Thrawn trilogy
  • Heir to the Empire (1991)
  • Dark Force Rising (1992)
  • The Last Command (1993)
AuthorTimothy Zahn
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBantam Spectra
Published1991–1993
Media type

The Thrawn trilogy, also known as the Heir to the Empire trilogy, is a trilogy of novels set in the Star Wars universe, written by Timothy Zahn between 1991 and 1993. The first book marked the end of the notable drought of new Star Wars material during a four-year period from the tenth anniversary of the original 1977 film's release to the release of Heir to the Empire in 1991.[1]

Set approximately five years after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi,[2] the trilogy details the offensive campaigns of military genius Grand Admiral Thrawn as he attempts to bring down the recently founded New Republic in a bid to restore the Galactic Empire to power. In addition to Thrawn, the trilogy introduced several notable characters, including Mara Jade and Talon Karrde.

The Thrawn Trilogy sold a combined total of 15 million copies,[3] with Heir to the Empire reaching #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.[4] The trilogy has been met with critical acclaim, and its success is credited to the creation of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU), with the planet Coruscant from the trilogy later being adapted by George Lucas to his prequel trilogy of Star Wars films.[5] On the EU's 2014 reboot, characters and concepts from the Thrawn trilogy were adapted to canon media, with Thrawn appearing in the television series Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka, portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen, Rukh appearing the former series voiced by Warwick Davis, and Gilad Pellaeon appearing in the third season of The Mandalorian portrayed by Xander Berkeley.[6] Zahn would also write two new alternate Thrawn trilogies in the new canon: Thrawn (2017–2019) and Thrawn Ascendancy (2020–2021), as well as consulting on Ahsoka.

Books

Heir to the Empire (1991)

In Heir to the Empire (1991), master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn plots to destroy the New Republic despite their numerical advantage over the remaining Imperial forces. He sets his sights on the Wayland storehouse of the late Emperor Palpatine, which contains a massive array of Spaarti cloning cylinders and a working cloaking shield. To this end, Thrawn and his subordinate Gilad Pellaeon, captain of the Star Destroyer Chimaera, enlist the help of smuggler Talon Karrde and his second-in-command Mara Jade to obtain several salamander-like creatures called ysalamiri. Thrawn uses the ysalamiri, which possess the natural ability to disrupt the Force, to subdue the storehouse's guardian Joruus C'baoth, a twisted clone of a Jedi Master whom the Grand Admiral had killed years before. C'baoth offers his allegiance in exchange for two acolytes to bend to his will: Darth Vader's twin children, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa. Thrawn sends some of his Noghri killers to capture Luke and a pregnant Leia, but their attempts repeatedly fail. Leia defends herself from one attack and is surprised when the Noghri suddenly surrenders. Thrawn launches his first offensive, a series of hit-and-run attacks into New Republic territory, and then steals a complement of mole miners from Lando Calrissian's mining operations on Nkllon. In need of warships, and with his previous tactics having forced over 100 lightly crewed ships to be stationed at the Sluis Van shipyards as he planned, Thrawn invades. His stormtroopers use the stolen miners to board and hijack the ships, but they are thwarted when Lando seizes control of the miners remotely. Thrawn withdraws his forces, but thanks to his plotting, his New Republic nemesis Admiral Ackbar is soon arrested for treason.[7][8][9]

Dark Force Rising (1992)

