Reading Heir to the Empire

[pendell]

Hmm. I wonder... were the novelizations non-canonized when Disney wiped the EU, or were they considered to be part of the movies?

Since Zahn's work predates the EU canon, I don't think that's important at this juncture. What is important is that previous authors have established that the reason the Imperial Fleet lost at Endor was because they fell apart, dissolved into chaos, when the Emperor died. And that is because the Emperor was exerting some kind of influence of them.

Much like Sauron's control of his troops in Lord of the rings:

Here Tolkien's description of the field of battle at the moment the ring went into the fire:

But the Nazgûl turned and fled, and vanished into Mordor's shadows, hearing a sudden terrible
call out of the Dark Tower; and even at that moment all the hosts of Mordor trembled, doubt
clutched their hearts, their laughter failed, their hands shook and their limbs were loosed. The
Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed
from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies they saw a deadly light and were afraid.

...

The Captains bowed their heads; and when they looked up again, behold! their enemies were
flying and the power of Mordor was scattering like dust in the wind. As when death smites the
swollen brooding thing that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in sway, ants will wander
witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of Sauron, orc or troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or
fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope.

But the Men of Rhûn and
of Harad, Easterling and Southron, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the
Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in evil servitude, hating the West,
and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of
desperate battle. But the most part fled eastward as they could; and some cast their weapons down
and sued for mercy.

This is exactly -- exactly! -- what happened in ROTJ as well. It's sort of a trope that when you kill the evil dark lord his/her armies fall apart, because s/he's the only thing holding them together.

Thrawn's solution to this, of course, is to get another Dark Lord. Or at least C'baoth, who might prove more manageable.


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Peelee]

Since Zahn's work predates the EU canon, I don't think that's important at this juncture.

I'm confused by this. Zahn's work is in the EU canon Legends (well, his old stuff, since he's writing new stuff in the new canon). And why would whether or not his work being in the EU canon Legends have any impact on whether or not the film novelizations were wiped from the canon?

[pendell]

Sorry, I meant "predates the Disney wipe of the EU". What I'm saying is that, from the perspective of understanding what Zahn did in the story, Imperial loss at Endor had been established as due to the Emperor's death and subsequent effect on the troops. This was established in prior novels, and thus is defensible in Zahn's books. When he says the Imperial Navy "fought like cadets", he is only restating what other works have already established. He's not making them out to be incompetent; just victims of the Emperor.

And if the Empire is incompetent in these stories, the reason they're in charge is because the Rebels -- outside of our protagonists -- are even more so . If the regular rebels were worth anything I think Stackpole couldn't have written half his books.


Whether Disney subsequently retconned all this away isn't relevant to understanding what these books are trying to tell us as we read them now.

I hope that makes sense, sort of.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Peelee]

Sorry, I meant "predates the Disney wipe of the EU". What I'm saying is that, from the perspective of understanding what Zahn did in the story, Imperial loss at Endor had been established as due to the Emperor's death and subsequent effect on the troops. This was established in prior novels, and thus is defensible in Zahn's books. When he says the Imperial Navy "fought like cadets", he is only restating what other works have already established. He's not making them out to be incompetent; just victims of the Emperor.

And if the Empire is incompetent in these stories, the reason they're in charge is because the Rebels -- outside of our protagonists -- are even more so . If the regular rebels were worth anything I think Stackpole couldn't have written half his books.


Whether Disney subsequently retconned all this away isn't relevant to understanding what these books are trying to tell us as we read them now.

I hope that makes sense, sort of.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

I get what you're saying now. I don't care about the relevance to understanding the books as they are now read, though; I'm just idly wondering if the novelizations were wiped with the rest.

[pendell]

At any rate, did a quick check. According to Del Rey , the novelizations of all seven films are still considered canon except in places where the films themselves contradict them.

Of course, if Disney decides to change that, they certainly can.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Sapphire Guard]

I participated in the discussion you're talking about. I brought up multiple examples of the Empire's gross incompetence in the movies; you ignored all the specific examples and simply asserted that the Empire had not been incompetent. I see little need or value in dragging the same posts from the first few pages of the thread; they are, after all, still there should you wish to address them at any time. Now, you're effectively moving the goalposts: you're still ignoring rather than contesting the textual examples of Imperial incompetence, but filling in an offscreen event in a way that isn't flattering to the Empire is invalid.]

If your complaint is that I'm making assertions and ignoring concrete examples, refusing to bring up concrete examples when asked to does not help your case. That was not a trick, if you want to correct my views, you are more than welcome to. I'm honestly interested to see these concrete examples I'm ignoring, because it was not my intent to do so. By all means, correct me.

