#evolvana

Truthfully I think much of the book seems like Disney told Timothy Zahn “make him less capable and less sympathetic”. I’ve complained before about that “Thrawn’s bad at politics” business when it’s literally the same skills he uses with absolute brilliance in military maneuvering. I could see him needing some time to adjust to Imperial politics, but his being like an awkward duckling politically all the way up to Admiral? No, I don’t buy it.

I mean, let’s examine what this book changed:

Suddenly he’s bad at politics when that was absolutely the opposite in EU books. (Hence the quote my fic title came from: "If Palpatine was one step ahead of the courtiers, Thrawn was two steps ahead")

Since bleedin’ when does Thrawn need a translator all the way up to when he’s an Admiral? The first year or two okay, but not his whole career! I’ll be honest, my main thought about Eli is that if this was fanfic Eli would be roundly trashed as an obvious author-insert, with a “flaw” conveniently made up in Thrawn to create a need for Eli in the fic. Pellaeon was much much better in the “Watson” role than Eli. And not so whiny. 

The conversation about the Wookiee slaves I could somewhat see because Thrawn can be ruthless, but somehow that conversation felt a little forced, like it was put there to shock the readers at Thrawn’s callousness. I’m sorry, did Disney think we didn’t notice Thrawn’s ruthlessness in the original Thrawn trilogy?

Annnnd then that line about his exile being a trick. I’m sorry, what? Aside from the unsavory retcon feel of it, it also seemed like a calculated effort to remove one of the biggest things that makes fans all feelsy for Thrawn. How much have many of us talked about how we hurt for him when thinking of him being alone on that world for who-knows-how-long, and then suddenly this novel is all “lol nope that didn’t happen”? Um, no. (Plus that “he wasn’t really exiled” removes what I believe one of the main reasons he became so ruthless later on, so blah goes that character development.)

And I didn’t love the changes to Pryce either. Mind you, the political maneuvering was wonderful, I could have read a whole novel about her playing those vicious Moffs against each other. But the entire Batonn thing - not making her responsible for it but the way it happened - just really put me off. It made her look not only soulless but also kind of ridiculous for not figuring out a better way.