The Legends books about me are incredible. Written ~30 years ago when Americans had no idea of impeachment, mass shootings or terrorism. Americans were naive in 1991. There wasn’t much CG, or extraordinary storytelling and Star Wars had been forgotten. Then this new book rises: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE feature a villain unseen as blue-skinned with red pupils and red sclera in an all white Imperial Uniform looking heroically for the loss of the 2nd Death Star and Galactic Empire. Desert Shield and Desert Storm did not look as bold. Nor Saddam Hussein.
The Thrawn Trilogy as it is called are fine books. Perhaps upgradable. Legally, they may not be. The contracts in that day were iron clad and some of the producers of this may no longer be living. Who finally owns the piece is not something Disney Corporate wants to try tangling with it — unless Star Wars fans themselves can put their legal minds to it and wrangle themselves out of it. The story has been told. It is still there. But it is stuck with logos of the 1990s and HISTORY IS ON THE MOVE.
It is the way of such things…
As #StarWars fans that want #ThrawnInAMovie we have to know it is cheaper and faster to produce new works of THRAWN by Disney than to search for some phantom screenplay written by someone with memory deficits and is employing old scenes already in current movies. What are the true markers that the THRAWN character is in the house in film? Star Destroyers? Blue-skinned people? What?
Has it all been worked out? Have we as fans staked our claims as to what we want? Have we, truly, done due diligence to show our seriousness as Star Wars fans that love GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN?
Or have we pitted one another for our fanfics first over other fans whom we feel less deserving of Star Wars, Lucasfilm or Disney? Less deserving of George Lucas? Less deserving overall?
Let’s be more blunt: in 1991, women could be raped by their husbands without recourse. In 1991, LGBTQIA were arrested and put in jail for kissing their partners, passionately as some lay dying from the ravages of HIV/AIDS. In 1991, immigrants were sent first to fight in Iraq. In 1991, the officers BEAT the crap out of Rodney King for a traffic stop in a damaged Hyundai. In 1991, the Soviet Union fell and there was fighting in the streets of Moscow, Russia.
HEIR TO THE EMPIRE?
What did we gain?
When we Star Wars fans are adamant about the past it says something about us that our minds remain closed and we refuse to not be open to any new possibilities. It’s like 60 years ago, in believing in segregation — separate but equal — when separation is inherently unequal… That different people — different ideas should never interact or intermix because of a BELIEF that only in timeline, real or fictional, do these complex ideas make sense to one angry, rage-filled fan who throws tantrums for not getting their way or bullying their beliefs over all others as supreme, than evolution…
HISTORY IS ON THE MOVE…
No. This essay is saying READ! Read as many books as possible about THRAWN. And do not exclude books due to bias against nascent thoughts. Because the point of most stories and storytelling is evolution of thought and adaptation to new occurrences. Without those we remain stagnant and stagnation leads to extinction.
So…
HISTORY IS ON THE MOVE… Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance. And those who stand in our way will not watch at all…