I just as painstakingly changed all of them back again.
—TZ
Chapter 29
1 In the original outline, which had Han and Leia coming to Myrkr instead of Han and Lando, this confrontation took place with the Chimaera still orbiting overhead. In that scenario, Chewie and Lando were scheduled to swoop in after the Imperials’ defeat and pull Luke and the others off the planet before Thrawn could intervene.
As a matter of pure logic, not to mention reasonable storytelling, it’s just as well that I came up with this version instead of having to use that one.
—TZ
Chapter 30
1 This, plus the last bit of chapter 32, was where I’d originally planned to end this book. But after reading the outline, Betsy told me I needed something even more slam-bang exciting to close off this first part of the trilogy. Hence, Sluis Van.
—TZ
2 For comparison, this is about 4.3 times the distance from our sun to Pluto. A nice, quiet neighborhood, perfect for this kind of gathering.
—TZ
3 The fifth quality of a good commander: he keeps his priorities straight.
—TZ
Chapter 31
1 Final Tuckerization of this book: Mark Callen, Florida fan.
—TZ
2 Pellaeon, by the way, was named after Pelleas, an idealistic young knight in the King Arthur mythos.
—TZ
3 Tim reminds me that his original outline had the book end with Luke’s escape but that I requested something bigger, saying his proposed finish wasn’t exciting enough to close out a Star Wars adventure. The climactic clash at Sluis Van was the result. As well as being a space battle worthy of the giant screen, it also ties together a number of seemingly minor plot elements Tim had been setting in place throughout the book: the shortage of freighters that sent Han to the smugglers, the theft of the mole miners, Lando’s presence on the scene, and more.
—BM
4 Spacetroopers were another cool invention from West End Games.
—TZ
5 The sixth quality of a good leader: he doesn’t waste his troops, but does what he can to get them to safety once their mission is complete or has been rendered impossible by the circumstances of the battle.
—TZ
6 The final quality of a good commander: a willingness to retreat when the circumstances of battle make the objective no longer attainable.
Note that at the same time, he’s maintaining the “glass half full” attitude vital to keeping up his troops’ morale.
—TZ
7 So here at last we have all the pieces that went into the creation of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
He’s competent and capable, enough so that his troops can be assured that they have the best possible chance of winning whatever battle they’re being sent into.
He cares about his troops, and they know he won’t sacrifice them for nothing.
And he’s driven by logic and reason, not anger or ego or wounded pride.
Throw in the semi-mystical art thing (through which he can anticipate his enemies’ moves), and make him an alien (because the Emperor disliked aliens, and would never give such a rank to one unless he was really, really good) … and when you’ve done all that, Grand Admiral Thrawn simply falls out of the equation.
I think the greatest compliment Thrawn has ever received came from a U.S. serviceman. (I can’t remember if he was a soldier or marine.) He told me he and his buddies had read the Thrawn Trilogy, and had agreed that they would unreservedly follow a commander like Thrawn.
Oh, and what would have happened if Thrawn had been in command at Endor? The Rebels, in my humble opinion, would almost certainly have lost.
—TZ
Chapter 32
1 Just as Tim is masterful at creating cliffhangers at the end of chapters, he brought this book to a close with so many compelling cliffhangers that readers came in droves to the next book. Ackbar’s arrest is only one of them.
—BM
2 I always liked the way the Back to the Future movies did this: with a “To Be Continued” after the first movie (the later version of it, anyway), and a “To Be Concluded” at the end of the second, thus assuring the viewer that the saga would indeed be ending with part 3.
Little did we know at the time that the Star Wars Expanded Universe wasn’t about to be concluded. In fact, it was just getting started.
—TZ