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Star Wars’ Greatest Villains Meet in Thrawn: Alliances
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The Star Wars films are frequently described as a straight-ahead stories of good versus evil, which is certainly understandable considering they are built on the dichotomy between light and dark.
In the original trilogy especially, we always know who we’re rooting for—Han Solo might start out ethically ambiguous, but he always does the right thing in the end.
The expanded universe novels, on the other hand, frequently bring more shading to the Dark Side. James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis brings new complexity to Emperor Palpatine’s scheming; Grand Admiral Rae Sloane of Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy faces down internal power struggles to competently rebuild the Empire into the First Order; and Delilah S. Dawson’s Phasma doesn’t soften the chrome-clad captain, exactly, but it does develop her from a cool costume into areal character.
And then, of course, there’s Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn, the origin story of the greatest original villain in Star Wars literature. That book now has a sequel, Thrawn: Alliances, in which the art-loving Admiral is teamed up with, and paired off against, none other than Darth Vader.
The novel unfolds across three parallel storylines. In the story’s present, Vader and Thrawn are tasked by the Emperor to investigate a significant disturbance in the Force traceable to an area on the border of the Unknown Regions. In the past, sometime during the Clone Wars, Ambassador Padmé Amidala goes on a hunt for a former attendant who’s gone missing in the same region, and is eventually pursued by her secret husband Anakin. The final plot thread concerns that ill-fated Jedi’s first chance encounter with Mitth’raw’nuruodo (Thrawn, for short) of the Chiss Ascendency, a meeting was strongly hinted at in Thrawn. The story of how that encounter led Thrawn to join up with the Empire stands in stark contrast to the later pairing of the Grand Admiral with a very different Anakin Skywalker.
The book begins in the aftermath of the attack on Atollon that concluded the third season of Star Wars Rebels, about two years before A New Hope. The Empire has dealt a nasty blow to the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, but the heroes, including Jedi Kanan Jarrus, managed to slip away. Emperor Palpatine is, understandably, not particularly pleased with that outcome.
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As an alien and an outsider to the Empire’s political hierarchy, Thrawn has always been somewhat suspect, though his tactical skills are usually beyond reproach. Palpatine has a dual purpose in pairing Vader and Thrawn: he’s giving the latter a chance to redeem his recent near-failure, while also forcing the two very different Imperial leaders to either learn to work together or, just as likely, try to eliminate each other. One gets the sense that Palpatine doesn’t really care which path they choose. As the two travel the distant and dangerous-to-navigate hyperspace lanes to the world of Batuu, their leadership styles become clear: Thrawn represents subtlety and patience, his crew even allowed to live to learn from mistakes. Vader’s management choices are somewhat less enlightened, though not necessarily less effective in an Empire ruled by fear.
The disturbance detected by the Emperor hides ties to Thrawn’s past—Batuu is not far from the home of his mysterious people. There’s another connection, too: that aforementioned meeting with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. (For timeline sticklers, this storyline is set just after Ahsoka left the Jedi Order near the end of the TV show). In both timelines, Thrawn’s unshakeable loyalty to his people in the Unknown Regions is placed into conflict with the best interests of the Empire he’s sworn to.
Though the Clone Wars-era plot ostensibly involves Anakin’s quest to rescue Padmé, the former queen is pretty much fine on her own. She uncovers a secret plot, learns the fate of a friend, finds unlikely allies, and manages to shoot some stuff real good. In ways that weren’t always clear in the prequel films, you can see where her daughter gets it, and suddenly I’m hungry for more Queen Amidala adventures. (She even forms some alliances of her own.)
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The welcome adventures of Padmé aside, the headline event is the first official meeting between Star Wars’ two greatest villains. In the old Legends canon, Thrawn was created to be the new face of the Empire following the death of Darth Vader and the Emperor. Vader ruled through fear, while Thrawn was (and remains) a creature of order and calculation, scrupulously polite even as he aims to crush the inefficiently democratic Rebel Alliance. Though Thrawn’s methods here seem more reasonable (it is, after all, his book), it’s still fun to watch the two bounce off of each other. The fact that they’ve met in the past—which Vader knows and which Thrawn may or may not realize—only adds to the tension, as it forces Vader to confront the surly, lovestruck young Jedi he used to be. Typically, Anakin and Vader are treated as two different people, which is how the Sith Lord likes it. Hard to do when the past is hitting you right in the helmet.
This is a smaller story in some ways than the one told in Thrawn, but Timothy Zahn is clearly enjoying playing with two of the Star Wars galaxy’s coolest action figures. He’s also given Padmé one of her solo adventures ever. If you’re tired of choosing between good and evil, there’s a different axis here: evil and… more polite evil? It’s a historic encounter, from one of Star Wars’ best-loved novelists.
The B&N exclusive edition of Thrawn: Alliances is available now.