow, his lips contorting in a daring grimace. “Don’t insult me.”
How could Thrass deny it? How could he hide what was so clear to see? To continue to claim innocence of it would be to damn himself forever. But he looks away.
“It was before you had anything to do with it.”
“And that changes this?” Thrawn stands, back straightened and arms crossed over his chest as he looms above his brother, who still refused to look him in the eye. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. You may have come first, but I am their father, no matter how much you seem to conveniently forget so. I have let your proximity pass for this long. But I warn you now, and I will not do so again. Do not test me.”
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Do you have any Thrawn and/or Thranto fic recs?
Hi! I don’t read a ton of Thrawn fic (I get most of what I want for Thrawn from the novels and Rebels) but I have read some really excellent ones!
✦ we don't have to have everything at once by Burning_Nightingale, thrawn/eli & thrass, 12.3k
Eli is reunited with Thrawn by chance on a mission for the Ascendancy; their changed circumstances give both the chance to voice things previously left unsaid.
✦ Lights In The Storm by Burning_Nightingale, thrawn/eli & faro, 13k
An Admiral being asked to investigate reports of smuggling at a tiny listening post in the ass end of nowhere would in normal circumstances be insulting - but Admiral Ballenrost is asking as a 'personal favour', and one does not turn down that sort of request from a man of his standing, even if one is the Imperial Navy's most unorthodox and sole non-human flag officer.
✦ A Second Honor and Privilage by katsu, thrawn/eli & cast, NSFW, 10k
Eli and Thrawn smut held together with a thin veneer of plot.
✦The Wisdomless Cadet by Ignite the Stars, thrawn & eli, 1.2k
Eli Vanto isn't very happy when he is informed that officers are required to have their Wisdom Teeth removed before commissioning. Features Cadet Vanto on drugs and Thrawn making sure he follows the post-op instructions.
✦ Abduction by Mishael, thrawn & eli, 26k
After the battle of Atollon, just as Thrawn is mourning the absence of a trusted companion, an unexpected opportunity presents itself. But that's not the only unexpected thing he will have to face.
✦ A bridge towards the unknown by JH24, ezra & thrawn, 6k
After their arrival from hyperspace, Thrawn finds himself with a challenge when he has to break his deadlock with Ezra.
✦ Chess Across the Galaxy by ambiguously, hera & thrawn, 2.7k
Thrawn has his favorite opponent in his custody at last, and he has an offer for her.
I’ve also heard good about:
✦ Make Our Own Light by LightRain_09 (skybird13), thrawn/eli implied, 4k
✦ Failover by 13th_blackbird, anthean, thrawn/eli, NSFW, 34k
✦ The Last Thing by moomkin, thrawn/eli, 49.4k
✦ Such A Constellation by tristesses, thrawn/eli, NSFW, 20.7k
There are probably tons I’m missing, so feel free to jump in with recs, if anyone else has them!
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Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good Chapter 15 - Chapter 18
Chapter 15
Ar’alani gets to “Sunrise” and sees no lights or any signs of life, which scares her
a super circular asteroid just happens to be floating into view... hmmm....
checking all previous records of battles/visits to the planet to see if it was there
and it appears that it wasn’t
Ar’alani points out Thrawn would have noticed the asteroid, as “even in the middle of a battle, there’s very little that gets past him.”
Wutroow calls it a moon, which I think is a cute little callback to the Obi-Wan Kenobi quote from A New Hope
that’s no moon!
This exchange is great:
“Captain Lakinda, are you game to try something dangerous?”
“As opposed to just being part of the Expansionary Defense Fleet,” Wutroow added.
Lakinda is a little bit intimidated, I think
I wish Lakinda had her own gal pal with her
Ar’alani and the enemy get into a back and forth argument about who has been asked by the refugees to help them out
While that is going on, Lakinda planned to decimate the asteroid (which is really a giant bomb with missiles attached) in a careful way
I write planned, because “without warning the entire asteroid exploded, hurling shards of stone outward in all directions
I want to feel excitement, but given that Ar’alani will survive all the way up to Thrawn: Treason and I don’t feel like Lakinda is going to get axed, it is difficult to muster up the feeling
Chapter 16
the Grayshrike takes some damage, and with “the view port blast shields automatically slammed shut,” so they have to reply on sensor and tactical displays
in the center of the asteroid’s internal framework “was the missile, its nose peeking out of the thick casing through the launcher.”
they are trying to destroy the entire thing before the launcher goes after the Vigilant or the Grayshrike
Thankfully its disabled
However, the Battle Dreadnought and the Vigilant are locked in battle
even though Ar’alani wanted Lakinda to bring the asteroid/launcher with her, Lakinda opted to go in assisting Ar’alani without it
Ar’alani gets into another sound of aggressive negotiations, both of them taunting the other
I know how to destroy you!!!
Nuh uh!
or more flowery: “Your statement lacks accuracy. It is I who knows how to destroy you.”
Just as Lakinda and Ar’alani are about to destroy the Battle Dreadnought when it decides to self-destruct
overall, a success but Lakinda tears herself down for not getting the launcher and thinks Thrawn would have found a way to have done it
compare yourself to Thrawn and you will always fall short
I feel like Thrawn would tell her to chin up and focus on her own talents and strengths, instead of tearing herself down for her weaknesses
MASSIVE SPOILERS HERE ON OUT
Memories VI
Haplif is still trying to push Yoponek to his intended goals, but he considers the young Chiss spineless
Shimkif decides to take matters into her own hands. AGAIN.
and employs straight up biological warfare against Yomie and makes her very ill
Shimkif also manages to figure out that Yomie “doesn’t want Yoponek to give up all his hopes and dreams for her. She wants him to be willing to give them up. Once she’s satisfied that he would do that for her, he can go charging on to fame and fortune on Celwis, and she’ll stand by smiling and being all proud of him.”
Having gotten to the end of the book, hell to the end of the chapter - I can ensure you this information means nothing in the long run
Because Yomie has figured out that Haplif is telepathic
So that leaves Haplif utilizing Option Three - killing her
Her body is left in the vast emptiness of the universe
Call this blaming the victim - but it seems like Yomie had suspicions from the start that Haplif and his crew (of fifty, that we never see btw) were iffy.
So why did you go along with complete strangers and really press on their hospitality as hard as you did?!
Still does not make her murder okay
And presumably, her boyfriend doesn’t care about her whereabouts (since he buys some cock and bull story right away), her parents do not check on her, and her friends don’t either
COMPLETELY USELESS CHARACTER!
Chapter 17
Lakuviv is just agog over the treasure Lakjiip “confirmed” for him
This trap is so obvious to everyone but to these two numbskulls
And this exchange would probably make Thrawn pull his own hair out:
“They said the metal has no particular value of its own. It’s the skill with which the artists turn it into jewelry that’s important.”
Lakuviv shook his head. “Idiots.”
Lakjiip shrugged. “In general, I suppose that’s mostly true of art. Give an artist a hundred Univers to spend on paint and a presentation board, and out pops a picture someone else will spend thousands for. It’s just in this specific case the whole thing is reversed.”
“If you ask me, everything about the art world is just barely controlled anarchy.” Lakuviv said.
Thrawn would be like:
Lakuviv and Lakjiip want to get this up the chain of command
Lakuviv invites the Patriel over for a chit-chat about a nyix mine that practically fell into his lap, with no strings attached, totally above board, no suspicions, nope, no ma’am
Yoponek points out that Lakuviv could pull emergency powers
backed into a corner of your own making?
emergency powers!
Had to read this a couple of times before I made sense of it, but if I have this summarized correctly:
if you declare a family emergency, you can bring back officers and warriors (I assume that means enlisted soldiers)
The rules are so convoluted
if you’re one of the Forty Families that used to be one of the Ruling Families AND have an under crewed family fleet, you are allowed (?) to call in the Chiss from that specific family for an “emergency”
This is so ripe for abuse
And this is kind of recent history
But it is so made up and so unnecessarily complicated
These are the chapters when the book really started to lose me
Yoponek has to be the one that explains this
Lakuviv or Lakjiip could have done this on their own - looked for an excuse to exploit the mines
Yoponek and Yomie are so useless
Chapter 18
So, Thrawn’s name is even known among farmers as that art guy
lol
This is this the convo between Lakphro and his cousin:
“...Senior Captain Thrawn has a reputation for knowing a lot about alien art and artworks.”
“I’m happy for him. But I don’t need an art critic. I need a metals specialist.”
“I know that’s what you asked for. Here’s the thing. I’m wondering if Thrawn might be able to tell us something else about the brooch, just as it is. Maybe something important.”
“Like what?”
“No idea,” Lakbulbup admitted. “But once we take it for testing, even a little bit apart, that chance is gone.”
“I don’t know what he could possible see that we can’t,” Lakphro said. “It’s just a bunch of metal threads, and they’re woven together in a pattern. End of story.”
“Like I said, I don’t know, either,” Lakbulbup said. “But I...”
...
“Maybe,” Lakphro said. “But what if-”
“But nothing,” Lakbulbup said firmly. “Trust me, Lakphro. I’ve heard stories about this Thrawn fellow, and I truly think it’s worth running the brooch past him.”
Lakuviv is irked that Patriel Lakooni points out the obvious - that this is clearly a scam
Yesss!!! Common sense!