How did the rebel fleet go from "We wont last long against those star destroyers," "We'll last longer than we will against that death star!" to celebrating victory with the ewoks?

Surely, if the imperial navy was remotely competent, they would slowly grind the rebel fleet to dust even after the emperor's death?

Except we SEE things start to go wrong, right after the emperor dies. Narratively, it's the climactic part of the film, where each set of heros gains the upper hand at the same time to tell a cohesive narrative. But in universe... The emperor dies, and then everything goes wrong for the empire. Ties fail to take out Wedge and Lando. Piett's super star destroyer gets suddenly decapitated, AND crashes before control can be restored. imperial reinforcements stop attacking Han and Leia at the shield generator. And Luke and Vader make it all the way to the hanger bay in time for Anakin's last words, so Luke can leave as the hanger is blowing up. In universe, that's a lot of things going right by chance to avoid endor being at best a Pyrrhic victory.

The quote is 'We won't last long against Imperial Star Destroyers at that range, ie they've more of a chance at a distance. And even at said ranges, 'we just might take a few of them with us'. In the absence of a Death Star, there's no indication that the Rebel fleet is a pushover, and even if it was, losing both the flagships by itself would lead to a lot of disruption.

If I'm going to assume widespread incompetence in an offscreen section of the battle, I need better evidence than just 'lost a battle due to three separate miracles taking out both command ships.' Withdrawing after those losses doesn't demonstrate that in itself.

Close range is forced on the Rebels because they have to take shelter from the Death Star, forcing them into disadvantageous battle conditions

The ground battle is over before the Emperor dies. TIEs have been failing to take out Lando since the start of the battle, the SSD only moves in after the Shield is already down and takes concentrated fire from the entire fleet. All those things have independent causes. We see the bridge of the Executor, where nobody is panicking until they can see the ship that's about to kill them.

Smoke was everywhere, substantial rumblings came from all directions at once, people were running and shouting. Electrical fires, steam explosions, cabin depressurizations, disruption of chain-of-command. Added to this, the continued bombardments by Rebel cruisers—smelling fear in the enemy—merely heightened the sense of hysteria that was already pervasive.

For the Emperor was dead. The central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire was gone; and when the dark side was this diffused, this nondirected — this was simply where it led.

Confusion. Desperation. Damp fear.

Can you give me some context for this quote? There's still a distance from there to the explanation we get in Heir. Is it before or after the Death Star explodes?

Aaanyway, CH 21:

Mara's still trying to land, C'Baoth's AA rocks have stopped for the present, so she fakes a crash to get to land. She's climbing up the crater she landed in when R2 and the X Wing light her up with flashlights...and cannons. R2's ability to fly the ship by himself canonised early. He gives her a lift to the top of the crater, and C'Baoth is waiting.

She tries to convince him she's one of Thrawn's people, but lying to a telepath is hard. He also reminds her of the Emperor, which is a bit uncomfortable, but she has a ysalamiri and a blaster. C'Baoth believes he could destroy her, but won't because he's foreseen her kneeling to him later.

Mid conversation, Luke shows up, having felt a disturbance in the Force. He's quite calm about the whole thing, having already suspected something. C'Baoth continues to try to talk him into staying, Mara brings the ysalamiri field to Luke, which helps him slip the hold. C'Baoth starts laughing, and throws another rock to disarm Mara. Luke leaves the ysalamiri field and blocks two rocks and a burst of Force Lightning. She's about to fire again when R2 beats her to the punch with the X Wing's Cannon, a near miss that's enough to knock C'Baoth out. Luke stops her from finishing him out of sympathy for his sanity, he wants to give him a chance to heal.

R2 has to go back to Coruscant, as military X Wings aren't Empire issue, as they go to rescue Karrde. Mara still hates him, but he's fairly confident she won't intentionally betray him until Karrde is rescued. Palpatine's ghost might have something to say about that. They're due to link up with the Chimaera on a supply run in a few days.

Well, we leave Jomark, with Luke not completely breaking free of C'Baoth's influence alone. It's great to see highlighted the compassion at Luke's core, it keeps coming up again and again, and that's the right way to play this.

In other news, I've just now realised that 'Dark Force Rising' likely refers to Katana Fleet and not the Dark Side.

[tiornys]

In other news, I've just now realised that 'Dark Force Rising' likely refers to Katana Fleet and not the Dark Side.