In Dark Force Rising (1992), it is revealed that before the Clone Wars, the Old Republic had constructed a fleet of highly automated heavy cruisers, known as the Katana fleet. A virus infected the crews of the entire fleet and drove them insane. The fleet was never seen again until Karrde discovered it (several years before the events of the first book). With access to Palpatine's private storehouse on the planet Wayland, Thrawn presses his advantage to marshal more forces for the battle against the New Republic. Mara Jade, in an attempt to exonerate the Empire's warrant for Karrde's arrest, goes to Thrawn and offers to reveal the location of the Katana fleet. Instead, he has her followed and Karrde is captured. Luke and Mara rescue Karrde from Thrawn's Star Destroyer as Thrawn attempts to capture another man who knows about the Katana fleet. Meanwhile, Leia learns that the Noghri serve the Empire because they revere her late father, Darth Vader, who they believe saved their planet Honoghr from ecological disaster. Leia convinces them that they have been deceived and effectively enslaved by the Empire, and they switch sides. With Ackbar temporarily neutralized as a tactical opponent, Thrawn leads an army of clones to claim the so-called "Katana fleet", outmaneuvering Luke, Lando, and Han Solo.[7][10][11]

The Last Command (1993)

In The Last Command (1993), set about a month after the previous book, Thrawn uses the Katana fleet, crewed with clones, to mount a successful offensive against the New Republic. Seizing one planet after the other, Thrawn soon immobilizes the galactic capital world, Coruscant. He has placed multiple cloaked asteroids around the planet, and through a ruse, he has led the New Republic leadership to believe that Coruscant is surrounded with them. Learning of the deception, the Republic fleet attacks the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi to capture a device that can find the cloaked asteroids, but Thrawn's forces intercept and surround them. Meanwhile, Luke and Leia lead a group to destroy the cloning facility on Wayland, killing C'baoth and destroying the cloning cylinders. Just as Thrawn and Pellaeon learn that the Noghri aided in the attack on Wayland, Thrawn's Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, kills the Grand Admiral—whose last words are, "But ... it was so artistically done." The tide of battle at Bilbringi turns, and with the hope of victory dashed by Thrawn's death, Pellaeon orders the Imperial forces to retreat.[7][8]

Development

The idea for a post-film trilogy was conceived by Lou Aronica, an editor at Bantam Books who proposed a series as "ambitious as the films were".[12] Lucas was initially skeptical of the proposal, but acquiesced; Bantam Spectra then brought Timothy Zahn on board to write the trilogy.[12]

Zahn was given freedom to develop the direction the story should go in, with minimal pushback from Lucasfilm.[5] Before starting work on the books, Zahn was only given two rules: the series had to take place three to five years after Return of the Jedi, and no characters killed in the films could return.[13] Changes requested by Lucasfilm included changing an evil clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi to the new character of Joruus C'baoth and the renaming of Rukh's species from Sith to Noghri.[5] In order to provide him with existing worldbuilding material, Lucasfilm supplied Zahn with supplementary content from the tabletop RPG Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.[5][13]

When conceiving of the antagonist for the series, Zahn desired a villain who was less brutal than Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine.[12] Instead, Zahn sought inspiration from military commanders throughout history and envisaged an adversary who could outsmart the protagonists.[12] In creating the character of Thrawn, Timothy Zahn said:

I think it’s because he was so different from any other villain we’d seen in Star Wars to that time. Most Imperials seemed to follow the “hit it with a rock” school of thought regarding opposition. Thrawn, in contrast, used strategy and careful planning and usually managed to be two or three steps ahead of the New Republic. Readers like their villains to be a challenge to the heroes because that forces the heroes to bring their best game to the field. The more clever the opponent, and the more difficult the fight, the more satisfying the victory.[14]

The original, working title for Heir to the Empire was "Wild Card", which was rejected by Lucasfilm because they believed it was too similar to Bantam's Wild Cards series. The alternate name "The Emperor's Hand" was also rejected.[13][15] Warlord's Gambit was also a potential title, but ultimately Heir to the Empire was chosen, which according to Zahn was suggested by Aronica.[15][16]

