Elheru Aran wrote:Conjectural: Myrkr (if that's how it's spelled, it's been years since I cracked a Thrawn book and I don't have the time to look it up) had some predator which used active Force sensing in some manner; perhaps a precursor of the vornskr. Proto-ysalamiri evolved the ability to nullify the Force in order to escape detection by these predators. The predator might have been able to sense the Force-nullifying bubble, but once they got into it they would have to try to find the arboreal ysalamiri without their special ability aiding them.
This is basically canon. While no professional biologists or ecologists examine the relationship between the vornskyr and ysalamiri on their shared homeworld, the relatively educated people who do look at the situation
speculate that the ysalamiri evolved their Force-nullifying ability as a defense against Force-sensitive predators.
Doesn't have to be Force sensing though. Could've been something like Force jumping or Force lightning. After a while it becomes somewhat obvious that Tim Zahn never really thought it through, he just needed a convenient device to explain why Luke didn't just board the Chimera and tell Thrawn to surrender with a little mental push, or how Thrawn could control the C'baoth clone.
Well, no; he actually
DID devise that explanation
after coming up with a convenient device to explain why Luke yada yada. He also came up with a number of other applications for the same ysalamiri. Claiming, for instance, that the 'clone madness' caused by trying to grow clones too rapidly is actually Force-related and that ysalamiri can block that effect too, allowing Thrawn to clone soldiers more quickly and efficiently and safely.
Adamskywalker007 wrote:And C'Baoth was the other major part of those books I didn't like. Something bothers me about the idea that it is possible to clone Jedi. If Mara had more or less replaced him as Thrawn's ally to deal with Luke that would have been vastly preferable. Mara could then turn on Thrawn in the finale in some fashion that I can't currently be bothered to think up.
The biggest problem with this is that it turns Mara's character into, essentially, a substitute for Darth Vader.
Part of the thing that made Mara moderately interesting was her divided loyalties, which were split in about three or four different directions over the course of the series as she shuttled back and forth between the different major players, building and breaking alliances as necessary, constantly having to prove and re-prove her loyalties, being hostile to Luke and yet being forced into situations where she had to keep him or his friends alive.
If you take away her status as "in the middle" and replace it with "firmly affiliated with Thrawn until the moment she switches sides," you cut out a large chunk of the plot of the trilogy, and a lot of the opportunities for characters who aren't automatically on the same side to interact with each other.
Zixinus wrote:If Zahn hadn't been so minimalist, there is an ideal counter to Jedi.
Can someone please explain what is meant by "minimalism" here? I have seen the term thrown around but I don't get what was Zahn "minimalist" in?
He tends to overestimate distances, travel times, and scale. For example, having it take five days for a ship to travel what is, on galactic terms, a relatively short distance. And a few hundred thousand clones is portrayed as a lot of troops in a galactic war.
[On the other hand, at other times it seems like characters are casually hopping across the galaxy in a hurry, so yeah]
And C'Baoth was the other major part of those books I didn't like. Something bothers me about the idea that it is possible to clone Jedi.
I actually agree with you there but not for the reason you are. Cloning a Jedi is one thing, but what bothered me is that C'Baoth knew things (and skills) from his DNA donor. Zahn has fallen for that age-old stupid misconception about cloning that you are copying people, not DNA (so a clone of someone is a copy of someone rather than just being a later-born twin)
Since Palpatine created the Joruus clone, he could also have trained him, and implanted at least enough memories so that Joruus would not realize he was a clone.
The closest thing to an alternative explanation for that was that C'Baoth somehow had a telepathic link to the original master and thus his knowledge. Zahn has fallen for that age-old stupid misconception about cloning that you are copying people, not DNA (so a clone of someone is a copy of someone rather than just being a later-born twin). The only other explanation was that the Force taught him trough his connection to the original master. But then why didn't see Obi-Wan Kenobi doing that to Luke?
No, Zahn is explicit that you have to teach clones- but that you can teach them very quickly through some kind of hypnotic learning or the like.
Also, Zahn uses the Force to explain something he calls "clone madness-" that when a person and an identical clone of that person exist, there is a Force link between the two that causes the clone to become mentally unstable. The faster you grow the clone, the more serious the instability becomes. This is used to explain why Joruus C'baoth is crazy (and he quite clearly is). It also seems to be the
REAL main reason Thrawn wants the ysalamiri.
He could, ultimately, probably run his war against the New Republic without making use of Joruus' Force powers, especially since Joruus is a psychotic time bomb who interferes with Thrawn's own plans.
But he
really needs those cloning facilities, since unlike the old Empire, he doesn't have access to a galaxy-sized recruiting and training establishment. If he wants lots of good troops in a hurry, cloning them is actually to his advantage... and using ysalamiri to prevent 'clone madness' means he can produce those troops about an order of magnitude faster than would otherwise be possible.