I will neither confirm nor deny, but instead will content myself with stroking my chin and bobbing my head in a non-committal manner.

[GrayDeath]

I will neither confirm nor deny, but instead will content myself with stroking my chin and bobbing my head in a non-committal manner.

Indeed.

[Peelee]

Imean, I always felt like the titles could refer to multiple things.

[pendell]

Can you give me some context for this quote? There's still a distance from there to the explanation we get in Heir. Is it before or after the Death Star explodes?

Sure. This occurs before the Death Star explodes. Specifically, it occurs after the Emperor died but before the DS blew up. Luke and a mortally wounded Darth Vader are escaping from the station and the paragraph explains why in a battle station filled with tens of thousands of troops no one pays the slightest bit of attention to an escaping fugitive or a badly wounded Sith Lord. You might expect it to at least draw comment, or perhaps a medical orderly to aid Darth Vader, but it doesn't. Everyone is panicked completely out of their minds ...

... except for Moff Jerjerrod. In a paragraph very close to that one we see him on the Death Star bridge calmly ordering the battle station's rotation accelerated to bring Endor into the superlaser's field of fire. He knows he's dead. He's determined to destroy Endor, and the rebels on it, as a last gasp F-you. The DS blows up before he can do this, of course.

The book is available on Kindle for about $7.99. You can pick up a used copy for about the same price.

ETA: The scene in question also shows up in the films. Luke is carrying Darth Vader through the station. A passel of troops run by, quickly glance over, and keep running because they have other problems.

In the scene immediately following Luke take's off Vader's mask, they have a scene, and then he gets out on a shuttle just as the whole thing goes kaboom.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Sapphire Guard]

I will neither confirm nor deny, but instead will content myself with stroking my chin and bobbing my head in a non-committal manner.

Indeed.

Sure. This occurs before the Death Star explodes. Specifically, it occurs after the Emperor died but before the DS blew up. Luke and a mortally wounded Darth Vader are escaping from the station and the paragraph explains why in a battle station filled with tens of thousands of troops no one pays the slightest bit of attention to an escaping fugitive or a badly wounded Sith Lord. You might expect it to at least draw comment, or perhaps a medical orderly to aid Darth Vader, but it doesn't. Everyone is panicked completely out of their minds ...

... except for Moff Jerjerrod. In a paragraph very close to that one we see him on the Death Star bridge calmly ordering the battle station's rotation accelerated to bring Endor into the superlaser's field of fire. He knows he's dead. He's determined to destroy Endor, and the rebels on it, as a last gasp F-you. The DS blows up before he can do this, of course.

Nice, thanks, that's what I thought. I'm normally skeptical of novelisations to some degree, but that sounds like a legitimately brilliant scene. Thanks for that?

So it's unclear whether that refers to just the exploding Death Star or not, and Moff Jerjerrod's reaction doesn't indicate to me that the fleet were automatically made incompetent by the Emperor's Death.

I never registered him before, now I really like the guy. Such a great reaction.

CH22:

The cargo shuttle touches down, and Mara enquires of control of how long it will take before they leave. A couple of hours, so that's their time limit. Luke cuts his way out of the storage room (did they just cut a hole in their own ship?) They drop down into an empty room, but need uniforms to get much farther, so Luke uses 'Force Ignore Me' to walk into a TIE break room and grab some flightsuits. They take a turbolift, and Luke walks into the compactor, and rethinks his choices a bit. If Mara decides to take a shot at killing him now...

But she doesn't, and walls close just enough that he can climb up the shaft into the detention centre. Ohh, nice callback and good trick. During the shift change, he cuts his way out of the shaft, finds Karrde, and opens the cell. Karrde maintains his habitual perfect calm under stress, although he's slightly dubious about climbing down the shaft.

He's figured out that Mara hasn't betrayed him because his interrogators kept insinuating she had. He alludes to the fleet, but Luke wasn't told about it. Mara starts moving the wall apart. Wow, they needed very precise timing on this, if she did that much earlier they could have fell to their deaths. They meet Mara and get back into the turbolift and Luke starts to relax. Which makes it a perfect time for a cutaway to the bridge.

Thrawn returns to the bridge and asks for an update re the Millennium Falcon, he has people camping nearby to grab Leia when she comes back for it. Sensible. Then, they get a report about a crashed Skipray and Thrawn inevitably figures out why and sounds the alarm. Then he contradicts Pellaeon a couple of times as is traditional for Chimaera bridge scenes, and they get the report that Karrde is gone. Thrawn orders a search, Karrde alive, his rescuers preferably, but not necessarily.