Adaptations

Denis Lawson, who portrayed Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy, narrates the abridged audiobook of Heir to the Empire, and Anthony Daniels, who portrayed C-3PO in every Star Wars film, narrates Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. Lucasfilm and Varèse Sarabande Records producer Robert Townson discussed the creation of a score to promote the trilogy.[lower-alpha 1][17][18] All three books were adapted as comic books by Dark Horse Comics between 1995 and 1998. The series was divided into six issues per book, written by Mike Baron, who says, "I didn't invent any language. All the language is Zahn's." The first volume was illustrated by French artists Olivier Vatine and Fred Blanchard, the second by Terry Dodson and Kevin Nowlan, and the third by Edvin Biuković and Eric Shanower.[19] The entire trilogy was collected in 2009 as a single graphic novel.[19] In 2011, a 20-year anniversary edition of the book was published, which included an introduction and annotations by Timothy Zahn, commentary by Lucasfilm and Del Rey books, and a new novella centered around the character of Thrawn.[20]

Each novel in the trilogy had its own Star Wars role-playing game sourcebook created for it by West End Games. When the rules for the Star Wars RPG changed the three volumes were collected into one book for the entire Thrawn trilogy which also served as a second edition to the original three sourcebooks. According to Zahn, the writing of the trilogy was coordinated with preexisting West End Games materials (at the behest of Lucasfilm). Also, "They filled in a bunch of gaps I hadn't got around to filling in."[21]

Reception

Heir to the Empire reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list,[4] and the trilogy sold a combined total of 15 million copies.[3] The trilogy has been called "influential, much-loved, and ground breaking".[22] In August 2011, the series was voted into NPR's top 100 science-fiction and fantasy books (coming in at place 88), as voted on by over 60,000 participants.[23] Writing for Tor.com, Ryan Britt stated that the Heir to the Empire was closer to traditional science fiction rather than the epic space fantasy Star Wars was known for; he also compliments the character of Mara Jade for improving the perception of female characters in the franchise and not adhering to "damsel in distress" stereotypes.[24] Zahn's use of supplementary material from Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game has been credited for creating a sense of unity between different publications, allowing for a more believable shared universe.[25]

Some reviews have been more critical, with prolific fansite author Jonathan Hicks saying that the Force is trivialised and that there were too many references to the original movies, in a 2000 review republished by starwars.com.[20]

The trilogy allowed Lucasfilm to expand its non-film media into the mainstream, as opposed to the more niche comic book and role-playing game markets it was previously focusing on.[25] The success of the series prompted Lucasfilm to immediately commission more books to continue the Star Wars story.[12]

Legacy

The Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing the Star Wars franchise,[26][27][21] although Zahn himself was skeptical of this.[12] In The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that this renewed interest was a factor in George Lucas' decision to create the Star Wars prequel trilogy.[21][28] The trilogy's success has been cited as beginning the Star Wars Expanded Universe.[5]

Zahn would go on to write a pair of sequel books, in the Hand of Thrawn duology (Specter of the Past (1997) and Vision of the Future (1998)), expanding on the background of the Thrawn character.[29] He would later develop Thrawn's legacy further by writing Survivor's Quest (2004), and subsequently the prequel novel Outbound Flight (2006).

Although Lucas did not consider the Expanded Universe to be canonical,[5] he adopted the name Coruscant for the galactic capital in the prequel trilogy, which was created by Zahn in the Heir to the Empire.[5][30] While the Thrawn trilogy was rendered noncanonical following the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, the character of Thrawn was later re-canonized by Lucasfilm since he is introduced on Star Wars Rebels, voiced by Lars Mikkelsen,[5][30] in which Rukh would also appear, voiced by Warwick Davis.[6] Additionally, Zahn would soon after return to write an alternate trilogy surrounding the Thrawn character, in Star Wars: Thrawn (2017), Thrawn: Alliances (2018), and Thrawn: Treason (2019),[30] would later create a prequel trilogy about the character in the Ascendency trilogy,[31] and consult on Thrawn's adaptation to live-action in the television series Ahsoka, Mikkelsen reprising his role as Thrawn from Rebels. Gilad Pellaeon would also make his live-action and Star Wars canon debut in the third season of The Mandalorian, portrayed by Xander Berkeley.