Unfortunately, it does not get to prevail
even Lakuviv has the gut instinct to back down, but he pushes on ahead
He takes her hostage and uses Lakooni’s personal codes to call for an emergency
Lakinda gets the jewelry piece from Lakwurn (these names are starting to run together) and an hour before she leaves for space, she gets the “family emergency”
Lakinda is torn between family and duty
she decides to stay for the family emergency
she does forward the box to Thrawn
and she send the Grayshrike on ahead with Mid Captain Apros on it
Thurfian gets to listen to a long-ass presentation about this slightly suspicious “Universal Analysis Group” that I initially thought might be important later
but having read to the end of the book, I can tell you - that it is not
Thurfian manages to deal with the squabble in such a way that Speaker Thyklo (who are you again?) says he reminds her “a little of Syndic Thrass. He was also good at appearing to give people what they wanted while simultaneously doing what needed to be done.”
“Really,” Thurfian said, feeling a stirring inside him. “I assume that’s a compliment.
“Very much so,” Thyklo said with a smile. “Thrass wasn’t as skilled at it as you are, but he definitely had the talent. A terrible shame that we lost him.”
“Yes. To Thrawn.”
“Or to circumstances,” Thyklo said. “It’s easy to place blame, but it’s not always productive. Or always accurate.”
Also, rumors abound that the Speaker and at least two Patriels are looking to retire
Thurfian is thinking about moving on up
Instead of all this time with Haplif (and Yoponek and Yomie) - why not spend the memories sections on Thurfian and develop his character?!
Give me a good reason for why he hates Thrawn so much!!!
Like, Zahn is kind of telling me but I need more information as to why Thurfian is this obsessed over this one guy
Me reading this book:
#thrawn#mitth'raw'nurodo#ar'alani#that's no moon#thrawn ascendancy#thrawn ascendancy: greater good#lakinda#thurfian#timothy zahn#book review#star wars#thrass
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Project Compass: 01
Read along on AO3 here.
Summary: Thrawn brings Ezra Bridger back to the Ascendancy and finds himself in a role that brings everything full circle. Now the attaché to the only Human Skywalker in the Ascendancy, Thrawn has to adapt to his new role while trying to figure out why his new commanding officer, former aide-de-camp, and long time friend Eli Vanto will not speak to him.
Pairing: Thrawn | Mitth’raw’nuruodo / Eli Vanto
(A multi-chapter story without a concrete update schedule. This is a side project I really wanted to start sharing.)
>> Next Chapter >>
The courtyard was beautiful in an ethereal way. The plants were like ice, almost, crystalline and fragile-seeming. Ezra had been instructed not to touch them, so he refrained. It was tempting, though.
The cross breeze caught him by surprise, though. He shivered. The interior of the building was supposedly warm by Chiss standards, or so he'd been told. To Ezra, it even seemed comfortable now, compared to the outside.
Not far from him, inspecting the scrolling face of a frost-colored tree, stood Thrawn. "They are treating you well?" He asked without turning to face the younger Jedi.
"Well enough," Ezra shrugged.
He'd spent the last five days being interrogated by miscellaneous Chiss officers. They were polite, though he could tell they weren't entirely thrilled about a human in their midst. They were exceedingly interested in the extent of his abilities as a Jedi, though, and each person who had spoken to him had been accompanied by a young girl - a different one, each time - who Ezra could feel within the living Force.
As for Thrawn, he had acted as Ezra's translator upon their initial arrival. Not long after, they'd been separated. Apparently Thrawn was to be debriefed while he was subjected to questioning. The Chiss, to their credit, hadn't treated Ezra like a prisoner so far, but he wasn't stupid. This was the Unknown Regions. He had no idea where he was or where to go even if he did manage to get his hands on a ship. Hyperspace lanes didn't exist out here. He couldn't just plug in coordinates for Lothal and go home...
Besides: Thrawn had asked him to consider helping the Chiss. Thrawn, Ezra marveled, who never asked his enemies for anything. Though, they hadn't killed each other, despite everything leading to their arrival… wherever this was, exactly. In fact, Ezra got the feeling that Thrawn might respect him. Just a little. And even if he didn't, it didn't mean every Chiss had to answer for his transgressions. So, Ezra agreed to hear them out. He hadn't agreed to the lengthy interrogation, but supposed he should have expected as much.
"The language barrier has not been too difficult to navigate?"
"I mean, they probably would do better with a translator," He supposed. For sake of keeping things civil, Ezra let his snide remark about how he wouldn't trust Thrawn to translate for him anyway dissipate on his tongue. "I think they understood most of what I said."
Thrawn nodded, but said nothing else.
The wind picked up again. He pulled his jacket - made of an unknown, thin black material that seemed sturdy but didn't do much against the cold - tighter around himself.
"How do you people - er, the Chiss," Ezra corrected, "Deal with this?" He asked, doing his best not to tremble. "It's freezing out here."
There was no sound but the wind for a while. It figured that Thrawn would stop answering once it suited him, but then again, he didn't have to. Someone else did.
"Didn't do a very good job of warnin' me about it either," They said. Their Basic was accentuated, but not like the Chiss. It sounded familiar. The tone was inviting, as if the speaker were smiling as he elaborated, "The cold."
Ezra didn't turn around just yet. He reached out with the Force, trying to anticipate if this was some kind of test. He flinched in surprise, suddenly realizing that the man behind him wasn't Chiss at all! He wasn't even Force sensitive. Ezra couldn't believe it, having to whirl around to see it with his own two eyes.
"You're… human?!"
The man laughed. It was warm. It reminded Ezra of sunshine. "I am," He said, and the Wild Space twang seemed so much more pronounced now that Ezra had a face to match against the sound.
Ezra inspected the man who stood across the small courtyard in one of the arching entryways. The man was older than him. His hair was the color of Lothalian sand, dark brown with the faintest glint of lighter pieces, blonde and tan. There might have been some hints of gray in there, but not in any real pattern. His eyes crinkled at the outer corners, just a little. Based on that, he presumed the man to be at least twice his age, somewhere between late thirties to mid forties.
More than that, he felt something shift beside him in the Force. The man didn't even look at Thrawn, though, so the strange lurch, like a dissonant chord plucked on a harp, made little sense. Nothing had happened. Thrawn hadn’t so much as moved, and the newcomer’s gaze was intently resting on Ezra. "If you can believe it, it's almost the end of spring.” Apologetically, he continued, “Though, it's not much warmer here in the summer."
The young Jedi resisted pulling a face, instead looking to Thrawn. Thrawn, who was now staring at the older human so intensely that Ezra thought for a moment he might be in shock. Still no eye contact though, the guy seemed content to ignore him. Snidely, Ezra felt a perverse pleasure at that. The man had an easy confidence about him from his bright brown eyes and a comfortable posture in his all black uniform. He looked at home here, though this could hardly be his homeworld.
"So are you the next one to question me?" Ezra asked. Thrawn finally peeled his stare from the other man to regard him with no shortage of unimpressed and well contained distaste. Whatever uneasy feeling - Ezra couldn’t believe that it was the Force reacting to Thrawn, the man was always stone faced and in control even when his life was in jeopardy - had passed.
"No, that won't be necessary. I was asked to walk you both back to the meeting room. I believe they've decided what to do with you."
-/
The panel was made up of a well rounded group. Military officers, a syndic from one of the more prominent ruling families, even someone who appears to be some sort of clinician. At the center sat Ar'alani, her lips pressed thin and her expression somber.
For them, it could mean anything. Thrawn does not expect bad news, he had not gotten the sense that they were particularly angry. Wary, perhaps. The door remained open a moment longer than necessary, making him wonder if Vanto's lingering would break the silence, his commanding officer issuing a sharp reprimand.
It did not. Small, near silent footsteps became audible as a young girl - a Navigator, he suspected by her age and uniform - stepped in and moved to stand beside Ezra Bridger, seated to his left. The door closed behind them and there was no further sound to indicate that Vanto lingered behind them, permitted to listen. He must have slipped out as the solemn young woman entered.
The seat beside Ar'alani - to her left and his right - remained empty, yet the navigator did not move from her location next to Ezra.
“I will translate for you, Ezra Bridger,” The girl said in softly accented but obviously fluent Basic.
Ezra’s shoulders rose sharply and he turned his eyes to the young Chiss. “You? But during the-”
Ar’alani called them to order, interrupting the young Jedi with the raise of her hand, palm out. “We do not… lay our cards out all at once,” She also spoke in Basic, though it was far more accent-laiden. She looked over Thrawn’s head at the door for a moment with purpose. Switching to Cheunh, her voice becomes more refined, elegant and sharp with the expectation of being listened to. Ezra sneaked a look at Thrawn. He was coiled tightly in anticipation, very obviously preparing to realign whatever his plans were with what the panel had decided.
“This panel has come to a decision regarding what to do with you, Mitth’raw’nuruodo, as well as the Human Skywalker, Ezra Bridger.” The Navigator speaks softly to Ezra, her voice a gentle chime, almost an echo. Thrawn could only make out his posture from the corner of his eye, but the young Human was rigid and at attention. Despite what his translator said to him, his eyes were trained on the Chiss Admiral as she spoke. “It was not an easy deliberation. Your actions under the employ Empire are…” She trailed off. “Concerning.”
Thrawn does not interrupt, but the question must burn in his eyes.
The Chiss woman narrowed her bright red eyes. “We recognize that it is not easy to navigate serving both sides,” She said, considering. “There are expectations that must be met. However,” Her eyes cut to Ezra. He does not shy from it, meeting her head on. “You ordered an assault on civilians, not to mention what your Emperor requested for you to do to the Skywalker...” She looked up toward the door again. Ezra followed her gaze, confusion written into his face, but whatever he saw did not draw a reaction. “It is one of the highest crimes. For all that you have questioned in your service to the Empire, all that you have undermined in what you’ve sworn was your dedication to the greater good,” She frowned. “That you would be capable of this-”
“You take him at his word?”
