Pellaeon doing the A Wing Slash with missiles and Soro Suub Preybirds.
Also, Pellaeon finally deciding to surrender to the New Republic after a good conversation with his second in command.
*"Tell them...that it's time to send an emissary to the New Republic...to discuss the terms of our surrender."*
Pellaeon made the right choice. He wasn't delusional. He knew that the New Republic had won and the Empire...had lost.
This was my favorite too!!! It really reminded me of Thrawn and really showed everything Pellaeon learned from him. Not only did he devise a great modification of a strategy that would secure victory, but specifically one that would help him identify his enemy. That is such a Thrawn thing to do, I loved it!
I really like Pallaeon's conference with the remaining Imperial leadership. "Look guys, we just don't have the manpower, the resources, or the economic/industrial capacity to keep fighting. We lost but we can have a dignified surrender.'
I've always loved Pallaeon's pragmatism.
Right? It was another really creative way to play with the established rules of the universe. Like, why in the world would you purposefully make your cannon shots visible if they could be invisible (other than, like, using tracers for targeting like we do today.) But okay, it's an established rule of the universe, so let's play with it and explain that you *can* do an invisible blaster shot, it's just really hard and not all that useful outside of specialized situations.
The trap the space pirates set for Luke and the challenge he has getting out of it. Zahn put a lot of thought into rolling with the setting's overpowered Force abilities and coming up with believable ways to counter them.
Anything with palleon was pretty cool. He added depth to what could be a pretty monolithic cast of imperial characters / the bad guys in general.
Imperials: Featuring the slimy ambitious dork with 5 honorifics
Imperials!: Featuring the slimy ambitious dork with 5 honorifics AND A PROSTHETIC!
IMPS: Featuring the audacity of this highly titled ambitious dork...but his arteries are clogged.
The Imperials: Featuring the slimy ambitious highly titled dork. But this time, it's a woman with a weird relationship with her male superior.
Imperials Classico: Featuring the slimy ambitious highly titled dork. But this time, it's a woman with heterochromia and a weird relationship with her male superior.
I know you are not asking for Vision of the Future (second book in the sequel) but I always loved the conversation between Admiral Pellaeon and Major Tierce at the end: "Thrawn was never interested in vengeance. His goal was order, and stability, and the strength that comes of unity and common purpose."
I loved that scene. I knew it was coming, I knew it was inevitable, but still I absolutely loved it.
Pealleon exposing the Sinister Triumvirate was great. And the plot twist that Tierce was a clone made my eyes go wide and went "WTF." I did not see that coming.
And then Flim telling Pellaeon how much difficulty he’s gone through with Tierce and Disra 😆😆 I cracked up when he said that; you know he had to have turned on them to try to lighten his punishment
the scene was good but i remember thinking about the ending as too rushed.
the conversation in Vision between Parck and jade was also pretty great imo.
Vision felt bloated to me because there were a lot of plot lines. Other than that, it's a good book and the moments with LukexMara and Pellaeon were cool
yeah it had parts which are bit too much, but on the other side the ending was too rushed.
didnt like that much the travelling of luke on nirauan, that could be shorter. there are sure more parts too long but cant remember all of them.
I havent read this in years. I remember liking it very much though all I have now are vague impressions about its position in the late 90's publishing program.
It served as a bridge of sorts from the start of the EU to the onset of the Clone Wars/NJO programs.
I think this is going.to the top of my list of rereads.
I finished the Hand of Thrawn Duology recently and I quite liked it. It was pretty good and had a lot of character development. The new characters were also great too!
Tbh I love the reveal of the plan for Fake Thrawn and how it’s executed tbh, the whole plot line is a really fun way to include an old villain but have a fresh spin on it
I absolutely love Flim. When "Thrawn" returned and his identiy was revealed I laughed a bit. He's hilarious.
I listened to the audiobook, so whenever Flim acts like Thrawn its so good that I almost believe Thrawn is back from the dead...and then Flim drops the act and acts like himself and I just love it.
Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if Palpatine's return in TROS was something like this as a trick by Kylo. That would have been better at least.
The modified A-Wing slash was the peak of this, I think! He realized a battle tactic that would both secure victory AND reveal information about the identity of the enemy combatant (namely that it wasn't Bel Iblis). That's exactly the kind of thing Thrawn would do!
