More then you ever wanted to hear about “Outbound Flight,” a book review.
… But we need to talk about Maris.
I’m not going to demonize Timothy Zahn. I am a huge fan of Timothy Zahn. I really like how this book, in true Star Wars fashion, it takes this one aside from his own first Star Wars novel (the line in Heir to the Empire when Thrawn casually mentions that he knows his C’Baoth is a clone, because he killed the real one) and tells us the whole story of what happened.
Some Guy (JEORG CAR’DAAS), a girl (Maris Ferasi), and Captain Dirtbag (….) are smugglers traders on the run from some Hutts when one hyperspace jump too many gets them lost in Sector Ass-Backwards-Nowhere and then BLAMO, the Hutts are suddenly blown up real good by some blue-skinned, red-eyed aliens called the Chiss who none of them have seen before, who happen to be lead by a young, fresh-faced officer with a crazy long name that he lets them shorten to Thrawn cuz he’s cool like that.
Turns out, from his perspective, this is some version of First Contact. Not with aliens in general, the Chiss seem to know all about those, but at least with humans from the Republic. Thrawn, of course, makes the most of this chance to learn everything he can about this galactic superpower and arranges for the humans to stay on his base and tutor him in their language and everything they know about Jedi, The Force, Droids, and everything else he doesn’t know about because Chiss space is at the utmost outer rim of absolutely nowhere. In exchange he’ll teach them his language and give them a share of a pirate treasure he captured. And I won’t lie, I love this portrait of the young, eager, Pre-Imperial Thrawn. It’s kind of refreshing to see him back in the days when his biggest source of aggravation wasn’t how to wage war against the entire galaxy, but what to do about a group of brutal pirate slavers that he is NOT ALLOWED TO BLOW UP even though he REALLY REALLY WANTS TO. You know. More innocent times.
Just think, if the Chiss had gone, “what, slavers? Oh sure, blow them up all you want, it’s a doggdamn public service,” how much might have been different?
But this, this inability to just look the other way while innocent people suffer, even if he doesn’t know those people, even if it puts his own life and career at risk, this drive to do SOMETHING … is ... really something he grew out of later in life, so enjoy it while it lasts. This is as close to GoodGuy!Thrawn as the EU ever got.
So yeah, read this book for Thrawn doing all the wonderful Thrawn things that make us love him even when he’s also making blatantly terrible… and in retrospect kind of ironic… life decisions.
Like when Palpatine’s agent is trying to convince him Jedi are a menace, he says, “They have very ridged ideas of how people should act and what they should think and do” and, “they feel they have all the answers and everyone else should submit to their concept of justice,” and finally, “when they arrive in Chiss space, they’ll certainly attempt to impose their will upon your people.”
And then Thrawn replies, “Attempt is the correct word. The Chiss do not simply accept alien concepts without careful consideration. We certainly do not submit to domination. By anyone.”
....
It’s ironic because he winds up working for the Empire, and that’s what they do all day. As a wise woman once said, “Thank God we cannot see the future. We’d never get out of bed.”
Speaking of bad endings, we also meet Thrawn’s brother Thrass, who just kinda ends up being there to wag his finger at all this tomfoolery until it’s time for the big heroic sacrifice at the end so he can sever Thrawn’s strongest connection to his own people, symbolism symbolism. I gotta be honest, I was mildly disappointed with Thrass. I kept waiting for him to play a much larger role then he ended up playing, and we really don’t learn much about what their relationship is. Are they even close? Did they used to be close? Is there some sibling rivalry there or have they usually had each other’s backs? Do they have any other siblings or blood relatives still living? They are both Merit Adoptives of the Eighth family, so where are their birth parents? Do Chiss parents just not play big roles in the lives of their offspring? Are the kids mostly raised by schools or the state or something? Are we going to use this chance to actually learn something about where Thrawn came from and how he came into his skills? C’mon, at least give us some sort of adorable story about how widdle baby Thrawn turned a normal snowball fight into an ice-ball war that lasted for a week and expanded to include the whole neighborhood. Anything!
Heck we don’t even learn which of them is older. At first I assumed it was Thrawn, just because ... well, non-chronologically, we’ve known him for longer, but Thrass’s finger waving sure makes it sound like he’s used to being the grown-up, responsible one, so he could be older. Possibly much older. Again, we don’t know. If their careers are any indication, they are very different people, with Thrawn rising quickly in the military and Thrass as some sort of minor noble administrator. We have no idea if Thrass is as good at his job as Thrawn is at his, but hey... we don’t know he isn’t. All we really know is he insists he’s acting to protect both his position in the Eighth Family and his brother when he keeps tattling on him to the Admiral.