Ezra’s face is blank, and he does not argue. Perhaps it is because of the young woman speaking softly into his ear in Basic, but perhaps it is because he knows something Thrawn does not.
“I did not need his word,” Ar’alani admitted. “You have spoken for yourself. Any incrimination is your own.”
“I have spoken nothing but the truth.”
“And so has the Skywalker.” She leaned forward ever so slightly, addressing Thrawn directly. “What do you think of your actions, Mitth’raw’nuruodo? Do you believe them to bring honor to the Ascendancy?”
He does not speak, even when the rest of the room waits for him to answer.
Ar’alani seemed to look past him, appraising and cool. “You are not a fool. There could have been another way.”
“Not to stop the alternative project being developed by the Empire.”
“Your mission,” Ar’alani snapped, “Was not to save the Galactic Empire from its Emperor’s wiles, just as it was not act as an accomplice to their utter destruction of the remaining Jedi. Your mission was to determine if the Galactic Empire was strong enough to be our allies in the wars to come.”
“It is not,” Thrawn said.
“We are aware,” She replied tersely. “And so remains what to do with you.” She steepled her fingers in front of her, elbows on the dark table. “Do you have an opinion of that?”
“I am a warrior,” Thrawn answered. “First and foremost, as I had hoped to have demonstrated,” It’s as much of a defense as he allowed himself, “I serve the Ascendency above all else. My service to the Galactic Empire was meant to help cultivate meaningful relations in the future with a secure government. I carried out the orders I was assigned to that end.”
“The Emperor did not ask you to fire on the innocent beings of Lothal.”
“The Emperor implored me to do whatever it took, as I have said.” His words remain measured and careful, even weight distributed throughout.
The Navigator’s puzzlement stole over her face halfway through her words. “The Emperor-” She looked to the door behind both men. “Tacahn?”
“'Implored,'” Came the reply in a steely Wild Space lilt.
Thrawn flinched microscopically. Eyes were drawn to him like predators scenting blood. All except Ezra, whose gaze shifted from surprise to very obvious concern.
“Ivant,” Ar’alani motioned to the chair beside her as if bored. “If you would.”
His footsteps are even and militaristic. His shoulders are back, posture strong and unyielding. He does not look infuriated or angry, there is no facial heat, no obvious tells. He is completely impassive and that might be what is the most frightening part.
To the human, the Admiral asked, “Would you have obeyed him if he gave you this order?”
“He knows I would not,” Ivant said, meeting Thrawn’s gaze for the first time in a very, very long while. His eyes are hard.
“This council has considered many arrangements,” Ar’alani said. There is a chance Thrawn does not hear her until the human officer dips his head to remind the Navigator to translate when she takes too long. “No being would take orders from a being who does not show his dedication to the Ascendency’s best interests.” She rose from her seat, looming above the former Grand Admiral, “Which is why you will not be in command. This council demands that you assist the Human Skywalker Ezra Bridger to assimilate into the Assendency’s ranks as he has agreed to remain with us at this juncture. You will teach him our language and translate for him until he displays mastery, and correct any other deficiencies identified. You will share in his successes and in his failures, and be responsible for them as if he is an extension of your own being.”
Thrawn does not react. His words betray no emotion. “Am I correct to assume this task will continue indefinitely?”
“A smaller committee will convene at regular intervals to discuss your progress. Ezra Bridger.” Her next words are in Basic, “You will report to Captain Ivant of the Warship Compass.” Ar’alani nodded and Ivant rose, earning Thrawn’s attention the entire way. “The Skywalkers have been looking forward to meeting you.”
“We believe,” Ivant spoke evenly, in a command tone that had the warmth behind it his eyes lacked, “That you will be of great help to our Skywalker Program.”
“You may go, Jedi Bridger” Ar’alani said, dismissing him. “There is one other item that we must address with Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“Come,” The Navigator motions for him to rise so Ezra does. “You will collect your things and I will take you to the shuttle.”
Ezra regarded the committee. “Shouldn’t my…” He struggled to parse the right designation, “My attaché stay with me?”
The Navigator translated, struggling similarly with the term. Ivant corrected her kindly, taking over. His reply came, once again, in Basic. “If you do not trust the Navigator, I will accompany you myself.”
“No,” Ezra said, holding up both hands. “I just-”
“You need not worry about me,” Thrawn interjected tersely.
“You’re kind of making that difficult,” Ezra murmured back. “You’re acting strangely, even for you.”
“Navigator Un’hee,” Ivant said, switching back to Cheunh and ignoring whatever exchange was occurring between Ezra and Thrawn. “Please retrieve Syndic Mitth’ras’safis. Give him my regards as well as my apologies that I will not be able to retrieve him personally.”
“Yes sir,” The Navigator snapped to attention, quick to follow orders.
“Bridger,” Ivant cast his gaze from the Jedi to the door closing silently behind the Navigator. “With me.”
“You could ask to be dismissed, Captain.”
“You’d prefer me to be long gone before Thrass arrives,” Ivant said. No one bothered to contest it. “This is enough of a farce already.”
“So it is,” Ar’alani supposed. “Go.”
He inclined his head to her respectfully, stepping around the rest of the silent council.
“Admiral.”
She did not smile, but it is apparent that his actions met with her approval. "Captain."
Ezra looked to Thrawn one last time. “You’re sure.”
“Listen to your commanding officer,” Thrawn instructed. Whatever Ezra was apparently reading off him through the Force must conflict with his words, forcing the Chiss to continue. “Apparently I am to meet with my brother.”
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If you’re still doing the WIP Title Game, would you mind talking about Blackmail AU?
There’s not a whole lot to be said about the Blackmail AU. Its an AU where Nightswan discovers that Thrawn and Eli are a couple, which due to the Empire's no fraternization between ranks AND between aliens, is a double whammy of code violations. More than enough to get them arrested and stripped of rank. For Eli, maybe even treason, which could lead to execution without trial. Nightswan takes this information and his evidence to Thrawn, threatening to expose it to the high command, who were itching for an excuse to get rid of him, unless he does everything Nightswan demands. Thrawn could take being removed from the Empire, either the Emperor would save him, or he'd just go back to the Ascendency with this as a failed mission. But there's Eli, he'd lose his carer, his standing in Imperial space, and possibly his life if Nightswan exposes them. So for once, Thrawn has no choice but to submit.
I don’t know if I’ll ever actually do anything with this so I’ll just put what I do have under the cut for anyone to read.
Thrawn and Eli had felt some sort of spark back at the Academy, but neither acted on it, Thrawn for worry of pushing Eli, and Eli because he felt his and Thrawn's time was limited. After being assigned to the Blood Crow, and calming down about being assigned as Thrawn's aide, they both started looking at the prospect of furthering their friendship. Their emotions don't come clear until they're on the Thunder Wasp. It was Eli who confessed his feelings to Thrawn late one night, when their conversations had turned too personal. Thrawn shares his reciprocations. However, they both hesitated knowing the Empire's ban against relationships between different ranks, and Eli looks further into the policy of aliens, making them both too concerned to take the risk with the severity of the latter. However, after Thrawn is given Command of the Thunder Wasp, they finally feel safe enough that they could continue a relationship in secret, being Thrawn's aide made it easier.
However, Nightswan has been keeping close tabs on Thrawn and Eli since the Dromedar incident, seeing Thrawn both as a roadblock and a tool he could use, and Eli an extension of Thrawn's own power, so he never kept them too far from sight. Gathering data and other sorts of information on them trying to find his best weapon to come at Thrawn with. In his many searches, one thing grabbed his attention, something relatively inconspicuous but stood out like a bright indicator. Nightswan, using some of his splicer friends, had tapped into Imperial records, extracting activity he linked to Thrawn and Eli. Particularly one inquiry towards relations between Imperial officers and aliens. Now why would the duo, consisting of Imperial officer and alien need to know that? And that was all the spark he needed to realize what was going on. From there he tailored his searching and information gathering to gather proof of an against regulation relationship between the two.
His proof came almost too easy. No doubt they had become complacent, believing they were in such a situation where they were beyond detection. And they were, but only from the Empire, not from people like Nightswan. Thrawn had taken shore leave, the first and only he'd ever taken since joining the Empire, and of course, requested his Aide join him. To any Imperial officer or member of the high command, the request made perfect sense and roused no suspicion, Nightswan knew better. He tracked down the request, the time of departure and destination with a few paid off favors to his more shady of comrades. Lysatra, an odd place Thrawn would choose to visit during his short shoreleave, far out of the way, no it had to have been for Vanto, who hailed from that world. If Vanto had made the request and subsequent one of taking Thrawn along, that would be suspicious, but when Thrawn, the superior officer did it, it was natural.
Following them to Lysatra was the easy part. Not many ships frequented the area, Nightswan arrived long before their scheduled time, and staked out the docs waiting for them. Dropped off by Imperial shuttle, which stayed just long enough for the duo to unload before leaving. They were already changed into their civilian clothes, and as soon as the shuttle left, they looked just like any other citizen of the Empire. And thankfully for Nightswan, the two wasted no time in dropping their formalities. Most likely thinking they were safe on Eli's home world, a place with no Imperial presence, the shorter Human grabbed hold of Thrawn's hand, and pulled the alien down for a kiss. Nightswan took many pictures the three days the two were on Lysatra. Getting close to the Vanto's residence, where they stayed, was difficult, but with the two senior Vanto's running a business, that left the total in the household most of the day to two. In three days, Nightswan had more than enough proof to have the entire high command arrest Thrawn individually.