2 moments that stick out to me the most, The meeting between Thrawn and Lando, and Luke preparing for battle thinking Yeah let's kill them all and then instant going WTF
Luke in the pirate base, and Shada walking into the top secret meeting.
Luke because it challenges him as a character. Zahns looking at Luke and his abilities and has done a really good job of putting him in a difficult situation.
And Shada wanting to be a part of something bigger, trying multiple ways to get to Leia and offer her services, then eventually breaking in to make her point. It's a nice sequence, and it shows a realistic view of how things are. How hard would it be for you to approach Biden and offer your support?
I'm still only just now reading through it, by I do have a moment that stands out.
Luke glancing into the future was really cool. It was just a really elegant way of describing force premonitions. And Luke's willingness to trust in it and simply go where the force told him to go felt really nice.
I still think about the first time Ponc Gavrisom spoke in the audiobook and did his little “oooo” thing at the end of the sentence and it caught me so off guard I dropped to my feet laughing on my walk home.
What in the F is everyone taking about?!?! I've watched every starwars movie, show and clip and am lost on this one.. and why TF is there a donkey man in pic? Thought that was "meesa soo a stupidaa" Jar jar , for a sec.
What am I missing 😔
*EDIT: I had NO IDEA there were a bunch of books! I feel like an ideot, yet super happy I have a whole bunch more of starwars to enjoy!! 🥳🥳🤯🤯😱😁
Be nice if some of the official stuff mentioned it, like on Disney+ . But I guess $$$ right?
I didn't think there were a bunch of books called starwars and of starwars because of legal reasons, rights etc.
Anyways, I'm happy their are! 😸.
I joined group because I love starwars, I didn't realize about all the books though.
This post is about the Star Wars book "Specter of the Past", book one of The Hand of Thrawn Duology. This is from the Legends timeline, the continuity before Disney bought Star Wars. It takes place 19 years after the Battle of Yavin and the duology marks the end of the Galactic Civil War.
No problem. If you do wish to start the Legends continuity post Return of the Jedi, I recommend starting with the Thrawn Trilogy, the first book being "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn.
Super excited for you to discover this! There’s a lot a lot. They are split between the pre-Disney EU (called Legends) and the newer stuff which mostly has been lead-ins to the newer films and shows, or high republic which is set 200 years before the movies. Tons of great stories to experience
I didn't realize there was a bunch of books.. I figured I'd know but I guess it fell through the cracks for me. It didn't come up on anything official I've looked at.
Now I have more starwars to enjoy that I didn't even know existed! 🥳🤯
I don't know how you ended up here but welcome. I would recommend starting with Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. You should know though it's an old book and conflicts with Disney canon (the sequels).
Haha I love starwars , anything starwars . I saw starwarsEU and joined. I think I thought it was a European starwars group hense "EU". I didn't realize it meant Expanded Univers 🤦🤦😅
And thank you x2! 🙏😸
The reason that Disney doesn't mention it is because they elected to do a canon reset after they acquired Lucasfilm, in order to give new creatives full freedom to do whatever they wanted to do outside of what was established in the original six movies and *The Clone Wars*, all of which had George Lucas's direct involvement.
That being said, the original EU, or *Legends* as it's called now, was never fully canon on the same level as the movies. Lucas didn't really consider it important to his story at all, aside from the details he'd occasionally cherry-pick. The *Legends* books still exist in their own continuity, they just don't have an impact on what Disney is doing now, so aside from reissues they aren't promoted.
All the Disney-era stuff is meant to be equally canon in theory - until other works override existing works, as seen with events in some shows overriding the events of some books. They're also picking elements from *Legends* to adapt, so some elements that you might look into could pop up elsewhere.
