A fan favourite EU character makes the jump to canon in Star Wars Rebels Season 3

[ozaline]

So let's look at how they were first introduced to us...

No specific tags to avoid spoilers.

"Star Wars Rebels Season Three Trailer (Official)" (Watch on YouTube)

Two pages from Heir to the Empire #1, based on the novel by Timothy Zahn


Written by
Mike Baron

Art by
Olivier Vatine


Now we need someone with firey red hair to contrast against that blue skin.

Comments

[beardedjellybean]

Sweeeeeeeeet, the Thrawn Trilogy is one of the best bits of the Star Wars expanded universe. I just hope they do a good job with the character.

[mrstatham]

They at least seem to have a basic grasp of the character. That speech in the trailer is almost ripped from the books.

[icon_uk]

They have Timothy Zahn's approval and endorsment in their treatment of the character (He recorded a special message for the Celebration crowd, and yes I was there, and it was AWESOME! :) )

The only real change is that there will be no ysalimiri, on the fairly reasonable grounds that the Force is an energy field generated by all living things, a living thing which is completely immune to the Force doesn't actually make sense.

[janegray]

It's not like it's unusual for nature to make no sense. Have you seen platypuses? ;P

Seriously though, there is bacteria that can live for millions of years in environments that scientists searched up and down for food sources and couldn't find any. There are marine life forms that can live at the bottom of the ocean in total absence of light and with pressure that would crush even molecules. Scientist even found microbes that can live in "Mars-like conditions."

Nature takes "a living thing which [] doesn't actually make sense" like a challenge :P

[astrakhan42]

He's also writing the new Thrawn novel which presumably explains his new backstory in this canon.

Pellaeon and the Chimera Star Destroyer are hopefully coming next... and what the hell, throw in Jorus C'Baoth, even if he doesn't get cloned. We might end up with a battle between Ezra and Ezraa.

[richardak]

Gentlemen, you may include me out. Seriously, though, I really liked the Thrawn trilogy when I first read it, but when I went back to reread it a few years later, I thought it was pretty silly, and I thought the character of Thrawn himself was one of the worst parts.

I thought the idea of a military commander who defeats his enemies by studying their art to be ridiculous. At one point, he is planning how to defeat Admiral Ackbar by studying artworks that Ackbar picked out to decorate his office. But how does he know what significance, if any, those artworks had to Ackbar? Maybe his wife or his decorator picked them out, and Ackbar has never even thought about them. What if he just picked them because they were cheap? Who knows what significance, if any, those artworks had to Ackbar?

There are other times when he figures out how to defeat a commander of a different species by studying that species' art. The whole species' art! That would be as if Kutusov had tried to figure out Napoleon's plan at Austerlitz by studying ancient Assyrian bas-reliefs. That's how ridiculous Thrawn was.

[candescencearia]

I thought there was some kind of ban on immigrating aspects of the 'legacy' EU into the new canon, though? Because back when they made the old EU non-canon, I swore it was stated that nobody from the EU would be brought over but instead expies might be created or something.

Oh, well, can't complain. Now, we just need Dash Rendar and Kyle Katarn and we're golden.

[ozaline]

I thought it was stated that everything was on a case by case basis aside from Jaxxon who was "right out."

[mrstatham]

I think they basically said they might introduce elements from the EU, but they would be used in a manner to fit the new canon.I could also see them realising that using no legacy EU characters would be silly and bringing elements in.

I'm personally happy they're seemingly using the Dark Troopers, in addition to seeing Thrawn (although I'm not too sure about the quasi-Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter voice). They were a slightly goofy concept, but I loved them in the original DF game.

[jeyl]

That would just be irresponsible. You have decades worth of well established franchise assets that fans of the series enjoyed and the first order of business after the acquisition is to ban all of it? The only foreseeable reason they would do that is so they didn't have to credit or pay royalties to those who created those assets in the first place.

In addition to what others said

[chortles81]

Almost immediately in their 'we're rebooting from a baseline of movies/TCW' announcement they confirmed that elements like were already being cherry-picked such as the Imperial Security Bureau (if not really the details).

[cyberghostface]

IDT there was ever a ban, they even said the EU was open for ideas to be taken from.

[icon_uk]

I think it's more along the lines of the Doctor Who 1989 to 2005 EU's impact on the 2005 series.

Everything in those books can be taken to have happened provided it doesn't interfer with or contradict anything that the TV series says happened, the TV series is primary over-riding canon.

So the various companions that the 7th Doctor had are fine, but the various EU events involving Sarah-Jane Smith are now defined by what happened in "School Reunion" and the fates of several companions (Ben, Polly, Tegan, Harry, Ace (probably), Ian and Barbara) are then mentioned in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" over-ride anything that the EU said happened to them.

[kamino_neko]

Thrawn's frown game is totally epic here.

I mean, I know his species is near-human, so they don't vary too much from baseline, but from these scans, I'd think his mouth was hinged like Beaker's. >_>

[trooper924]

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that they didn't make his eyes glow.

Also, looks like another one of Lucas' unused concept are going to be canon.

[icon_uk]

Yup, and voiced by Tom Baker too! :)

[janegray]

Nice!

I was no fan of the EU, but the Thrawn Trilogy was one of the few parts of it I genuinely loved :)

[monsieur_safior]

I don't wacht Star War Rebel, but it seems pretty great.

I don't understand why Disney Star War cartoon look great when all their marvel cartoon are confirmed horsesh*t.

[lizard_of_aus]

Probably wouldn't use language that strong, but yeah, the Disney Marvel cartoons are a modern Superfriends at their best.

Rebels takes a lot of cues from the Clone Wars series, plus it had Greg Weisman at the helm for the first season.

[cypherfdp]

I always thought those guys looked like Dunmer.

[cainofdreaming]

Cartoons are canon for Star Wars now? Huh, it's a whole new world with Disney holding the reins.

[ozaline]

Well I think the The Clone Wars was on one of the higher tiers of canon under Lucas too.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah apparently one of the characters from Clone Wars is in Rogue One.

[starwolf_oakley]

Hope they keep Gilad Pallaeon. He's cool too. Sort of. He got more bad ass during New Jedi Order.

[lieut_kettch]

Thank you, Disney/Lucasfilms. This almost makes up for cruelly snuffing out the glimmer of hope that sprung up within me when I misheard "Jyn Erso" as "Jan Ors" during the Rogue One trailer.

Now give us back Mara Jade and we're golden. Maybe the Empire has this young, ginger Inquisitor-in-training...