But that wasn't his goal, he didn't want Thrawn just out of the picture, no with the power he had, he could control Thrawn. What was better than an intelligent Imperial officer off your back? Said Imperial officer working for you. Nightswan knew how to get Thrawn's attention, he just needed to get the two of them to speak. He got the Thunder Wasp to investigate some illegal dealings on the first planet he could find along their patrol route, that was the easy part. But Nightswan knew Thrawn more than most people around him probably did, their intelligence, their method of thinking and planning, they were similar. And he knew that if he requested dialogue, Thrawn would be eager to accept it. He would regret that. And sure enough, sending a private decrypted message to Thrawn's office, which was far easier than it should have been, Thrawn opened the channel immediately.
"Good evening, Captain." He says the moment the transmission links. Thrawn seems just as calm and controlled as usual, Nightswan couldn't help but smirk, thinking of pulling one over on the damn Imperial.
"Nightswan," Thrawn answers, "Good evening. What has brought you to me?" Nightswan's smile only grew as he transferred over a datafile. He heard precisely when Thrawn received it.
"This." He got a front row seat to Thrawn's pure unfiltered reaction. All of his documentation, all his proof of Thrawn and Eli's fraternization. The alien's eyes widened a fraction before narrowing into a tight glare, Nightswan only smiled.
"How have you come into possession of this?"
"I have my ways. I will submit this datafile, of which I have numerous copies, to Imperial high command, you and your aide will be arrested on charges of breaking Imperial regulations, and your aide may even come under charges of treason. Unless you follow my orders, to the letter and without hesitation, understand?"
"Blackmail? I had believed you to have more honor than-"
"As I see it, this is just my way of outsmarting my opponent. You have until the end of this rotation to agree to my terms or I will send out that datafile." As much as he wanted to watch Thrawn rage, rant, or try and outsmart him back, Nightswan disconnected the transmission leaving Thrawn to stew.
Thrawn sits in his office chair for two full hours, trying to think of a plan to stop Nightswan. But without knowing where he is, or where all his copies of this data file were, there wasn't anything in his power he could do. This was one of those scenarios where a Warrior's smartest plan would be to pull back and restrategize. But there was Eli, as well as his own people who were counting on him. Eli certainly would come under high commands hammer, and most likely would receive the worst blow of all, losing his life. Thrawn couldn't be pinned with treason for this, it was a relatively minor transgression, one plenty of officers surely committed in a largely corrupt Empire. But Thrawn already wasn't in any good graces of high command, who had been waiting for Thrawn to slip up so they could finally remove him. Eli however, could be called under treason, for willingly joining with an alien, Imperial Officer or not, if high command could arrest him for treason, and they would, giving them authority to execute Eli on the spot. He couldn't let that happen to him, he refused. But he also couldn't pack up and defect with Eli, his people needed him. All of his time was spent trying to gauge and cultivate the Empire to his needs to aid them, he couldn't leave or it would all be for nothing and the galaxy at large could be open to utter destruction. So, despite the absolute disgust he had for this, Thrawn sent Nightswan a single message response across the transmission line.
'I accept'
Thrawn starts acting differently, not by a lot, but enough for Eli to pick up on it. He's making stupid mistakes, ones Eli knew that Thrawn wouldn’t make. He's overlooking things, and when Eli calls attention to them, Thrawn disregards it. He's acting like any mindless Imperial, completely unlike himself. But not just during work, he seems so much sadder than before, more reserved, like he's hiding something from Eli specifically. In their time alone, all Thrawn does is hold him tightly, like he's afraid Eli will suddenly disappear. This behavior goes on for a time, Eli had hoped Thrawn would get through this weird phase, but it only gets worse with time. After Eli is finally given his promotion to Lieutenant Commander and they move to the Chimaera, Thrawn begins broaching subjects such as Eli leaving the Empire. He doesn't understand why Thrawn would talk like that, sure Eli is very unhappy with the way things seem to be going with the Empire, but he just got his long awaited promotion, why would he leave now?
It eventually dawns on him, that whatever has made Thrawn act this way, it has to do with Nightswan, somehow. He only acts dumb when its missions that involve Nightswan, overlooks Nightswans movements, and had completely stopped asking Eli for updates on him. Whatever this is, Nightswan could be behind it. But why wouldn't Thrawn tell him, didn't he trust him? Eli finally confronts Thrawn about it, corners him in his quarters during one of their few moments of privacy together. But Thrawn doesn't tell him anything, he just pulls Eli into his arms, and whispers in a broken voice, "Please, I don't want to lose you." And it hurts Eli's heart so badly, that he doesn't press him any further. But he hasn't given up on it.
The time comes that the Batonn insurgents must be dealt with. He orders Faro away and is leading Eli to the smuggler freighter he had brought along, some plan in mind for it, when he suddenly receives a message on his datapad. All at once, he calls off whatever they were about to do, citing a change of plans and they’d be calling Faro back and returning to the Chimaera. He knows something's up, and he had one hunch of how to get to the bottom of it.
On their way back, Eli fakes some excuse of needing to retrieve some left behind data cards, a falsehood in its entirety, one That he sees makes Thrawn suspicious, but he's never had a reason to distrust Eli in the past and lets him go. He rushes back to the freighter, going off to do whatever Thrawn's plan had been. He knew that they were going to observe the battle, hopefully whatever Thrawn had suddenly wanted to avoid would be there. He was right, just before the battle was to commence, he spotted another freighter leaving the planet, that was his target. He hailed it, feeling his frustrations and anger outweighing his anxiety. The shuttle opens the channel, and Eli cuts off whatever they were about to say, "I'm Commander Vanto of the Imperial Navy, tell Nightswan I wanna talk with him." There's silence on the other end, no doubt Eli had blindsided them, but he was certain. Thrawn only acted strangely with matters surrounding Nightswan, and if this was the freighter Thrawn had been hoping to catch then they had to be with Nightswan. And if whatever Nightswan was doing could lead to Thrawn losing Eli, then obviously, Nightswan would relish the ability to get Eli on his own terf.
And Eli was right. The man on the other end told Eli to follow him and better not "do anything funny" and began their jump out of the system. Stamping down the last bit of anxiety in him, Eli followed, prepared to get to the bottom of this and solve it, or die trying.
He's brought aboard, searched by pirates and escorted by two back to where Nightswan no doubt would be. He had expected Nightswan to be shocked to see Eli there, or at least confused as to why Eli would suddenly waltz up to him. But he seemed completely calm, and as if he expected Eli to come to him.
"Welcome Commander Vanto." He greets as the two escorts sit Eli down in the chair across from him.
"Nightswan." He sneers. "What did you do to Thrawn?"
"Pardon?"
He gives Eli a coy smile. He slams a hand on the desk between them and hisses, "Cut the Kryate Spit, I know you've done something, and I'm not leaving until I know what." The two escorts move closer to restrain Eli, but Nightswan stops them and waves them off. Once along, he speaks again.
"It's funny you think I'd let you leave here alive."
"I know you will, because whatever you've done, I'm somehow collateral." Nightswan chuckled, lounging back in his chair.
"So Thrawn never told you I take it?"
"No, why else would I be here? Now talk." He barks, Nightswan's calmness really getting on his nerves.
"I don't think you're the one in any position to make demands. But I must say, you are awfully clever, I'm surprised it took you this long to do something."
"Cygni, answer me." The last one had to be hissed out from Eli's clenched teeth,
"Alright fine, I'm happy to get to show you myself." He pulls out his datapad, casually flipping through it before choosing some file and setting it down to display. And Eli's blood runs cold. Because everything makes itself clear in an instant. Nightswan had Thrawn pinned under his thumb with blackmail.
"Your blue lover has to answer my every demand, or else this file will be sent straight to high command. It's somewhat romantic if I'm being honest, he's more scared of you being executed for treason over this than fearful for whatever they might do to him." Eli stares down at the holo file, picture after picture, recording after recording of him and Thrawn, holding hands, kissing, numerous compromising positions that couldn't be denied, that not even Thrawn could talk his way out of. Emperor or no, this couldn't be ignored. Nightswan gave him a grin, crossing his arms casually over his chest.
"You followed us to Lysatra?" Eli whispers, disbelieving.
"I like to think of it as more, me constructing the perfect weapon against Thrawn."
Eli had a temper issue, he knew he did, his parents had told him, Thrawn had brought it up, his previous instructors had noticed, but he was always in control of himself to pull back his outbursts. But this was beyond any Human's ability.
"You Bastard!" He roars, leaping from his chair and across the desk in one swift move, knocking Nightswan to the ground. He reels back, and clocks him hard across the face with his fist. He does it again, and again and again before Nightswan even has a chance to react. He grabs Eli's next punch, glaring up at him, sneering with blood stained teeth.
"Hit me again and I'll send the file, kill me, and the file is already rigged to send. You are trapped Vanto, Thrawn is trapped. Our game of wits is over, I have all the cards!" Eli is breathing heavy, vision swimming red with rage, but despite it all, he smiles down at Nightswan.
