The Thrawn Trilogy

[GandALF]

The central theme of Star Wars is internal conflict, TLJ is all about that. Internal conflict in TFA is a footnote, not the central theme, it goes against the spirit of the franchise far more than TLJ did.

[SuccubusYuri]

I have always said that no matter how you feel about the Disney acquisition, they did have the balls to canonize Thrawn. It was an olive branch they didn't need to offer, but they did it anyway.

True but I do wish they would canonize Mara Jade like they did Thrawn.

With the hacks who are currently in charge of the Star Wars franchise, it would be just as well that they don't at this point; I personally don't relish the thought of what they'd do if they got their filthy mitts on her.

Also, I have no idea who that was Rey Sue encountered on Porg Island, but it sure as Hell was NOT Luke Skywalker.

Thrawn was so horribly watered down and neutered in Rebels that I can't even refer to that Caricature as Thrawn. EU Thrawn, with the full might of the empire in it's prime at his fingerprints, would have worked up a strategy to wipe out the Rebellion at an art show and had it executed within a month.

I honestly don't want any more EU characters showing up in film or series until Disney is willing to let the characters be as awesome as they deserve to be without watering them down for the children.

I don't think he was THAT watered down. I mean, 1) still a children's show. There are still a couple limits to ruthlessness, like civilian hostages only really got broken out in the series finale in a tactical way.

2) I think Thrawn's arc and themes were much more solid and precise in Rebels than TTT. I said it. He is still clearly superior to the Rebellion in every way. And he is only ever beaten when his fellow Imperial officers fail to live up to the standards he both expects of himself, and them. It's also the only time he shows emotion. As a show it doesn't spell them out, but his adaptive tactics are still present. When Constantine fucks up his flawless plan to wipe out Hera and Dodana's cells, he immediately adapts and forces the enemy fleet to ground on the fly. And his relationship with the Force is incredibly interesting, fascinated by its powers and possibilities, but still fearful of how unpredictable it is and feels the universe safer with it extinguished.

No there aren't any soliloquies on the culture of such-and-so, and how we tell a fable that relates to how I know you're a traitor after five minutes, but we only have 22 minutes to fill and we don't want to bore the six year olds to death. I think it's a mistake to equate a lack of purple prose in a TV show with difference of character. If that were true they wouldn't have bothered to get Zahn to write him again.

[PapaPalpatine]

And I'm all for strong female characters, I definitely feel the Last Jedi needed one or two of those. Holdo is what a mentally unbalanced militant feminist thinks a strong military leader should be. She reprimands Poe for being a maverick without sharing any battle strategy with him like a leader should. And in doing so causes more damage than good throughout the entire movie, and we are supposed to respect her because she sacrifices herself.

This so much. Plus, to paraphrase the guy from Cinema Sins, they dragged poor Laura Dern into this.

Strong female characters are wonderful when the writers actually know what they're doing and give them some humanity. Give us Ellen Ripley, give us the Major from Ghost In The Shell. Do not give us Anita Sarkeesian In Space.

[Karha of Honor]

The central theme of Star Wars is internal conflict, TLJ is all about that. Internal conflict in TFA is a footnote, not the central theme, it goes against the spirit of the franchise far more than TLJ did.

Light and dark are bs, the good guys are Ferengi level incompetent in warfare in the main trilogy.

Some 4 day old Force user is burning Jedi texts.

[Winter]

So switching gears back over to TTT if there was any issue I took with the Trilogy it would be how each part of the Trilogy is a bit to interdependent on one another. What I mean by that is that TTT is most certainly a single story told in 3 parts rather then being three stories telling one single story. Going over to the films with both the Prequels and the Original Trilogy you could pretty much watch each one on it's own and get a fully story with a beginning, middle and end but when you put them all together you would see how they form a greater story together then apart.

But with TTT while the Trilogy as a whole can stand on it's own each part of this Trilogy feels rather incomplete if you just read them each on their own. If you just read Heir to the Empire it feels like a lot of buildup with very little pay off, if you just read Dark Force Rising it reads like it's bridging the gap between the two with no real beginning or end while The Last Command is a lot of pay off with very little buildup.

Now Zahn managed to work around this by giving Heir a series of mini-conclusions for each one of the trio. Leia learns who the assassins that are after her are and she is able to stop them for a time being, Han finds a possible criminal ally in Karrde and Luke learns who Mara is and why she hates him.

Dark Force Rising handled this a bit different by having characters progress on their journey but very few conclusions were given to any of the characters. In fact I would argue that only Leia managed to resolve her story after learning everything about the Noghri and managing to prove to them that the Empire had been using them. But everyone else, while they have all progressed in their goals they're not even close to achieving them. Luke hasn't really gained the confidence to be a teacher to the next generation of Jedi, Han doesn't have much of a goal other then protecting his family and Mara is now conflicted over who her real loyalties lie after getting to know Luke but still wanting to kill him.

None of this is bad as the characters are at least progressing in their both their goals and their characters are growing so they do feel like they are changing and developing over the course of the story but for me Dark Force is the weak link as it doesn't really have a beginning or a end. even the cliffhanger is rather weak especially when compared to The Empire Strike Back's ending cliffhanger.

With that said I do like how Dark Force didn't try to one up Empire but instead just continue to tell it's own story and you do get the sense that the odds are stacked against our heroes and you're not sure how or even if they are going to make it out of this.