Well, this is difficult. An active Chimaera will be pretty difficult to escape from. This was a good plan, well executed. I was kind of hoping they'd get away clean just to see how Thrawn would react, but of course he caught on in time as expected as soon as the scene switched to the bridge.

Karrde continues to be exceptionally good under pressure.

[hamishspence]

Nice, thanks, that's what I thought. I'm normally skeptical of novelisations to some degree, but that sounds like a legitimately brilliant scene. Thanks for that?

So it's unclear whether that refers to just the exploding Death Star or not, and Moff Jerjerrod's reaction doesn't indicate to me that the fleet were automatically made incompetent by the Emperor's Death.

I never registered him before, now I really like the guy. Such a great reaction.

In that novel, it plays up his spitefulness (originally seeing the Rebellion as like the animal he can torture, or the child he can bully). The destruction of the Forest Moon won't actually prevent the Rebel fleet attack - it's more spite, and revenge, than military pragmatism.

The scene:

Spoiler

Show

Commander Jerjerrod sat, brooding, in the control room of the Death Star, watching all about him crumble. Half of his crew were dead, wounded, or run off - where they hoped to find sanctuary was unclear, if not insane. The rest wandered ineffectually, or railed at the enemy ships, or fired their guns at all sectors, or shouted orders, or focussed desperately on a single task, as if that would save them. Or, like Jerjerrod, simply brooded.
He couldn't fathom what he'd done wrong. He'd been patient, he'd been loyal, he'd been clever. he'd been hard. He was the commander of the greatest battle station ever built. Or, at least, almost built. He hated this Rebel Alliance now, with a child's hate, untempered. He'd loved it once - it had been the small boy he could bully, the enraged baby animal he could torture. But the boy had grown up now; it knew how to fight back effectively. It had broken its bonds.
Jerjerrod hated it now.
Yet there seemed to be little he could do at this point. Except, of course, destroy Endor - he could do that. It was a small act, a token really - to incinerate something green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wanton destruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying.
An aide ran up to him. "The Rebel fleet is closing, sir."
"Concentrate all fire in that sector." he answered distractedly. A console on the far wall burst into flame.
"The fighters in the superstructure are eluding our defense system, Commander. Shouldn't we-"
"Flood sectors 304 and 138. That should slow them up." He arched his eyebrows at his aide.
This made little sense to the aide, who had cause to wonder at the commander's grasp of the situation. "But sir ..."
"What is the rotation factor to firing range on the Endor Moon?"
The aide checked the compuscreen. "Point oh two to moon target, sir. Commander, the fleet-"
"Accelerate rotation until moon is in range, and then fire on my mark."
"Yes sir." The aide pulled a bank of switches. "Rotation accelerating. Point oh one to moon target. Sixty seconds to firing range. Sir, good-bye, sir." The aide saluted, put the firing switch in Jerjerrod's hand as another explosion shook the control room, and ran out of the door.
Jerjerrod smiled calmly at the view-screen. Endor was starting to come out of the Death Star's eclipse. He fondled the detonation switch in his hand. Point oh oh five to moon target. Screams erupted in the next room.
Thirty seconds to firing.

In the newcanon novelization ROTJ: Beware The Power of the Dark Side, it emphasises how, by Imperial standards, he's not particularly evil, and how he's more architect than military man (he worked on the first Death Star as well - and believed it would never actually be used).

[Ebon_Drake]

Interestingly, there are actually a lot of extra scenes with Jerjerrod that got cut from ROTJ presumably for time and pacing reasons. I guess the novellisation was working from an earlier version of the script that still included that sequence. In the filmed version, he's ordered by the Emperor to destroy the forest moon if the shield goes down, but is reluctant to obey because of the Imperial forces there and arguably saves the lives of everyone on the moon by delaying the order to fire. You can watch it here.

[Peelee]

Karrde continues to be exceptionally good under pressure.

He absolutely is.

Spoiler

Show

Which makes his terrified reverence towards Car'das in the Hand of Thrawn duology hit that much harder.

[russdm]

ETA: The scene in question also shows up in the films. Luke is carrying Darth Vader through the station. A passel of troops run by, quickly glance over, and keep running because they have other problems.

Brian P.

Wasn't Moff J, also running? I distinctly recall seeing him among the running troops. Or at least there is somebody wearing a uniform similar in color to his. In the film at least.