"So you're saying I have at least a few weeks to pack up and defect before the high command gets around to doing anything with that information?" Nightswan's face drops. "Sounds like I have nothing to lose." He gets him across the face with another punch, using the disorientation to snag Nightswan's own blaster from his belt. "This is for Thrawn." He hisses, not hesitating to shoot the man directly between the eyes. Nightswan wasn't bluffing, he wasn't the man to do that, Eli was certain, he was running against the clock now. Thankfully, Nightswan's ship was large enough for Eli to sneak around his pirates, no one in a group larger than two, giving Eli ample opportunity to make it back to the hanger. The ship he'd come in was being searched, but one of the ships left on the farther edges was completely alone. He was able to commandeer the ship, leave the hangar and punch his coordinates in before anyone realized he was the one on board.
Thrawn was waiting for him when he returned, met him in the hangar of the Chimaera, looking at him in a way he never had before. He was angry. But he didn't say anything to him yet, instead, he silently led the way back to his office. Once alone in his office, Eli started.
"He's dead." Thrawn stared at him blankly for a moment. "I killed him Thrawn, and if he was telling the truth, we have limited time before high command receives and reviews his file."
"How could you do this Eli?" Thrawn sighs, some of his anger ebbing, but he was clearly still livid. Eli simply stepped closer to the Chiss, and gave him a hard slap across the face.
"How kirffing dare you keep this from me you daft idiot!" He shouts, grabbing Thrawn's cheeks and turning his head back towards him. Still seemingly in shock that Eli struck him he took a moment to respond.
"Eli I-"
"I know you feel the need to protect me or something, but we're a team Thrawn, a single entity with two minds. Never keep things from me, ever again." Slowly Thrawn nodded.
"I am sorry Eli."
"I'm sorry for hitting you also, even though you deserved it. Now, we gotta go."
"I had hoped that there was another option for us, I was not prepared to give up on the Empire quite yet, but it seems we have no choice now."
"No we have a choice, together at least, now get packing." Thrawn leaned down, and Eli met him half way in a gentle kiss. "Stars, I love you." He sighs, smiling as Thrawn smiles down at him.
"As do I love you Eli."
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The Mandalorian Season 3 Predictions: What to Expect
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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.
After eight exciting episodes of adventures all over the galaxy far, far away, The Mandalorian season 2 has come to an end. A daring rescue mission brings Mando, Bo-Katan, and the rest of their crew face to face with the evil Moff Gideon, who has worked all season to capture Grogu for nefarious purposes. What ensues is a battle to the death that includes lots of stormtroopers, killer dark troopers, and even a clash of blades. But even after that fight was over, no one could have seen the finale’s massive cameo coming.
Luke Skywalker swoops in on his trusty X-wing to save the day, just as the heroes are cornered by a platoon of dark troopers on the bridge of Gideon’s cruiser. Like a true Jedi Master, Luke easily fights his way through the Imperial combat droids, slicing his way to the bridge with his green-bladed lightsaber, putting an end to Gideon’s forces once and for all.
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But Luke’s arrival on the show is bittersweet as it also means Mando’s time with Grogu has come to an end. With Luke taking Grogu away to train the little Jedi, you might be wondering where this leaves things for The Mandalorian season 3? What’s next for Mando and his friends, and when might we see Grogu next?
Here are some of the things you should expect from season 3:
The Liberation of Mandalore
It’s pretty clear by the end of season 2 where Mando, Bo-Katan, and Koska Reeves are headed next. Now that they’ve taken control of the Imperial cruiser and an arsenal of weapons, reacquired the Darksaber, and captured Gideon, the heroes seem to have everything they need to finally liberate Mandalore from the Empire.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Mandalorian homeworld were the very first stop of season 3, as the stage seems set for a pretty large battle worthy of a season premiere. And we know Mando is along for the ride since he promised in the season 2 finale that he’d fight for Bo-Katan’s cause in exchange for her help rescuing Grogu.
In fact, Mando’s participation in the liberation of Mandalore seems mandatory at this point since he’s technically the rightful wielder of the Darksaber…
Darksaber Drama
…which makes him the new Mand’alor, the leader of the entire Mandalorian race. And as a cackling Gideon explains in the season 2 finale, the blade can only be won in battle, which means Bo-Katan will have to fight Mando for the Darksaber if she hopes to rule Mandalore once again. As reluctant as Mando is to keep the weapon, offering it to Bo-Katan several times, she can’t just take it, apparently.
These Darksaber rules of succession are a bit of a retcon since Bo-Katan first acquired the weapon when Sabine Wren awarded it to her on Star Wars Rebels. They didn’t actually fight for it, and she seemed fine with that then. But I guess Mando simply handing Bo-Katan the Darksaber isn’t quite as dramatic for a high-profile Disney+ series.
How this Darksaber drama might be resolved is anyone’s guess, but judging from the way Bo-Katan coolly stares at Mando as he holds the blade in the finale, it’s unlikely that she’ll move on from getting the weapon back. Does this mean Mando and Bo-Katan are going to become enemies in season 3?
One thing that does seem clear is that season 3 won’t see Mando ascend the throne of an entire planet. Not only does Mando have zero interest in keeping the Darksaber but the show’s structure wouldn’t really allow for this kind of story development anyway. The Mandalorian has found a lot of success by stringing together largely standalone episodes that see the protagonist hop from place to place, completing bounties and helping other characters he meets along the way. Making Mando ruler of Mandalore, and therefore stranding him on the planet for most of the season, seems like an unnecessary shift in storytelling.
Where’s Grogu?
Although The Mandalorian season 2 seemed to conclude Grogu’s story on the show, it’s unlikely Disney will bench the show’s most beloved character for very long. Even if he doesn’t appear alongside Mando throughout season 3, we could get at least one episode that continues the little Jedi’s story and shows where Luke and Grogu went after their meeting on the Imperial cruiser.
While the first few episodes of season 3 could focus on the liberation of Mandalore and the direct aftermath of Bo-Katan’s mission, the show could give Mando a reason to go searching for Grogu once again, picking up Luke’s trail and following it around the galaxy. It’s also possible that Luke could bring Grogu back to the bounty hunter if the little Jedi decided that he wanted to be with Mando instead.
More Thrawn Hints
One of the great things about The Mandalorian is the show’s ability to do quite a lot of world-building while telling an intimate story with just a few characters at the same time. While following Mando and Grogu’s adventures, we’ve learned more about the Imperial remnant, the power vaccuum left in the wake of Jabba’s death on Tatootine, the movement to take back Mandalore, Jedi lore on Tython, the state of the New Republic, and more.
“The Jedi” also gave us a big hint as to where the Disney+ Star Wars universe might be headed: the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. We learn in arguably the show’s best episode so far that Ahsoka Tano is searching for Thrawn, and that after defeating the Magistrate, she’s one step closer to finding him.
The mere mention of Thrawn’s name likely sent fans of ’90s Star Wars novels into a frenzy, especially those who still hold dear Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, the book that introduced the Imperial villain and kicked off a new era of storytelling in the galaxy far, far away set after Return of the Jedi. Since The Mandalorian takes place during the same era as Heir to the Empire did in the no-longer-canon Legends continuity, many fans have speculated that “The Jedi” was the start of a rebooted version of the classic Thrawn saga.
Disney also recently announced two other live-action shows set in the time period of The Mandalorian, Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka, which will lead into a big event on Disney+. With Ahsoka’s clear ties to Thrawn and The Mandalorian establishing the Imperial remnant, the Grand Admiral’s story could continue to develop on the original Star Wars live-action series before he finally makes his arrival in Ahsoka or that big event.
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Speaking of “The Jedi,” the episode was also the jumping off point for Ahsoka’s very own live-action series, serving as a backdoor pilot that re-introduced the character for general audiences as well as teased out her motivations and future adventures. The Mandalorian season 3 could do the same for Rangers of the New Republic, an upcoming live-action series we currently no nothing about besides the fact that it takes place at the same time as Mando’s adventures and that it has a cool title.
Perhaps Mando runs into the Rangers while on another mission in the Outer Rim? One theory suggests it’ll be a new group of New Republic lawmen led by Cara Dune. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Sabine Wren?
We speculated during the final weeks of season 2 that Rebels protagonist Ezra Bridger could be the Jedi who would find Grogu in the finale. There was some evidence to support this theory. Not only had many other characters from the animated series appeared on The Mandalorian by that point but Ahsoka’s very own storyline on the show was tied to finding Thrawn, who went missing with Ezra at the end of Rebels. It made narrative sense for Ezra to appear on the show as a surprise character who would save the day.
But it wasn’t Ezra who showed up on Gideon’s cruiser to take Grogu away. And now that an Ahsoka series has been announced, it’s more likely that the character will make his debut on that show.
That doesn’t mean one of the other Rebels characters yet to appear on The Mandalorian couldn’t make her debut in season 3. We’re of course talking about Mandalorian warrior and former Rebel operative Sabine Wren, who not only has ties to Ahsoka but also to the Darksaber and Bo-Katan. She fought on Mandalore the last time Bo-Katan and her fellow Mandalorians fought to free the planet from the Imperial puppet government. It would make sense for Sabine to join this new mission to liberate Mandalore and protect the Darksaber.
Crossover Episode with Boba Fett
Disney seems very interested in creating a cohesive shared universe of live-action Star Wars series. Ahsoka really kicked off on The Mandalorian and so did The Book of Boba Fett, the series that will premiere this December ahead of season 3. And what better way to keep that shared universe going than to have crossover episodes between shows? Since Boba Fett has already appeared quite prominently on The Mandalorian, there’s no reason he couldn’t return for an episode on the original Star Wars live-action series.