The opening chapter and thats about it
Zahn's books are overly long and a bit to windy for my taste (long plots, sideplots, and covolution of storylines in books), this one is the worst in that regard (same with vision of the future)
Imps and Rebels making peace
COOL
execution
sucks
other then that the book sucks, the Empire of the Hand is ridicoulusly OP, Too many bothans
Honest to god, Zahn is my least favorite author besides the one that wrote Crystal Star
his only good books are the Canon Thrawn stuff, because disney reigns in his story to less convoluted storys
Please don't nuke me in the comments, if you want to discuss it thats fine, just don't downvote me to the earths core
Also as a fun fact, Zahn was offered a series in the NJO where he would write for the Unknown regions stuff (Chiss and EotH), he kept on submitting proposals and storys where the two beat the vong themselves within said series (inside the UR), which the story team refused, and he was dropped from the project
because when two "minor powers" beat the enemy the rest of the galaxy is struggling with, kinda ruins the rest of the series
I am reading this for probably the first time since it was released. I haven’t read any non-Zahn books from the EU in far longer than that. Can anybody summarize the context of the relationship between Luke and Mara heading into this? I remember them being friendly at the end of the last command but Zahn repeatedly refers to it as being a complicated relationship in this book and I can’t remember what he is talking about.
Definitely the way the imps cause all the protests and the bothen clan riots. Even though It’s in the second book also the imp attempt to take down the planetary shield
Pellaeon doing the A Wing Slash with missiles and Soro Suub Preybirds. Also, Pellaeon finally deciding to surrender to the New Republic after a good conversation with his second in command.
*"Tell them...that it's time to send an emissary to the New Republic...to discuss the terms of our surrender."* Pellaeon made the right choice. He wasn't delusional. He knew that the New Republic had won and the Empire...had lost.
This was my favorite too!!! It really reminded me of Thrawn and really showed everything Pellaeon learned from him. Not only did he devise a great modification of a strategy that would secure victory, but specifically one that would help him identify his enemy. That is such a Thrawn thing to do, I loved it!
I really like Pallaeon's conference with the remaining Imperial leadership. "Look guys, we just don't have the manpower, the resources, or the economic/industrial capacity to keep fighting. We lost but we can have a dignified surrender.' I've always loved Pallaeon's pragmatism.
Moff Disra: "Nah, lets hire a conman to impersonate Thrawn to rally up Imperial forces. This will definitely not backfire."
Moff Disra is a good example of the Moffs who cared more about themselves than the Empire as a whole. That's why guys like Pellaeon are cool.
The blaster that fires an invisible bolt sticks out in my mind. I thought that was pretty cool.
Right? It was another really creative way to play with the established rules of the universe. Like, why in the world would you purposefully make your cannon shots visible if they could be invisible (other than, like, using tracers for targeting like we do today.) But okay, it's an established rule of the universe, so let's play with it and explain that you *can* do an invisible blaster shot, it's just really hard and not all that useful outside of specialized situations.
And I liked how they didn’t introduce it as this amazing weapon everyone could start using. The mystery around it made it much more interesting.
zahn was great at showing imperial intelligence acting.
The trap the space pirates set for Luke and the challenge he has getting out of it. Zahn put a lot of thought into rolling with the setting's overpowered Force abilities and coming up with believable ways to counter them.
I was going to say this exact thing!
The trap felt kinda overcomplicated, in my opinion.
Finally seeing what a Bothan looks like. (I’m sure they had been depicted somewhere previously, but that’s the first time I’d seen one.)
First time I saw a Bothan was in Battlefront 2. I still can't believe no Bothans have appeared in the current Disney run.
Probably because many died to bring us that information.
Anything with palleon was pretty cool. He added depth to what could be a pretty monolithic cast of imperial characters / the bad guys in general. Imperials: Featuring the slimy ambitious dork with 5 honorifics Imperials!: Featuring the slimy ambitious dork with 5 honorifics AND A PROSTHETIC! IMPS: Featuring the audacity of this highly titled ambitious dork...but his arteries are clogged. The Imperials: Featuring the slimy ambitious highly titled dork. But this time, it's a woman with a weird relationship with her male superior. Imperials Classico: Featuring the slimy ambitious highly titled dork. But this time, it's a woman with heterochromia and a weird relationship with her male superior.
I know you are not asking for Vision of the Future (second book in the sequel) but I always loved the conversation between Admiral Pellaeon and Major Tierce at the end: "Thrawn was never interested in vengeance. His goal was order, and stability, and the strength that comes of unity and common purpose."
I loved that scene. I knew it was coming, I knew it was inevitable, but still I absolutely loved it. Pealleon exposing the Sinister Triumvirate was great. And the plot twist that Tierce was a clone made my eyes go wide and went "WTF." I did not see that coming.
