#second art

Chapter 23 

Apros calls up Lakinda with Thrawn tagging in 

Apros and Thrawn: A bit weird how three families are on this “emergency” thing amirite? 

Lakinda: Now that you mention it...

Thrawn lays out the obvious, with help from Apros

the whole thing is a scam. Sunrise is being mined and destroyed for nyix

and the Agbui likely incited a civil war 

Lakinda manages to put it together: “Three of the Great Forty Families are preparing to fight to the death,” with Apros pointing out that because “each of the three is allied to one of the Ruling Families,” a civil war would likely break out 

Lakinda realizes the seriousness of the situation and tells Thrawn and Apros that “if accomplishing the mission requires the destruction of my two ships, understand that we - and I - are expendable.” 

Haplif is just about to leave, convinced he has gotten everything wrapped up and tried in a bow when LAKPHRO!!!!!

*air horns gif*

and he is ready to fight

Lakphro lets on that he knows what is going on (and that he has been communicating with other Chiss about this) and Haplif just decides that he is gunna have to k i l l him

Lakphro is smart, gotta give him credit

Haplif thinks he can strangle Lakphro out, but he ends up killing himself when a dog grips onto his arm, biting down hard. Haplif tries to stun the dog and kills it, but the dog ends up clenching down (I think in a death grip) so hard that Haplif’s arm is torn apart and he succumbs to his injuries

The last thing he sees is Lakphro staring down at him as Shimkif escapes in the ship

Shimkif is coooooold  

Chapter 24

Lakynm is very distraught at the thought of firing on his own family

and that his family is allied with certain families while the Mitth family is allied with other families

Samakro offers him cold comfort

and that is: “I have never - never - seen anyone as utterly incompetent as politics as he is” and that “when Thrawn comes up with a plan, it’s strictly military. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Lakinda manages to get to Sunrise first, with the Erighal and Pommrio right behind her

and they managed to send in two haughty idiots

and the Erighal seem itchy for a fight

so Thrawn’s plan is to make the other families think that the Springhawk is under attack by enemies to focus their attention not on the mines but on helping other Chiss

Lakinda assumes command

when the two douche-canoes attempt to pull rank, Lakinda puts her foot down

one of them makes the point he is blood and she isn’t

okay, you inbred snob, Lakinda still outranks you. suck the suck 

Thrawn managed to figure out that by assigning certain fleet warriors to certain ships, (i.e. family members to family ships) they would know where to attack “with a maximum of ferocity and a minimum of actual damage.”

the Chiss warriors assigned to each gunboat (safely inside the Vigilant) are picked off one by one

if nothing else, good target practice

Chapter 25

Lakinda discovers a fatal flaw within Thrawn’s plan and sends him a message:

the Erighal and Pommrio will want to investigate the mines and will subsequently become outraged and look for someone to blame

Lakinda suggests taking down the Watith freighter into the fake mine

Her subordinates - whose name she cannot remember (and I feel like Zahn may have cut some names out, Lord knows there are enough already!) - hear the message and remove her from Command 

Thrawn gets the message

and needs to destroy the mine so no evidence is found 

and the Grayshrike pops into the battle!

This is such a whack-a-doodle process, but if I had to sum it down:

Thrawn has to explain to the two ladies - Thalias and Che’ri - that the battle is being recorded and will be analyzed by future analysts. Every move counts.

basically, Che’ri is being asked to see “something that isn’t going to happen” and make it happen

she is literally backseat driving!  

Chapter 26

So this ending is very abrupt and takes place weeks after Chapter 25

Lakphro is being question by Lakooni:

and he lies when asked if he knew where the jewelry ended up

he lies and says he doesn’t

and I am assuming the jewelry is still with Thrawn

Samakro may talk a little - s h i t - on Thrawn, but he ain’t no snitch

and the Families involved are not talking either

Samakro still doesn’t trust Thalias

assume that the story he sold he is being sat on because no one has spread it yet?

or maybe she did not tell anyone?

dude? 

You need to get laid too, dude 

Jixtus isn’t particularly upset with the outcome

which is like.... weird? not even a small temper tantrum? 

anyway he is confirmed to be a Grysk 

and he is hanging out with the purple robes navigators, the same ones that hung out with Snoke

Jixtus has a plan for Thrawn: “Defeat isn’t always necessary. Isolation and neutralization can be equally effective.”

and Qilori is assigned to learn “how exactly the Chiss navigate through the Chaos”

I am already thinking ahead to the little kids from Thrawn: Alliances

No one from the incident over Sunrise is talking about what actually happened

It is arranged in a way to make it look like Thrawn was attacked but the three families saved his life

if you want someone to keep a secret, trust the Chiss I guess

and everyone just buys this stupid premise? That Thrawn would ever let someone get the upper hand on him and these three families just happened to be nearby to help him?

pfffffffft... 

Lakinda is on the outs with the Xoldak family, to the point that family members are calling for her expulsion

and no one leaked her conversation with Thrawn?

Zistalmu offers to make Lakinda a Trial-born Irizi

and if she passes, her name would be Ziinda

I wanna know what the Irizi Family Trials would look like

Thurfian receives the call that the Patriarch has died

off-screen?!!?!?!?!

we didn’t get to see him again?!!?!?

I legit forgot his name too (its Thooraki)

Thurfian is made Patriarch outta nowhere

this would have been nice to know about, Zahn!

Thivik, a Senior Aide, drops by who lets him know that he’s going to be given access to two things:

(1) the true, ancient, and suppressed history of the Mitth

(2) and about the terrible Alien weapon is known as the Starflash  

Sooo... I immediately thought it was the Death Star

BUT - this takes place in 18 BBY and the Death Star was not fully functional until 0 BBY

If you look up a screenrant.com article on this very topic, they propose the theory that the Ancient Sith could have caused the Chaos in a power grab, to defend themselves against enemy fleets, or as a hiding place 

I wanna see Sith!!!!