Why the thrawn trilogy is GREAT.

Hey guys let me know what you think!

[cheeseman]

I was 10 minutes in before I realized this wasn't one of those huge lore channels. Great Job!

[FrakkinGaiusBaltar]

Captain Pellaeon is one of the most underrated yet consequential imperial characters in the whole EU. Ultimately rising himself to the rank of Grand Admiral and leading the fractured Empire back together and into peace with the New Republic.

His presence in the trilogy is very endearing to read as he's basically the Watson to the Thrawn's Sherlock Holmes.

[Gunnumn]

I believe the most chilling part about Thrawn is that he seems like a pretty chill dude. Like if he invited you on the Chimara he would probably give you a glass of wine and want to talk about his paintings.

[dmitrysteinsapir]

The Thrawn trilogy will always be the real star wars sequel trilogy

[diegeticfridge]

The thrawn trilogy honestly got me into the eu books and now I’m on Dark Journey (the 22 entry in the EU timeline) and HOLY shit.

[DavidRichardson]

Just a slight correction about Mara: the books acknowledge that she never actually appears in the movies - or more accurately, not at the Sarlacc pit (there have been plenty of speculations about who was portraying her in Jabba's palace under the assumption that she was depicted there, but the books were written before the Special Edition of the movies, and most of these came up in the wake of the SE release) - but they use a pretty clever way for doing it. For those who do not already know, I will not spoil anything, but I will say this: the realization of it has quite the bone-chilling effect on Luke, all because just one little detail change could have made the rescue of Han Solo go completely differently and very likely disastrously for them (and yeah, this is a way of bringing up the concept of the butterfly effect).

[general_mercer]

Just wanted to add to your points of Zahn's character exploration: As far as i'm aware, Mon Mothma's only appearance from that point was in RotJ, and it was kinda brief too. But we got to see her take on the role as leader of the New Republic, the struggle that the politics entailed, and how she eventually swallowed her pride for the benefit of all, allowing a certain Corellian general to save the day. Sure, she still was kindova minor character, but she got some characterization and background added to her than merely "Rebel leader". Also, i've never wanted to punch a character more than Councilor Feyyla. Masterful writing from Zahn. And a great video! I really STRONGLY recommend for people who haven't read the Thrawn trilogy to do so. Afterwards, if you want to re-savour the story, try reading the graphic novels. They're fantastic. (One more thing- I totally agree that the Noghri had such a fearsome and awesome design via the graphic novels. I personally prefer the version in Dark Force Rising.)

[internetzenmaster]

It's worth noting that there was already a series of books before Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy that were building up the post-RoTJ (the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron books), but the first Thrawn trilogy was the first time we got to see 'the gang back together'. The fact they had Thrawn (a non-force user) with Joruus Sabbaoth as a secondary antagonist just makes the trilogy all the more memorable/interesting than the Disney dreck we ended up getting (and that's just on the villain side).

[raylast]

One thing Zahn and later EU writers arguably did a good job with is balancing the potential threat of the villains against the risk of undermining everything the heroes accomplished in the OT. Thrawn and others manage to present a real and believable threat, but almost always from a position of relative weakness: the Rebels won the Civil War, the New Republic is in place and the heroes are now defending a position of strength against new bad guys. This is hugely important because it lends weight to the worldbuilding and the events that happened previously, including in the movies.

Disney does the opposite, essentially wiping away the Rebels‘ victories, offscreen, with the stroke of a pen, in order to put the protagonists into the position of having to overthrow the Empire *again*. A big mistake, which the EU generally avoided.

In the Thrawn trilogy, the narrative tension doesn‘t come from the overpowering might of the galactic empire, but simply the threat that Thrawn might destroy the Republic and undo all the hard-won success of the heroes. But he never does and he doesn‘t have to. The threat that he might is enough.

[ynqlyhl]

All Disney had to do was adapt the Thrawn Trilogy for the big screen. It was that easy

[xGoodOldSmurfehx]

I do sincerely think this stuff was far more interesting and better than what Disney has done
Just like the Halo books are the holy grail of the original Halo story

[FHT]

3:44 Leia is what amounts to the Secretary of State for the New Republic. Also, the NR wasn't really "larger" than the Imp Warlords, what made them lose was more that they were using resources to fight each other instead of the NR, giving the NR time to consolidate and start their meticulous campaign of eliminating one Warlord after the other.

[killingragethrowback]

This book is the anchor of the Expanded Universe. Everything starts here. I argue the prequels and sequels might not have been made if this wasn't a success.

[TheBlckMandalorian]

WE haven't forgotten you EU! Great video, was born in 92' so after discovering the OG Trilogy on VHS (man that makes me feel old, older than I am) I was introduced to the EU & was HOOKED. A few yrs back I got back into collecting (TVC 3.75!) & really have fallen back in love with SW. My job since starting 4-5yrs ago has really beaten me down, draining the force from my body, creating a wound in my life. Yet, SW has helped, I've fallen in love with this galaxy again, & it has really helped in dark times. Glad I found this, I hit subscribe right away, & plan on staying!

[artsman]

When I was 12, I was already a huge Star Wars fan. As I waited for the prequels to finish, my dad came up to me one day and offered my the Thrawn trilogy, in a nice hard cover set. I skimmed them, saw no pictures, and said, "Thanks dad, maybe later."

A few years later, I finally went and read them; and immediately regretted not reading them earlier. Everything about them is SO GOOD! The new characters are great, how the old characters grow and change feels real, the threats are new but still familiar, everything is just FANTASTIC! True it doesn't 100% line up with the prequals, but 95% is still a passing grade. To me, this is what happens after Return of the Jedi, this is my Episode 7, 8, and 9.

[zachreed]

This channel needs more views and subscribers this shit too good to be this unknown

[AntoineSojicHGZ]

One of the aspects of the original Sequel Trilogy was that unlike Vader or Palpatine, Thrawn wasn't a force-user, and unlike Tarkin, wasn't relying on brute force but on pure intellect. Even more, he acted not only as a strategist, but also as a teacher, teaching his strategies and his style of command to his subordinates. Thrawn's death is arguably one of the greatest mistakes Zahn could have made. We should have had an Empire led by the Grand Admiral, no matter if it was the Empire Remnants, the Empire of the Hand or something else, but the Grand Admiral should have had a true chance as Heir to the Empire.

[ModernTyrannosaurus]

To be fair... Thrawn has had three great trilogies. A great trilogy of great trilogies. You've got the Legends Heir to the Empire trilogy which kicked off the whole EU/Legends, and you've got the Canon Thrawn and Thrawn Ascendancy trilogies that are some of the best Disney era Star Wars content, regardless of what you think about Disney's handling of Star Wars as a whole. All three of these trilogies shine bright thanks to Timothy Zahn's phenomenal writing.

[ANProductionsOfficialChannel]

I had a lot of pacing issues with The Thrawn Trilogy, especially with the second book. HOWEVER. It had a vision and stuck to it, and that alone makes it better than Disney. It wasn't just a rehash of the original Trilogy, telling its own story and standing just fine on its own two feet. Was very happy to have read them.

[patmigroin]

It make me laugh like a mad man that Disney could screw up Star wars SO HARD, when they had the perfect blueprint right there in the EU.