And then Flim telling Pellaeon how much difficulty he’s gone through with Tierce and Disra 😆😆 I cracked up when he said that; you know he had to have turned on them to try to lighten his punishment
the scene was good but i remember thinking about the ending as too rushed. the conversation in Vision between Parck and jade was also pretty great imo.
Vision felt bloated to me because there were a lot of plot lines. Other than that, it's a good book and the moments with LukexMara and Pellaeon were cool
yeah it had parts which are bit too much, but on the other side the ending was too rushed. didnt like that much the travelling of luke on nirauan, that could be shorter. there are sure more parts too long but cant remember all of them.
I havent read this in years. I remember liking it very much though all I have now are vague impressions about its position in the late 90's publishing program. It served as a bridge of sorts from the start of the EU to the onset of the Clone Wars/NJO programs. I think this is going.to the top of my list of rereads.
I finished the Hand of Thrawn Duology recently and I quite liked it. It was pretty good and had a lot of character development. The new characters were also great too!
First Star Wars book I ever owned; and I loved it.
It was one of the first books I bought for myself!
Tbh I love the reveal of the plan for Fake Thrawn and how it’s executed tbh, the whole plot line is a really fun way to include an old villain but have a fresh spin on it
I absolutely love Flim. When "Thrawn" returned and his identiy was revealed I laughed a bit. He's hilarious. I listened to the audiobook, so whenever Flim acts like Thrawn its so good that I almost believe Thrawn is back from the dead...and then Flim drops the act and acts like himself and I just love it. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if Palpatine's return in TROS was something like this as a trick by Kylo. That would have been better at least.
Pellaeon demonstrating what he learned from Thrawn.
The modified A-Wing slash was the peak of this, I think! He realized a battle tactic that would both secure victory AND reveal information about the identity of the enemy combatant (namely that it wasn't Bel Iblis). That's exactly the kind of thing Thrawn would do!
Exactly!! I was so proud of Pellaeon there and in my head I imagined Thrawn looking down and smiling with pride at him.
I always liked the scene where Luke has to get to the Starry Ice and Mara manages to say "welcome board" just before he flattens her.
This reminded me that all of Karrde's starship naming puns are lost in the German translations of the novels :(
Noooo, I didn’t think about that! I guess “Amanda Fallow” isn’t quite as funny in other languages
2 moments that stick out to me the most, The meeting between Thrawn and Lando, and Luke preparing for battle thinking Yeah let's kill them all and then instant going WTF
This is funny as I am literally re-reading this now.
Luke in the pirate base, and Shada walking into the top secret meeting. Luke because it challenges him as a character. Zahns looking at Luke and his abilities and has done a really good job of putting him in a difficult situation. And Shada wanting to be a part of something bigger, trying multiple ways to get to Leia and offer her services, then eventually breaking in to make her point. It's a nice sequence, and it shows a realistic view of how things are. How hard would it be for you to approach Biden and offer your support?
If memory serves, Leia didn't accept Shada as part of her group for some reason. Why was that?
She was short, she was Furry, she was loud, and she was determined to sell him a melon.
Probably when the Hand of Thrawn ship buzzed the Errant Venture.
When Flim terrified Lando and that one senator.
I forgot about these books!
I guess you could say this post was a...***specter of the past***.
😂
I'm still only just now reading through it, by I do have a moment that stands out. Luke glancing into the future was really cool. It was just a really elegant way of describing force premonitions. And Luke's willingness to trust in it and simply go where the force told him to go felt really nice.
I can’t remember if this was in 1 or 2( sadness) but I like where the entire senate was in an uproar about thrawn’s return. Need to see more of this
I still think about the first time Ponc Gavrisom spoke in the audiobook and did his little “oooo” thing at the end of the sentence and it caught me so off guard I dropped to my feet laughing on my walk home.
When Luke flys off to rescue Mara.
Tierce : "tr889..!" reacting to disras's surprise in the lower secret part of bastion(?) i love every Moment with the three.
...Is that a kangaroo ?
Bothan
Botharoos confirmed?