Another Cobb Vanth Adventure
Timothy Olyphant’s Tatooine marshal was an overnight hit, which makes him a good candidate to become a recurring character on the show. With so much of the show taking place on the legendary desert planet already, it wouldn’t be surprising for Mando to make another stop next season to see what Cobb Vanth is up to. Maybe Freetown is in trouble again and Cobb needs Mando’s help to protect it. Or perhaps Mando recruits Cobb for his crew of gunslingers. Either way is fine as long as we get more Olyphant.
The Mandalorian season 3 goes into production this year and will air after The Book of Boba Fett.
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Star Wars Rare Pair Exchange Letter
Hello and thank you for selecting one of my ships to write for! I am super excited to see what you come up with. Below I have listed my DNW’s and some prompts for each ship I have requested in the exchange. Please heed the DNW’s, there are not many, but the prompts I have written are more a suggestion and jumping off point than an absolute must-do. If you have an idea you would rather pursue for the pair please do so, I am sure it will be fantastic!
DNW: Underage, incest, a fic focusing on procreation(sex is fine with protection!)/babies/taking care of children, or a fic that could pass as gen. We are here for rare PAIRS! Not rare friends, lol. Angsty themes/set up is also fine but please have a positive ending, and at least 1/2 of the fic as the comfort aspect.
Write whatever rating you are comfortable with, however T and up is preferred. NSFW and Xenobiology type things are welcome as is just cute date night and other romantic fluff! AUs are totally fine by me, but I’d prefer them to be sort of generic (like a modern/city AU or pirate AU, that sort of thing) rather than franchise specific (such as a Lord of the Rings AU) since I’ve not delved into many fandoms and would like to know what is going on. Also high fantasy and regency type AU is not a preference of mine, so I would also appreciate that whole genre just not be written for my requests. Thanks!
I’ve separated everything out by the categories in the exchange below.
Canon Crossovers:
Armitage Hux/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
It’s Thrux! I find the dynamic potential between these two to be fascinating. Feel free to use some Star Wars sillies to bridge the age gap (hyperspace stasis from the end of Rebels to the sequel trilogy, for instance.) The fic does not need to focus on Thrawn sweeping in to ‘save’ the First Order because frankly I think Hux is very competent. Just explore the relationship between Hux and Thrawn however you see fit I suppose is what I mean, be it via their first meeting or 100th night together!
Ezra Bridger/Luke Skywalker
Two beautiful sunbeams! This one can be a bit of a free-for-all, seeing there is so much for them to bond over be it the force/looking at Kanan’s holocron, piloting, or even their status as orphans. To write feels or not to write feels, now that is the question. Some potential prompts can be exploring the force and realizing they can sense the feelings (and crush) that they have on each other, or sitting around after a battle and finding comfort in each other due to the shared experiences they have. Ok perhaps I’m leaning to feels…
Canon EU
Brierly Ronan/Eli Vanto
(Treason spoilers ahoy! Skip down to Wyl to not see these…)
So, these two morons (who we love dearly) got themselves ‘stranded’ in the Chiss Ascendancy. If the Chiss gave Eli a frigid welcome, I can only imagine how they treat Ronan. Not well is my best guess. Eli isn’t exactly Ronan’s best friend at first, but realizes that this transition is difficult and lends a hand when he can and treats him kindly. Things slowly escalate from there…
Orson Krennic/Brierly Ronan
If you read the book you know exactly what it implies… Orson has Brierly by the heart, and frankly I think that Orson is bound to fall for anyone who praises him as much as Brierly does. This ship can lead to office shenanigans, a night on the town judging architecture, or other simple things made Extra as Heck by this duo.
Wyl Lark/Nath Tensent
Wyl brings out the best in Nath, and I think the same can be said to be going in reverse. I love the potential in this ship. Just some really great pilot beans. At the end of the novel, at the party, Nath and Wyl wander off and are really enjoying themselves, that could be a good jumping off point. I’m also totally down for plopping these beans in an AU.
Originals
Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker
The best pilots in the Rebellion! In love! How can you go wrong with that? Comfort fic has a lot of potential here, but so does just them sharing in something they love, like a hobby or book. AUs welcome if you would like!
Clone Wars
Obi-Wan Kenobi/Hondo Ohnaka
Or as I like to call it, chaos shipping. I’d greatly appreciate this one tackled in a post-order 66 timeline rather than during the Clone Wars series, or in an AU. I just think it opens up a whole lot of potential seeing there is less guilt in breaking the Jedi Code for our friend Obi-Wan. Plus, I think that's about when he needs the bottle of never ending positivity that is older no-longer-a-pirate-king Hondo.
Rebels
Alexsandr Kallus/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
In a world where Thrawn chose to not break Alexsandr’s leg for the third time in his life… This ship has so many different ways it could go, but I think my favorite is Alexsandr choosing not to defect and becoming Thrawn’s right hand in the ISB. Think of all the problems that could have been avoided! And you can bet these two are up to shenanigans off duty…
Ezra Bridger/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Purrgil King
Its crack and I love it. Purgill King uniting these idiots. Probably playing with them like Barbie dolls! “Now Kiss!” Said the Purrgil King, smooshing faces together until they agreed to stop biting each other…
Kanan Jarrus/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
Kanan goes undercover in the Empire enough that eventually he was bound to be caught. An AU could also be fun here to make them slightly less ‘mortal enemies’. Kanan could also offer ‘goods’ to help free Hera if you catch my drift there wink wink.
Hera Syndulla/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
Honestly just replace ‘Kanan’ with ‘Hera’ in the above. It’s an aesthetic ship with lots of ways that it could work. This is another one where an AU could help smooth things down, but it’s also a load of fun in the canon to think how it could work, perhaps Hera as the TIE Pilot at the helm of the Defender program. Something tells me it would go much differently with an expert at the controls.
Resistance
Neeku Vozo/Kazuda Xiono
Cute! Boys! Teamwork! Sparkles! Honestly these two are absolute fluff and I am here for it. Kaz and Neeku are also both oblivious as all heck, so maybe it will take someone like Tam pointing out that their emotions are mutual. Either way it's just cute and amazing!
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Theory - How Thrawn Created Reylo and what it could possibly mean for Episode 9
So, my friend @reyloisthelastjedi recently finished reading the Star Wars: Thrawn novel and was finally able to understand why I had changed my username from Reylo-n-starwars to Thrawn-Created-Reylo. And it was during this moment of realization that she took her fangirling here to tumblr and had sparked some interest in my silly theory.
So, for those of you who don’t want to read through another book and dig too deeply into such small fragments of possible Reylo goodness, I have taken the time to summarize the theory here for all of you to read without needing to dive into the Thrawn novel. (Though I highly recommend it, especially if you watched Rebels.)
Spoilers, of course, for the Thrawn novels, TLJ novel and Star Wars: Rebels ahead!
First, who is Thrawn?
To understand the theory as a whole, I have to explain Thrawn’s character first, and showcase who he is as a person and how he affects the people and places around him.
The third season of the television series Star Wars: Rebels is where we are first (re)introduced to Thrawn, an alien who had recently achieved Grand Admiral status in the Imperial Navy. Right away, from the way he speaks down to his very theme music, we know he is a soft-spoken individual who carries himself with a cold confidence and is capable of incredible power and destruction due to his intelligence, rank and unwavering determination. In appearance and personality, he is the complete opposite of Darth Vader. And that doesn’t make him isn’t any less terrifying.
We see Thrawn mostly through the perspective of the Rebels, which is done entirely on purpose as we are supposed to sympathize with the heroes. We see through Ezra’s eyes that Thrawn can be quite ruthless, going so far as to murder a Rebel spy in front of his friends in what appears to be a demonstration of his intolerance for moles in the Empire -- which later comes into play with Fulcrum. So it’s made explicitly clear that he is the villain the Rebels have to beat.
The first Thrawn novel, however, takes the very idea that Rebels presents us and flips it on its head, changing our perspective and causes us to view all his scenes in Rebels in an entirely new light. An impressive feat for all the writers behind Thrawn, and again why I recommend the book in the first place if you watch the TV series.
Thrawn is so much more than he appears on the TV screen. Now seeing him through the eyes of an Imperial named Eli Vanto, we are shown that he is both confident and unsure, cold but not heartless, caring but firm. He has no intention of hurting people without reason, as he views violence as unnecessary. He is willing to fight, and sometimes kill, if it means saving more lives in the process.
He has a strange innocence to him, despite being a seasoned soldier. He faces racism and prejudice regularly in the Empire, and doesn’t quite grasp the concept of it. He is extremely polite, willing to listen, he’s happy to allow his subordinates the chance to grow and learn. He’s stubborn, respectful and somewhat temperamental toward those who are wasteful of resources and lack intelligence.
A prime example of who Thrawn is as a character is in his very first scene in Rebels, where it is pointed out that civilian casualties outnumbered the death of Rebels during the battle of Batonn. Thrawn does not deny this outright, as Pryce jumps in to defend Thrawn’s brutal tactics, giving no room for him to speak on the matter.
What the show fails to tell you is that Pryce was the reason so many civilians had died, and Thrawn had nothing to do with it, but had his suspicions of Pryce’s involvement. He, however, had agreed to not mention Pryce being responsible for the casualties due to his determination to achieve the Grand Admiral rank to further his own personal goals: Helping his people and Eli.
