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https://boards.theforce.net/threads/george-lucas-dialogues.50055792/

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I've been going back through Heir to the Empire as the A More Civilized Age podcast has started covering the Thrawn Trilogy, and it made me wonder: what might a hypothetical Thrawn Trilogy that came out after the prequels be like? I had a collection of general ideas, so I'm just going to jot them down below in no particular order, and would be interested to hear what other people think.

Note: for this thought experiment, I'm going to proceed with the assumption that in this hypothetical world, there was the original trilogy, then the prequel movies, and then the Thrawn Trilogy is the first big EU work. There is still the WEG stuff that Zahn drew from in reality, and I'm also assuming that "Visual Guide-level" EU details (names of species, planets, characters, etc.) are there for the prequels, just to prevent too much confusion. But otherwise, this Thrawn Trilogy is it.

The New Republic: I'm going to ignore the continuity convolution of the name Coruscant. Mon Mothma is Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic. The Senate might be a bigger detail than the Provisional Council just given how huge a shadow it cast over the prequels, compared to it being a bit more nebulous from the scant ANH references that Zahn was going from.

For Garm Bel Iblis, I wondered if he might have been a Republic senator who sided with the Separatists during the Clone Wars, and kept fighting the Empire independently, separately from the "Republic Rebels" like Mon Mothma and Bail. I feel like Zahn would want to build off of the political details we learn from the prequels when establishing his New Republic politics, and the problem of trying to reconcile both former Separatists and former Loyalists into a New Republic after the Empire would fit in with some of the themes that Zahn did explore, along with why Bel Iblis would be suspicious of Mothma's leadership. It could also set things up for the Caamas Document Crisis in Hand of Thrawn, with those novels making it seem like the New Republic is about to split the same way the Old Republic did at the start of the Clone Wars if it ends the unifying war against the Empire's remnant.

Luke and the Jedi: I like the new-canon idea of the Imperial Palace being the repurposed Jedi Temple. Not only does it speak to Palpatine's megalomania, but I think it sets up Luke's disillusionment at the start of Heir to the Empire. He was convinced that when the Republic took Coruscant (which HTTE says was only very recently, unlike the later EU that makes it years earlier) he would find all of this great material in the Jedi Temple that would help him become a great Jedi... only to find it ransacked years earlier by Palpatine. Where does he go now to feel like he's finally made it as a Jedi Master, and to learn how to truly rebuild the Jedi? The prequel notion of training Jedi from childhood could also factor in here, with Luke doubting himself from not following the old Jedi route, and tension between him and Leia over whether he should try to teach her children once they're born. It also makes it make more sense why C'baoth would be so interested in getting Leia's kids, now that we know the Jedi of old trained padawans from very young ages.

Speaking of Jedi from young ages, it makes sense that Mara would have been a Jedi youngling who survived Order 66 somehow, maybe by direct intervention of Palpatine. As I recall, Mara was originally meant to be several years older than Luke before both of their ages were adjusted. I also remember people thinking that Mari Amithest (one of the AOTC younglings) was named as a parody of Mara Jade's name, so maybe here Zahn takes that character and builds her in Mara (which would also mean Mara would be Asian... goodbye to the infamous red-gold hair!)

Joruus C'baoth: I know Zahn originally wanted Joruus to be a clone of Obi-Wan, but that was vetoed by Lucas. I've also seen some people think that he would work as a clone of Dooku, which is pretty easy to see in terms of personality. I also thought that Joruus might be interesting as a clone of Qui-Gon, a take on the mentorship of a Skywalker the original was denied in TPM. But I like the idea of Joruus being a clone of Syfo-Dias, to help bring the circle closed on one of the plot points of the prequels that isn't resolved. There's a certain sense too as just going from AOTC, we have a former Jedi Master seemingly involved with both cloning and Palpatine's machinations, so it makes sense that Palpatine might have a clone of him. They could even keep the detail about cloning Force-users being seemingly impossible by tying it in with how Palpatine could only do so by applying the teachings of Darth Plagueis, linking up another dangling plot from the prequels. It's also fun to imagine Thrawn somehow finding Palpatine's dark-side mural from ROTS to study in order to better understand how to negotiate with C'baoth.