As for The Last Command, well, it's without a doubt a great way to end the story but if you didn't read the first two books, which set most of the ground work, I feel that it might feel a bit jarring on it's own. Out of all three books in the Trilogy Command is, without a doubt, the most action heavy and has some of the most thrilling action scenes in all of Star Wars IMHO.

I will say that I don't think you would be lost if you read just one of the books on it's own as all three do a good job of letting to get to know these characters and what's going on in the story but I do still feel that by having each one be a part of the greater story instead of letting them stand on their own it does hurt each stand alone story.

As I've made clear I love TTT and for me I feel it's the perfect finally to Star Wars but no story is without flaws and I do feel that that making it one story told in three parts does hurt TTT, if only just a little bit. But that's just my take on it, what do you all think?

[Admiral X]

It would probably pretty challenging to adapt them for the reason you state, among other reasons. I mean, aside from the fact that only one of the cast would be up to doing it, and it would have to be set much later than 5 years after RotJ to take that case member's age into consideration. If we're fantasizing about it being the sequel trilogy we should have gotten, it might have been workable, but it would very much be an adaptation, and people would probably have to be reminded of that.

[Winter]

It would probably pretty challenging to adapt them for the reason you state, among other reasons. I mean, aside from the fact that only one of the cast would be up to doing it, and it would have to be set much later than 5 years after RotJ to take that case member's age into consideration. If we're fantasizing about it being the sequel trilogy we should have gotten, it might have been workable, but it would very much be an adaptation, and people would probably have to be reminded of that.

Well in regards to the cast you could get new actors to play Luke, Han, Leia and Lando which would be hard but not impossible. Sure it would be weird if you were to jump from Jedi to Heir and seeing completely different people playing the old characters but series like James Bond, Batman and others have changed the characters several times and so long as they are able to capture the essence of that character then fans will, for the most part, except the new cast.

As for it being an adaptation, well I don't think it would be that much of a issue for the non book readers so long as you stick to what made the story work and get a talented enough writer/s it could be great. In this hypothetical film adaptation of TTT I would want the Trilogy to be done like The Lord of the Rings, with all three being made at the same time which, all released over three years and then to stop making movies after that. Star Wars is a special events series not a annual one like Marvel and as I've mentioned for me TTT is the perfect finally to the Star Wars film series as it is works as both a direct sequel to the Original Trilogy and a Spiritual Sequel to the Prequels which brings the series full circle.

I wouldn't be against a TV series being made to continue the stories after the films like how The Clone Wars bridged the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith but as for the movies I feel it should stop with Thrawn. Or at least the Skywalker Saga should stop with Thrawn as I would also be okay with Johnson's idea with telling a completely new Trilogy on the other side of the galaxy far far away.

[hammerofglass]

I think they may actually be planning on running something like a direct adaptation, or at least a lot more than just "Thrawn was present". In the Rebels finale Thrawn and his fleet get warped intact to parts unknown are still out there somewhere after the civil war ended. They even went out of their way to establish that Captain Pallaeon exists in the new canon in the ending moments.

[Winter]

Cool, btw way, just for fun I posted who would be my dream cast to play Luke, Han, Leia and Lando if Disney did decide to adapted TTT and recast the Original Trilogy characters. With Han and Lando my preferred choices were Anthony Ingruber as Han and Donald Glover as Lando as I feel they have done the best in recapturing the charm of both characters though I did give Alden Ehrenreich a honorable mention as I heard he did do a good job, along with an apology for jumping to the conclusion that he would do a terrible job.

As for Luke and Leia, well that one is a little wired as I based it more on the talent of the actors and not their physical appearance. With Luke my preferred choice would be Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as I feel he could capture Luke's charm and cool headiness that was such a big part of his character in both Return of the Jedi and TTT. There's a line Luke has when Karrde tells Luke that the Empire put on his head and Luke's responce to this is a simple "I had no idea I was worth so much. " and while many actors could pull that off I think Coster-Waldau would be the best. And yes I realize the irony of casting a actor who also plays a knight of sorts who's father is a evil over lord who had romantic feelings for his twin sister and got his hand chopped off and has a strong relationship with another woman who served one of his greatest enemies. I can honestly say that it was just a coincidence as I didn't take any of these things into account when I was going over who I would want for my dream cast.

I also realize that Coster-Waldau looks absolutely nothing like Mark Hamill and is also considerably taller then Hamill, (Hamill stands at about 5'9 while Coster-Waldau is about 6'1 which is a only a inch shorter then Harrison Ford and Anthony Ingruber) but I honestly can't picture anyone else playing Luke Skywalker as well as Coster-Waldau can.

And as for Leia, well this is going to sound a bit strange but I would want Gal Gadot to play her. Yes much like Coster-Waldau I know that Gadot doesn't look anything like Carrie Fisher and she also has a accent which was very absent from Leia in the entire film saga. And just like Coster-Waldau I realize the irony of casting a actor who played a warrior Princess who is also someone who is connected to a powerful force, is the daughter of a powerful being who is pretty much a God (much to my announce as I much preferred Diana's original backstory) and, in resent years, has a twin brother (again much to my announce as Jason SUCKS!!!). Though unlike Coster-Waldau this time it was in large part due to Gadot's portrayal of Wonder Woman that made me think, Yes That is who I want as Princess Leia! She captured Diana's sense of Regal authority, which is a major plot point in TTT, her compassion, warrior spirit, and military leader.

And those are my choices for the original Trilogy heroes, thoughts?

[Wargriffin]

I remember the commercials for it like The audio book versions