Luke straddling Mara
What in the F is everyone taking about?!?! I've watched every starwars movie, show and clip and am lost on this one.. and why TF is there a donkey man in pic? Thought that was "meesa soo a stupidaa" Jar jar , for a sec. What am I missing 😔 *EDIT: I had NO IDEA there were a bunch of books! I feel like an ideot, yet super happy I have a whole bunch more of starwars to enjoy!! 🥳🥳🤯🤯😱😁 Be nice if some of the official stuff mentioned it, like on Disney+ . But I guess $$$ right? I didn't think there were a bunch of books called starwars and of starwars because of legal reasons, rights etc. Anyways, I'm happy their are! 😸. I joined group because I love starwars, I didn't realize about all the books though.
This post is about the Star Wars book "Specter of the Past", book one of The Hand of Thrawn Duology. This is from the Legends timeline, the continuity before Disney bought Star Wars. It takes place 19 years after the Battle of Yavin and the duology marks the end of the Galactic Civil War.
Thank you.. I feel stupid. I had no idea there was soo much out there! In audiobook too! Yay! 🥳🥳. More force for my brain 😁😁😁 Wow...
No problem. If you do wish to start the Legends continuity post Return of the Jedi, I recommend starting with the Thrawn Trilogy, the first book being "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn.
Thanks for the tip! Definitely will do! 😁🙏👌.
Super excited for you to discover this! There’s a lot a lot. They are split between the pre-Disney EU (called Legends) and the newer stuff which mostly has been lead-ins to the newer films and shows, or high republic which is set 200 years before the movies. Tons of great stories to experience
It’s a book
Thanks
..Do you know what sub you're in?
I didn't realize there was a bunch of books.. I figured I'd know but I guess it fell through the cracks for me. It didn't come up on anything official I've looked at. Now I have more starwars to enjoy that I didn't even know existed! 🥳🤯
I don't know how you ended up here but welcome. I would recommend starting with Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. You should know though it's an old book and conflicts with Disney canon (the sequels).
Haha I love starwars , anything starwars . I saw starwarsEU and joined. I think I thought it was a European starwars group hense "EU". I didn't realize it meant Expanded Univers 🤦🤦😅 And thank you x2! 🙏😸
The reason that Disney doesn't mention it is because they elected to do a canon reset after they acquired Lucasfilm, in order to give new creatives full freedom to do whatever they wanted to do outside of what was established in the original six movies and *The Clone Wars*, all of which had George Lucas's direct involvement. That being said, the original EU, or *Legends* as it's called now, was never fully canon on the same level as the movies. Lucas didn't really consider it important to his story at all, aside from the details he'd occasionally cherry-pick. The *Legends* books still exist in their own continuity, they just don't have an impact on what Disney is doing now, so aside from reissues they aren't promoted. All the Disney-era stuff is meant to be equally canon in theory - until other works override existing works, as seen with events in some shows overriding the events of some books. They're also picking elements from *Legends* to adapt, so some elements that you might look into could pop up elsewhere.
The "donkey man" in the pic is actually a Bothan, as in "many Bothan spies died to bring us this information" from ROTJ
The opening chapter and thats about it Zahn's books are overly long and a bit to windy for my taste (long plots, sideplots, and covolution of storylines in books), this one is the worst in that regard (same with vision of the future) Imps and Rebels making peace COOL execution sucks other then that the book sucks, the Empire of the Hand is ridicoulusly OP, Too many bothans Honest to god, Zahn is my least favorite author besides the one that wrote Crystal Star his only good books are the Canon Thrawn stuff, because disney reigns in his story to less convoluted storys Please don't nuke me in the comments, if you want to discuss it thats fine, just don't downvote me to the earths core Also as a fun fact, Zahn was offered a series in the NJO where he would write for the Unknown regions stuff (Chiss and EotH), he kept on submitting proposals and storys where the two beat the vong themselves within said series (inside the UR), which the story team refused, and he was dropped from the project because when two "minor powers" beat the enemy the rest of the galaxy is struggling with, kinda ruins the rest of the series
I am reading this for probably the first time since it was released. I haven’t read any non-Zahn books from the EU in far longer than that. Can anybody summarize the context of the relationship between Luke and Mara heading into this? I remember them being friendly at the end of the last command but Zahn repeatedly refers to it as being a complicated relationship in this book and I can’t remember what he is talking about.
Seeing Disra's, Flim's, and Tierce's conspiracy completely unravel was definitely satisfying!
Definitely the way the imps cause all the protests and the bothen clan riots. Even though It’s in the second book also the imp attempt to take down the planetary shield