Speaking of cloning....

Spaarti clones and the Katana fleet: There's a temptation to just say that Thrawn discovered leftover Kaminoan technology, or even that Thrawn was in the Unknown Regions to guard the Kamino system for Palpatine given Kamino's extragalactic location, and that everyone in the galaxy is surprised by the use of clone troopers after a generation. It's fun to think of Thrawn mixed with clone troopers. But the shock of clones in the Thrawn Trilogy was that at the time, the clones were assumed to have been who the Republic was fighting against in the Clone Wars. So an equivalent to the cloned stormtroopers might be Thrawn restarting production of, or finding remaining stockpiles of (in an equivalent to Mount Tantiss) leftover battle droids from the Clone Wars.

Likewise, the Katana fleet might be former Separatist warships that at the end of the war were linked together to a single droid control ship and jumped to the edge of the galaxy to prevent from being captured or deactivated by the new Empire. If Bel Iblis is a former Separatist, it also makes sense that he would know the location of this former Separatist battle fleet. The idea of Thrawn leading mixed stormtroopers and battle droids, star destroyers and Lucrehulks, TIEs and vulture droids is kind of fun. It would also add to his imagery of helping former Separatists disillusioned with the Republic see an appeal in him.

The Noghri: The Republic comic already worked on tying the Noghri history into the Clone Wars (and Andor did something similar with Kenari). But here's something controversial... AOTC gave us a species of dangerous assassins, with the Clawdites. Instead of Noghri, having Leia have to flee shape-shifting assassins would add to the paranoia of her and Han, and the need to hide somewhere remote, and never being sure who around them can be trusted, and Leia having to rely on her knowledge of her loved ones' personal quirks and sense of them in the Force avoid an impostor. (Albeit also making me think of the Changeling storyline from Deep Space Nine.) Plus, it suddenly gave me a mental image of The Last Command, with Thrawn thinking Pellaeon is next to him, only for him to turn into Rukh to give the killing blow. Which would give a new twist on "It was so artistically done."

Various planets: The actual Thrawn Trilogy drew a lot from OT planets, so I'm sure we would see some prequel planets also (though with Coruscant and Kashyyyk, we already did.) I feel like Felucia would be a good replacement for Myrkr.

With Coruscant, besides a lot of government building references and the aforementioned Senate and Jedi Temple/Imperial Palace, I wonder if we might have seen the LiMerge Power building as one of the 'dark side echo' places Luke goes to. Instead of Han slumming it on Tatooine to recruit smugglers for the New Republic it might make more sense for him to hang around the Undercity, even the Outlander Club itself. And Thrawn's asteroid blockade would naturally draw comparisons by denizens with the Separatist attack from ROTS.

On Kashyyyk, I'm assuming Leia might go into hiding on Kachirho instead of Rwookrrorro, and Tarfful would be there with her, though presumably Ralrra would still play a role as a Wookiee the reader could understand.

Padme and Naboo: This is the real big element that I think would change things, at least a bit. I'm certain that if Zahn was coming to the EU after the prequels, Padme would be addressed at some point. Certainly the parentage would be known, and Leia's struggle to live up to her mother as well as adoptive father's legacies would be a key factor. Just as Yoda hid near the Dark Side Cave where he killed a Dark Jedi to hide himself in the Force, maybe Leia would go to where Maul was killed to hide from C'baoth. I also like the idea that Winter's role would be explicitly based on the Naboo usage of handmaidens. Leia forcing herself to dress up in the fancy inherited Naboo attire for state functions would be fun. Or Thrawn acquiring one of Padme's elaborate gowns in order to study the artistic culture of his enemy....

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