Thrawn’s desire for the status of Grand Admiral was not entirely a selfish one, which is often the case for most Imperials climbing to the top. So in that scene, he does not rise to defend himself as part of the agreement with Pryce, who got him promoted in the first place. But only if he stopped digging for answers about the casualties on Batonn.
And above all else, Thrawn is patient. Extremely patient. He is willing to wait for the exact right moment to begin any plan he comes up with and not a moment before. He also capable of predicting future outcomes just by closely studying culture, art and history. To him, everything has a pattern, and these patterns inevitably repeat, giving him the appearance of having an impressive foresight without the use of the Force; much to the dismay of those in his company.
How was he involved in the creation of Reylo?
The first Thrawn novel delves into how Thrawn first joins up with the Empire. After leaving an impression on some investigating Imperials on a planet he was pretending to be exiled on, he’s taken directly to Palpatine, where he strikes a clever deal with the Emperor that secures him a place in the Imperial Navy as a lieutenant.
That deal? Not only did Thrawn pique Palpatine’s interest by telling him he had met Anakin Skywalker during The Clone Wars, but also that his people, the Chiss, resided in the Unknown Regions. Thrawn had a better understanding of the dark areas of space that Palpatine’s men were struggling to map out. In order to secure the map in Thrawn’s head, Palpatine had to secure Thrawn himself. A man in power always seeks more to control. Thrawn knew this, and played right along.
After joining the Empire, Thrawn happily provided all he knew about the Unknown Regions to Palpatine, providing him the map he needed for his Contingency plan. A plan that, in the event that the Emperor should fall, Palpatine would see that his Empire would destroy itself while simultaneously ensuring its rebirth, so the Empire would have no real successor, but be reborn as something new and persist in years to come.
Palpatine left Thrawn’s map on a planet that nearly bordered the Unknown Regions: Jakku.
After the Emperor’s Fall, the Imperials fled to Jakku and the battle above the planet took place. The instructions to destroy the remaining Imperials, the Republic and Jakku was to proceed as planned, but had failed. In their last moments, the remaining Imperials used Thrawn’s map and fled off Jakku to the Unknown Regions of space, where they temporarily settled to rebuild.
And it was here, in the unknown darkness of space, the Imperials had the time to be reborn as The First Order. The very Order that would ultimately become a sanctuary for a broken and lonely Ben Solo, and give rise to Kylo Ren, who would inevitably come face to face with Rey, a scavenger girl from Jakku. Jakku being the very place that ended the Empire, but led to the rise to The First Order.
Patterns.
What does this mean for the future?
In the Thrawn novel, Thrawn himself spends the entirety of the book searching for Nightswan, an individual whose intelligence and foresight rivals his own. At the end of the book Thrawn attempts to recruit Nightswan, not for the Empire, rather, for the Chiss Ascendancy. For his own people.
Thrawn reveals that his people sent him to the Empire after Anakin suggested they should join the Republic. The Chiss had decided to see if the Empire would either be their savior against a terrible darkness or their destroyer, and Thrawn was chosen to, more or less, scope out the matter and return to his people the information he discovered. Hilariously enough, despite his dislike for moles, he is in fact a mole himself for the Chiss.
This section of the novel is important because it reveals that while Thrawn is loyal to the Empire, he is only loyal to an extent. He is using the Empire, in much the way Palpatine is using him for his knowledge of the Unknown Regions. And the only reason Thrawn remains in the Empire is to secure himself a position that will help influence who will take Palpatine’s place when the Emperor inevitably falls.
It is Thrawn’s hope that someone will take Palpatine’s place, someone who will bring peace and light to a galaxy filled with darkness and chaos. Palpatine is merely a stepping stone for the future Thrawn has already deduced.
Thrawn gave Palpatine a map to the Unknown Regions, Thrawn knew Palpatine would eventually fall and someone else would take his place. Thrawn was preparing himself, and small snippets of the galaxy, for the arrival of someone who could bring hope and light to the galaxy.
Thrawn had prepared the throne for Kylo Ren to inevitably take, so that Rey could help save him and finally bring light to a darkened galaxy. Did he know Kylo Ren specifically would take it? No, was he hopeful someone less evil would take Palpatine’s place? Yes.
By giving Palpatine that map, Thrawn had set everything in motion. A single ripple in a sea of events that would lead Kylo Ren to the Empire’s throne. Kylo Ren, the very man that Snoke had said had too much light in him. Too much of his father. Too much good.
Ben Solo was the one Thrawn hoped would take over the Empire. And Rey is the key to bringing Ben Solo back.
Did Thrawn really predict this outcome so far ahead of his time?
Honestly, this is something I cannot say with absolute certain. Every form of current-canon media that involves Thrawn writes him as someone who is always thinking eight steps ahead of any normal individual, and the stories portray him as such even to us readers. He’s always one step ahead of the reader, his stories are always written from another character’s perspective, so we’re always left wondering what he’s up to. And when we are given a glimpse through Thrawn’s eyes, it’s never about his ultimate goal, but rather the task he faces at that point in time.
We are given some glimpses into what Thrawn truly wants out of the Empire, which is of course the Chiss people to survive and succeed, and for Eli to become someone far greater than the Empire gives him credit. So we know that, above all else, Thrawn wants the people he cares about to survive, and takes great care in never mentioning where his homeworld is. Where his darling treasures reside.
Plus, according to the Behind the Scenes section on Thrawn’s Wookieepedia page, Thrawn was initially created during the era of Star Wars where the fandom, and Star Wars itself, was more or less on the verge of falling off the face of the planet after Return of the Jedi hit home video. We all are very familiar with the life cycle of a fandom: A series debuts, a fandom arises, the series concludes, the fandom disappears. This is because interest gradually dies off with a lack of consistent content.
At that point in time, Star Wars was no different. The final movie had run its course of excitement, the fandom faded, people began to move on and forget about Star Wars. So when the original Thrawn trilogy released, it sparked a renewed love in the franchise and Thrawn had became a major player in keeping Star Wars alive; resulting in the franchise gaining a permanent residence in our world’s history. So of course, when the Expanded Universe became Legends, Thrawn fell in with the non-canon crowd. Until Star Wars: Rebels reintroduced the character on screen for the first time, cementing his legacy into Star Wars canon.
I point this out because I feel it’s good to keep in mind Thrawn is an important character for Star Wars. His trilogy of novels helped keep the entirety of the franchise afloat as the Expanded Universe came into existence, and I am sure a lot of the current staff at LucasFilms know this. For that, it’s very likely that his reintroduction into the current canon is taken quite seriously; he’s not a side character whose lines are thoughtless and not important. He, like Armitage Hux, shapes the story even when you can’t see him doing so, and that every facial twitch and line spoken has layers of meaning, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
He predicted that Palpatine, like all powers, would eventually fall, and his hope was someone more balanced, more light-filled, would take his place. It’s very likely that he had set the pieces in motion to ensure that was the case, regardless if he was present for it or not. But given with how Thrawn is always portrayed, we may never actually know if it was his goal the moment he stepped foot into the Emperor’s throne room in the first novel, or if things just happened to fall that way after he handed the information on the Unknown Regions to Palpatine.
Some could argue that Palpatine’s Contingency plan would have happened regardless of Thrawn’s involvement. But because Thrawn handed Palpatine all he needed on a silver platter, setting in motion the creation of the First Order and ultimately Kylo Ren, who is being set up to help Rey bring balance to the Force and the entire galaxy, I do enjoy the idea that Thrawn had indeed set up the dominoes that would eventually collapse into a beautiful reveal of Reylo artwork.
Thanks to @reyloisthelastjedi for providing pictures from the novelizations! And for nudging me to finish this long piece of Thrawn blurb and for some ideas on what to include, including the lil Kylo Ren Is Hope bit. <3
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Some clarifications...
Okay, wow. So apparently the Thrawn-turns-traitor theory has caused quite the disruption in the fandom. And while I love discussion and spirited debate within a fandom (that’s one of the best things about being in a fandom, imo), upset fans is not a good thing. So.
As far as this theory not fitting in with Thrawn’s character, numerous posts have already been made on this point. Check out @inkstranger, @cystemic, and @moomkin92 for a few good arguments on why Thrawn turning traitor actually does fit well into his new canon character. Because of that, I’ll address this as briefly as I can, starting with the main protests from those who don’t like this theory.
First off, Thrawn is a highly logical and complex character. And I think we can all agree that he is nowhere near petty or vindictive enough to target the Death Star simply because it’s getting more attention than his TIEs. I never meant to imply otherwise, and I don’t think anyone else did either. But I’ll get more into why that part of the trailer sparked the return of this theory in a little bit.
Another point of contention seems to be the loss of life. It’s true that Thrawn is significantly bothered by collateral damage and the loss of innocent life. This, too, has been established. However, the keyword here is innocent. As @moomkin92 said, facilitating the deaths of thousands of Imperial military officers and personnel is very different from facilitating the deaths of billions of innocent civilians. Which is the purpose of the Death Star.
Now, keep in mind that Thrawn’s core loyalty, his strongest loyalty, is to his people. If it comes down to the Empire or the Chiss, Thrawn is going to choose the Chiss without hesitation.
So here’s where the theory comes in. Assisting in the destruction of the Death Star, however indirectly, does carry a heavy cost: the loss of every Imperial life on board the station, including people Thrawn respects. However, allowing it to exist carries the following dangers: the loss of billions of lives and entire planets, one of which might eventually be his own. For an analytical person like Thrawn, one of those outcomes is clearly far less desirable than the other. Neither outcome is great, but destroying the Death Star does more ultimate good than bad, and Thrawn is all about “the ends justify the means”.