[hamishspence]

Interestingly, there are actually a lot of extra scenes with Jerjerrod that got cut from ROTJ presumably for time and pacing reasons. I guess the novellisation was working from an earlier version of the script that still included that sequence. In the filmed version, he's ordered by the Emperor to destroy the forest moon if the shield goes down, but is reluctant to obey because of the Imperial forces there and arguably saves the lives of everyone on the moon by delaying the order to fire. You can watch it here.

The novelization has that Order From the Emperor too - just a different take on Jerjerrod's attitude in the lead up to firing.

The Emperor hissed. "Your fleet is lost — and your friends on the Endor Moon will not survive..." He pushed a comlink button on the arm of his throne and spoke into it with relish. "Commander Jerjerrod, should the Rebels manage to blow up the shield generator, you will turn this battle station onto the Endor Moon and destroy it."
"Yes, Your Highness," came the voice over the receiver, "but we have several battalions stationed on—"
"You will destroy it!" The Emperor's whisper was more final than any scream.
"Yes, Your Highness."

[Cikomyr]

So every single different source of media about M.J. during the final phase of Endor had him trying to shoot the Moon.

Motivations vary, but actions are the same.

Well.. he followed his dream to tge end. He shot for the Moon

[Peelee]

So every single different source of media about M.J. during the final phase of Endor had him trying to shoot the Moon.

I didn't even know he played cards.

[Sapphire Guard]

(Sorry, no update yesterday as I went to see TLJ instead. Didn't hate it, didn't really like it.)

Moff Jerjerrod is less interesting than I thought, but still more interesting than I ever noticed before.

CH23:The alarms go off, Mara kills/incapacitates the unfortunates sharing the lift and they cut their way out into the access tunnels. They discover the main computer shut down, fight their way through a squad, and since they're near deep storage anyway, head there for the escape craft.

On the bridge, Pellaeon is taking reports. He's not interested in hows they got out, just how to capture them. Thrawn is, of course, and find the bodies that result in the conclusion that Luke is aboard. He orders the ysalamiri moved from Systems and Engineering.

Thrawn is a bit more overtly dismissive of Pellaeon when he's stressed. They mildly bicker for a bit, and then it occurs to Thrawn that the Falcon is in storage.

In deep storage, they're wondering about which ship to take, when they stumble across the Falcon, and two fortunate employees that merely get locked in a supply room. They start the Falcon, and then a squad of eight stormtroopers show up. It goes about as well for them as you'd expect, and they start up the ship and have to do the usual mad rush out under a closing door. TIEs scramble, but not enough to stop them. Since Thrawn't unlikely to be buying, Karrde offers up two hundred ships to the republic.

Back on the bridge, they watch the Falcon escape. With the computer down, the usual systems to track fleeing targets aren't operational enough. Thrawn reacts with calm, and somehow Pelleaon is still surprised by this.

Thrawn's banking on Ferrier tracking down the fleet before Karrde gives it to the republic. Normally, I'd call that a long shot, but meta knowledge wise the end of book 2 is a good time for an Imperial victory.

Well... that was easy. I thought it was going to be much harder to escape an alerted ISD. I'm honestly surprised the Falcon wasn't sabotaged somehow, and even more surprised it wasn't left in Endor as bait for a trap.

[pendell]

Well... that was easy. I thought it was going to be much harder to escape an alerted ISD. I'm honestly surprised the Falcon wasn't sabotaged somehow, and even more surprised it wasn't left in Endor as bait for a trap.

They hadn't decided what to do with it yet, remember. And there's no reason to sabotage it, as it is going to deep storage. How often are ships stolen out of an ISD's deep storage?

If I were Thrawn and I had the Falcon, I think the best use would be to try the decoy YT-1300 trick the Noghri played in the first book, only this time with the real Falcon. If I'm eventually going to be putting my own crew aboard, no reason to mess with the systems.

Although you'd think they'd have at least changed the admin password on the computer.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Peelee]

They hadn't decided what to do with it yet, remember. And there's no reason to sabotage it, as it is going to deep storage. How often are ships stolen out of an ISD's deep storage?

If I were Thrawn and I had the Falcon, I think the best use would be to try the decoy YT-1300 trick the Noghri played in the first book, only this time with the real Falcon. If I'm eventually going to be putting my own crew aboard, no reason to mess with the systems.

Although you'd think they'd have at least changed the admin password on the computer.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

The username and password are always "admin". Always.

[The Glyphstone]

Star Wars computers are advanced enough for passwords? I always assumed you operated them by feeding in punch cards.

[DataNinja]

Star Wars computers are advanced enough for passwords? I always assumed you operated them by feeding in punch cards.