References

  1. ↑ "Star Wars in the UK: The Dark Times, 1987—1991". StarWars.com. April 15, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
  2. ↑ Sansweet, Stephen J. (1998). Star Wars Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Ballantine. p. xvii. ISBN 0-345-40227-8. OCLC 36960986.
  3. 1 2 Myers, Lindsay Rae (20 February 2014). "The Man Who Saved Star Wars: An Interview With Pensacon Guest Timothy Zahn". WUWF 88.1. WUWF. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  4. 1 2 "The New York Times Best Seller List" (PDF). Hawes.com. June 30, 1991. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "'Star Wars' writer reveals original vision for the sequels and his thoughts on 'The Last Jedi'". Yahoo!. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  6. 1 2 Liptak, Andrew (2017-04-15). "Another expanded universe character is coming to Star Wars Rebels, voiced by Warwick Davis". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  7. 1 2 3 Hansen-Raj, Linda (August 2, 2016). "Who Is Thrawn?". StarWars.com. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
  8. 1 2 "Grand Admiral Thrawn". StarWars.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
  9. ↑ Britt, Ryan (February 28, 2013). "How Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire Turned Star Wars into Science Fiction". Tor.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: Dark Force Rising". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  11. ↑ Britt, Ryan (March 7, 2013). "Not Rising Fast Enough: On Zahn's Dark Force Rising". Tor.com. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "30 years ago, Timothy Zahn resurrected Star Wars". Transfer Orbit. 4 May 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 "An interview with Timothy Zahn, author of Heir to the Empire". Zoklet. Archived from the original on 2010-05-21. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  14. ↑ "Timothy Zahn on Grand Admiral Thrawn: 'He's like an old friend who I understand completely'". The Verge. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  15. 1 2 "An interview with Timothy Zahn, author of Heir to the Empire". Zoklet.net. 1991. Archived from the original on May 21, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  16. ↑ Zahn, Timothy (2011). "Endnote 13". Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition. Del Rey Books. ISBN 978-0345528292.
  17. ↑ Gonzales, Dave (December 22, 2016). "The Greatest 'Star Wars' Spinoff Movie Was Everything but a Movie". Thrillist. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  18. ↑ Cotta Vaz, Mark (April 25, 2009). The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Star Wars. New York City: Del Rey. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-345-40236-3.
  19. 1 2 Baron, Mike (2015) [2009]. Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy. New York: Marvel Comics. p. 5.
  20. 1 2 "Critical Opinion: Heir To The Empire Reviews". starwars.com. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  21. 1 2 3 Kaminski, Michael (2008). The Secret History of Star Wars. New York City: Legacy Books Press. pp. 289–291. ISBN 978-0978465230.
  22. ↑ "Critical Opinion: Heir to the Empire Reviews". StarWars.com. April 4, 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books". NPR. August 11, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  24. ↑ "How Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire Turned Star Wars into Science Fiction". tor.com. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  25. 1 2 "How the Thrawn Trilogy Changed Star Wars Forever". CBR. 21 March 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  26. ↑ Bacon, Tom (January 23, 2017). "Thrawn, The Next Star Wars Novel, Promises To Transform The Franchise". Moviepilot. Archived from the original on 2017-03-12. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  27. ↑ "Timothy Zahn: Outbound Flight Arrival". StarWars.com. January 31, 2006. Archived from the original on February 4, 2006. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  28. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (November 2, 2012). "Star Wars sequel author Timothy Zahn weighs in on new movie plans". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn Duology – Legends Series". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  30. 1 2 3 "The Thrawn legacy: From page to screen, the greatest addition to 'Star Wars' mythology". The Daily Star. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  31. ↑ "Star Wars: The Ascendancy Trilogy Series". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 24 July 2022.

Notes

  1. ↑ They later collaborated on the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack.
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