That being said, his intentions in helping Galen Erso plant a weakness in the Death Star would be similarly complex. And while doing so would help out the Rebellion, I believe that Thrawn would see this as more of an unavoidable side effect than an actual goal. Remember again that his primary motivation, his reason for living almost, is to protect his people, and this brings me to the strongest argument in favor of this theory.
Thrawn would not weaken the Death Star for the benefit of the Rebellion. He would do so to protect his people. Because if the Empire ever decides to go after the Ascendancy, he would want to give the Chiss a way of combating the Death Star. Because there is no defense against it. The only way to stop it is to destroy it. And rather than wasting time trying to find a way to destroy it after it’s already been turned on them, it would be a very Thrawn thing to do to plant something in advance as a sort of safety switch. Because this is what Thrawn does. He plays the long game. And he’s not stupid. He certainly knows that the Emperor would dispose of his people in a heartbeat if he thought it necessary.
Also remember that Thrawn is in the Empire because he needs its strength to defend his people. Giving the Rebels this weakness serves as a sort of test of this strength, because if the Rebels manage to destroy the Death Star, the Empire is not, in fact, strong enough for his purposes. And, hearkening back to his conversation with Nightswan, if the Empire and Rebellion are squabbling, it could provide a more appealing target for that unknown evil, thus buying himself, his people, and Eli more time to figure out how to defeat it.
Planting a weakness in the Death Star is, in my opinion, classic new-canon Thrawn. It serves multiple purposes at once, plans for the long term, and ensures that his people have a defense against it if necessary.
Now let me address why the Rebels S4 trailer in particular brought this theory back up for me. I came at this with my original post not from the perspective of a viewer or a fan, but from the perspective of a writer. I’ve been writing and studying stories since I was a kid. I am intimately familiar with their construct.
In order to pull off a twist as massive as Thrawn being involved in the destruction of the Death Star, you must foreshadow the hell out of it. The interesting part of this is that the foreshadowing is, in fact, there. His conversation with Nightswan about weakening a lesser opponent to distract a larger threat is one form of foreshadowing. The other is the fact that the Death Star was a recurring focus for Thrawn throughout the novel, and he had an obvious dislike for it. Even Eli’s distaste for it is another piece of the set up.
Now we have the Death Star being brought into Rebels S4. From the perspective of a writer, it wasn’t so much the context in which it was brought in, it was the fact that it is brought in at all. And specifically, that it is brought in as a plot line for Thrawn himself. It is a direct continuation from the book, which is where all that foreshadowing lies.
I’m not saying this is going to happen. I’m not even saying it’s likely. I’m saying that, from the perspective of a writer, it’s possible. It’s feasible. Because the set up for it is there. If the Rebels team wanted to use it, all of the groundwork for this twist was laid out in the novel. They would have had to do a little more foreshadowing in this upcoming season of the show to really make it a strong, believable turnaround for Thrawn, but they really wouldn’t have to do a lot.
So there it is. My reasons for why I am partial to this theory. It works for the character: his motivations, his loyalties, and his MO all line up with him taking this action. It also makes my writer’s senses tingle, because I love massive set ups like this.
Hopefully this helps mitigate some of the upset caused by this theory. You are more than free to disagree with everything I just said. Again, that’s the beauty of a fandom: being able to discuss and debate and challenge one another in a respectful and civil fashion over something we all love. And that can’t happen if we all agree on everything. So disagree. Debate. But have fun with it, allow others to have fun with it, give others the respect for their opinions that you also deserve for yours, and remember that at the end of the day, we’re all here because we love Thrawn.
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Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising (Chapter One - Chapter Four)
Heavy spoilers below!
Chapter One
Space outside Chiss borders is known as “the Chaos”
Space is very difficult to navigate due to (according to legends within the text itself) a “series of chained supernova explosions” that sent a massive, chaotic chain reaction throughout the region, resulting “in the constantly changing hyperlanes,” hence the need for sky-walkers.
The Chaos also holds “dangers... hidden worlds and tyrants who sought conquest and destruction.” Dun dun dun!
General Ba’kif seems to be on the same level, intelligence wise, as Thrawn. It is a good pairing thus far. Zahn gets to show Thrawn being super smart and observant without it being too much.
Excellent summation of Thrawn:
loves chasing down enigmas and working through puzzles
sees connection where others can’t/couldn’t
higher-ups don’t want him anywhere near them
only sees the surface situation and misses the political subtleties
I like this Samakro guy. No-nonsense and straight to the point.
Thrawn really is the only Chiss, really the only person, who talks the way he does. Making him stick out all the more. Who taught him to talk like that? Where did he learn how to talk like that? I need some more background on lil’ Thrawn!
“subsequent death of Syndic Mitth’ras’safis and the loss of valuable alien technology.”
don’t do that to us Zahn, damn
Outbound Flight slowly coming back into canon, piece by painful piece (Thrass!! Lorana! C’baoth!?... we will have to wait and see)
Memories II
So, my first impression of sky-walkers is that they are like children caught in a messy, contentious divorce. At least in the case of Ali’astov, she is used like a pawn between fighting parties and kind of neglected until deemed useful again.
world-building: sky-walkers abilities typically last until they are age 14
Thrawn is genuinely nice to kids/tweens and connects with them so well. That is really sweet.
Al’iastov comes across as pessimistic and sulky but to be fair to her - she was taken from her home at a young age, lost her Third Sight ability, and is now being shunted to a new family. That is a lot for a 13-year-old.
Chapter Two
Thalias joined the Mitth family because one person from that family showed her a bit of kindness. Yikes.
Her early life suggests it was unstable at best - got punted around to different caregivers.
And does Thalias have a crush on Thrawn or just a strong attachment?
Good to see there is plenty of bureaucratic bullshit within the Ascendancy (I say, sarcastically) on top of the politics.
who alerted Thurfian he needed to help Thalias? I have to assume they have systems in place for detecting this, but he came in at just the right time.
So it had been two decades since Thalias “had to even read a military timetable”... so is she 33-ish?
Thalias finds the sky-walker playing some sort of “tap-click game on her questis.”
Is that some sort of Chiss version of Angry Birds or Candy Crush?
Does this mean there are app/game developers within the Chiss workforce? Interesting...
Che’ri - means “beloved,” “cherished,” “darling”, “sweetheart” in French
nearly 10 years old
odd comment: “sky-walkers tended to be on the short side.” What does that mean?
had eight caregivers before Thalias shows up?! Dang.
cute quote: “I am not supposed to talk like that about people.”
Yeah, just not in public!
nut-paste sandwiches are now canon!
Thrawn must have been a cat in a past life because:
he is sneaky
he is quiet
he has a hard time relating to actual people with few exceptions
he needs constant care because if not, he will inevitably mess something up
Ar’alani: Thrawn, what in the flying fuck do you think you’re doing?! Get back into formation!
Thrawn: reads the message, does not respond
this jerkwad. I love him. And poor Ar’alani, she has been dealing with him for years, if not decades!
Ar’alani: Mind keeping me in the loop going forward?
Thrawn: mmmm... maybe.
Thrawn: “I’ve had the protocols concerning preemptive attacks carefully and specifically laid out for me.”
Yeah, I bet you have.
Samakro thoughts: “Just because the protocols had been laid out for him didn’t necessarily mean he’d listen.”
Protect Samakro.
Memories III
Irizi’ar’alani - her full name. :) Had to give it up when she joined the military.
Mitth family cannot be bothered to show up for their adopted son’s hearing. Eesh.
Ar’alani has literally been saving Thrawn’s neck since their school days.
Ar’alani is good at reading a room, calling for backup when needed, and condensing/explaining information. No wonder she is a good leader. No wonder Thrawn relies on her!
Chapter Three
Senior Captain Wutroow: “bogus. Totally bogus. Bogus to the ninth, factorial.”
I love her already
She and Ar’alani make a solid team. Ar’alani comes across more by-the-book and stately, whereas Wutroow seems a bit more loose and crafty.
I am really enjoying getting to learn more about Ar’alani. Zahn wrote her so well.
Again, the Mitth family letting Thrawn out to dry. Why adopt him then?! You can’t even help out your adopted son!?
Thrawn is known for being that fucking guy who loves art all the way up to the higher echelons of power. He is an outcast and the butt of a joke to his own kind. It’s funny and a bit sad (but mostly funny).
Chapter Four
It makes me so uncomfortable that sky-walkers are told/encouraged to push on and on and on some more, despite the heavy toll on them. Reminds me a bit of America’s grind till you die approach to work and of the Soviet Union’s hard push to make everyone perform at impossibly high standards. These are little kids and tweens. Cut them some slack.
Zahn really nailed down the sad/pathetic narcissism kids/tweens have at that age - everything is her fault, everything happens because of her.
Get the girl some therapy, STAT.
A bit weird that a 10-year-old girl needs a bath drawn for her, but maybe the overload spell is akin to a really bad hangover or the flu. You cannot function properly and need some help.
Samakro got some sass.
the chapter ending is so gold:
“You think there’ll be combat at the other end of this trip?”
“Thrawn’s there,” Ar’alani reminded her. “So, yes, I’d say that’s pretty much guaranteed.”
Wince Count
I have noticed Zahn really likes to use the word wince, so I’m going to count all the times the word is used throughout this novel for sh*ts and giggles. Thus far: 5 cumulative uses of the word.
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