Thrawn Timothy Zahn 2017 Science Fiction
“Where it will lead, I cannot say.” (Zahn 1)
Let me be frank here. (You can be Eli.) I had no idea until doing a little research before this blog post that Thrawn existed before Star Wars: Rebels. Go ahead, boo me off to an escape pod. I bet there are millions, if not billions, of Star Wars fans who also don’t know this.
BUT YES. Thrawn is originally an Expanded Universe, now Legends, character! Crafted into the canon universe with the animated series Rebels.
Here I was picking up (what I thought) was the first book about Thrawn and I find out it’s actually the fourth book Timothy Zahn has written about him. This entire canon series is a prequel to the events in Rebels! As we know (or do we..?) Thrawn’s fate at the end of that series. Looking through the wookieepedia page on Thrawn, the legends tab specifically, the amount of content about him is dizzying.
In just knowing that there is so much legends material out there about Thrawn post the battle of Endor, this changes my feelings about the ending of Rebels. A little. Not a lot. Since the canon is totally different than legends now as it is. But still changes it a little.
I’m also still a little numb about losing Kanan Jarrus, Jedi Knight but that’s not why we’re here today.
We’re looking to explore early thoughts I’m having about the first of these prequel Thrawn novels, the 2017 release of Thrawn. I’m currently about a third of the way into the book so far, and these are the first thoughts.
Arihnda Pryce.
Man oh man I was not expecting to be hearing about her outside of Rebels. And I’m not disliking it so far, so that’s a … plus? At the moment, nothing else to really say about her. She didn’t interest me that much in the show, seemed to be just another Imperial that will do anything for themselves and only themselves.
But back to Thrawn.
Everywhere he goes he’s turning heads. Not just because he’s blue. (That’s actually the biggest reason why. We all know how prejudiced the Empire is to any aliens. Thrawn is also a stand out amongst other cadets for a few more reasons as well. He has Cadet Eli Vanto by his side at almost all times as well as Eli can speak Sy Bisti, Thrawn’s native tongue. Thrawn knows some galatic Basic when he is captured intially by the Empire, but he learns more quickly.
He learns everything quickly. And can adapt and adjust as needed even quicker. Looking forward to getting more into his career with the Empire. Whatever happens next, I’m hoping Eli is still by his side. (He better be. Eli needs Thrawn, no matter what his parents may have said at graduation.)