Or using droids.

[Peelee]

Star Wars computers are advanced enough for passwords? I always assumed you operated them by feeding in punch cards.

That's only for stolen data tapes.

[Sapphire Guard]

Mara has cheat codes, so changing passwords wouldn't help much.

I think if I had the Falcon, I'd leave it parked in Endor rigged to explode whenever someone starts the engine. Oh, and the old classic, disable the hyperdrive.

I was also kind of surprised it was kept in the Chimaera and not whatever ship was still at Endor.

Anyway, chapter 24:

Leia is watching the sunset in the Noghri village, about to set off on the raid. C3PO comes over and tells her that a decon droid is acting strangely. She brushes him off, and is gathering her thoughts when the maitrakh accidentally sneaks up behind her. They talk about having children, and Maitrakh mentions that three of her sons died and the fourth was crippled. Leia does the maths and asks about Khabarakh, who, as it turns out, is her great grandson. Leia realises that her maths are off about the decon droids, and calls Chewbacca to get a sample of the kholm grass. If her maths is correct, then rather than rescue Khabarakh, she can go straight to the dynasts.

The maitrakh organises an honour guard to give her a chance to speak. It grows as they pass through villages, and she gets to Nystao at the head of a substantial crowd.

The dynasts meet her next to a chained up Khabarakh, and order her arrested. Leia summons her lightsabre with the force, which convinces enough of the dynasts that she gets her shot.

She runs over the history they know, and then what actually happened. The empire seeded the world with kholm grass that deliberately prevented anything else from growing.

She examines the audience and notices a decon droid. No normal one would follow her all the way from the village, so that makes it a spy. She outs it to the crowd, and the droid flees from a mob of the best killers the galaxy has to offer. It doesn't get far. She opens it up with the lightsabre, and they find its spy colours as well as its normal functions.

The decon droids destroy the grass. That's all. She demonstrates with its weedkiller, and the noghri are silent. The dynasts are clever enough not to take her completely at her word and call a full assembly to decide what to do. In the meantime, Leia has to get off the planet, so they have Khabarakh 'escape'. Because they're in such a rush, they're going direct to Coruscant instead of picking up the Falcon.

That... was really well handled. The whole deal with the Noghri is very impressive, especially with it being made pointedly clear that they're not just switching sides to become Leia's attack dogs instead. And she gets lucky in that she doesn't go back to Endor. This is a really excellent arc start to finish. And Thrawn's sole mistake of failure to interrogate Khabarakh is going to bite him, hard.

[russdm]

And Thrawn's sole mistake of failure to interrogate Khabarakh is going to bite him, hard.

Considering that Thrawn had presumed that Khabarakh had been captured and debriefed by the wookiees, He never thought he was losing anything but not making the effort. Leia is actually extremely lucky here, because how fast would she had been captured had Thrawn bothered to scan the planet for non-Noghri lifesigns?

The mistake may appear jarring to us, but we have access to information that Thrawn doesn't. Soon, Thrawn does everything properly according to the information he does have. So it is a mistake that anybody could end up making. Of course, that doesn't remove the fact that a mistake was made, but that it is one Thrawn is not likely to catch onto any time soon.

[Peelee]

wookiees

Good man. Capital W. ;P

[gomipile]

Mara has cheat codes, so changing passwords wouldn't help much.

Mara has cheat codes to Imperial ships. The Falcon is not an Imperial ship.

I think if I had the Falcon, I'd leave it parked in Endor rigged to explode whenever someone starts the engine. Oh, and the old classic, disable the hyperdrive.

Rigging it to explode would be intended to kill those aboard. Two of the people Thrawn might think likely to board the Falcon (Luke and Leia) are wanted alive.

Disabling the hyperdrive and leaving a picket to watch it would be a good idea, though.

I was also kind of surprised it was kept in the Chimaera and not whatever ship was still at Endor.

Good point. I can't think of a good reason to keep it on the Chimaera.

[LadyEowyn]

I agree that the Noghri storyline is handled magnificently. It's one of Leia's best moments in the whole EU, and really shows off both her courage and her skills as a diplomat.

[hamishspence]

Considering that Thrawn had presumed that Khabarakh had been captured and debriefed by the wookiees, He never thought he was losing anything but not making the effort. Leia is actually extremely lucky here, because how fast would she had been captured had Thrawn bothered to scan the planet for non-Noghri lifesigns?

They did take precautions at least once, just in case Thrawn did a low-level scan - hide next to somewhere hot.