…Speaking of the Admiral, she’s another character I really wish we got to see more of. The way she handles Thrawn, it’s like he’s the class troublemaker, and she’s the vice principle determined to put a stop to his shenanigans, which is an even apter comparison when you remember that they make it a point that Thrawn is the youngest Chiss ever to have risen to this rank. Almost every character who shares a scene with Thrawn, friend or enemy, Jedi or Dark Lord, seems to wind up in awe of him, which is why I really wish we got to see more of Ar’alani treating him like the spoiled brat boy genius who’s gotten this far on his natural talent but hasn’t had time to develop discipline, maturity, and a level of respect for how dangerous this game really is. She should see him as this little boy who has been handed a shitton of guns and is itching to show everyone what he can do with them.
…Or at least, that’s how I see it. Again, I like Ar’alani. I wish we’d gotten to see more of her.
But back to Thrawn’s three pet humans. We spend most of our time with Caar’das, the third wheel who’s just kinda there because … well, because he’s in a later book. He isn’t going to make a strong impression on you, nor do I think he’s really supposed to. He will be playing the role of our “Eyes on Thrawn” character, and he actually does that pretty well. You can take for granted that whatever he’s thinking about is probably the same thing Thrawn is thinking about... except, you know, a million times faster. I like that he’s less of an underling and more of a friend.
Besides, slobbering adoration is Doriana’s job. I swear, if Palpatine’s minion was any more besotted, I’d expect him to propose. More on him later.
The other two, Maris and Qennto…is things start to really bother me. And there’s no easy…or really safe…way to explain why.
… And now I’m going to try and explain why. Oh man. Here we go.
It starts with Captain Dirtbag. Alright, fine. His name is Rak Qennto, but I’m going to call him Captain Dirtbag because he’s awful. He’s terrible. Granted, he’s also been rescue slash captured by a bunch of weird blue aliens who, he believes, are WAAAAY too curious about him, his ship, his business, his cargo, his government, his treasure, and (he believes) his woman, but even allowing for a certain amount of culture shock and xenophobia, his behavior seems engineered to see how quickly he can provoke someone into shoving him out of the airlock. He’s hostile, he’s greedy, he’s got a terrible temper, he’s blind to the wonder and beauty of the universe, he couldn’t be less interested in this chance to learn about a previously unknown people, and generally he treats everyone like garbage, *especially* Maris, the girl he supposedly loves. Yeah, in addition to being the ship navigator, she’s also, I think, supposed to be Captain Dirtbag’s girlfriend. Even though he’s Literally the Worst, and she’s a fairy princess who is trusting and kind and believes real magic is the friends we make and OH MY GOD GIRL DUMP HIM YOU CAN DO SOOOOO MUCH BETTER....
But what gets to me isn’t that they have a relationship. It’s how that relationship is portrayed. Rak has a terrible temper, as I’ve said, and Maris spends vast majority of her time and energy making excuses for him, smoothing over ruffled feelings, cleaning up his messes, and determinedly maintaining that, really, he’s not that bad, he didn’t mean it, he’ll calm down soon. I swear she comes within inches of saying, “you just don’t know him like I do.” This is your first warning.
The book paints this as her just being so determined to see only the good in people that she willingly blinds herself to everything else. Apparently she’s SO blind, that she’s only on a smuggling crew because she thinks she’s sticking it to the corrupt New Republic government by dodging unfair tax policies. Apparently she has no idea this means she’s transporting stolen goods, because Captain Dirtbag lies to her. You’d think this ongoing deception about a fundamental part of what she does for a living would, eventually, be a plot point... but it isn’t. Maris is just so full of sunshine and light and rainbows and also thinks the world of the Jedi, has absolutely nothing bad to say about them and their role as the galaxy’s devoted, incorruptible peacekeepers … until someone somewhere suggests maybe they aren’t, and she goes hm, maybe that’s so…. and it’s weird.
And that’s when I realized... I don’t think her so called idealism is really backed up by anything. These are not her real, strongly-held opinions. She’s just trying to keep the peace; inside her mind and outside of it.
And it makes me wonder if the only reason she and Captain Dirtbag are even in the same bed is because she’s just such a people-pleasing doormat that she can’t say no, even to sex she actually doesn’t want.
Not that any sex occurs in this book. That’s actually a thing I’ve noticed in prequel-era Star Wars: even when a passionate but secret love affair is a key plot point, sex itself might as well be strictly for procreation purposes. I understand you don’t want to get too steamy in a PG-rated property, but although we know Captain Dirtbag and Maris share a bed, that’s…really the extent of what we know. What do they do in that bed? I can make a guess, but we don’t know what their relationship actually is. They don’t mention being married, and the “boyfriend and girlfriend” label can cover a spectrum all the way from soul mates to occasional unenthusiastic hook ups. Whatever they are, Qennto is quick to get jealous and defensive, and Maris devotes the lion’s share of her energy to defusing him, acting as a peacekeeper and intermediary for him, and making excuses for him. And… this is it. This is it.
I finally have to say it.
I think this is an abusive relationship.
… Or at least, as close to an abusive relationship as Star Wars can get. It’s a common misconception that if someone doesn’t hit you, they can’t possibly be abusing you, but Maris’s behavior, wishy-washy and weak-willed as it is, makes perfect sense if you look at it in the context of someone who has learned to prioritize
keeping the peace above all other concerns.
RED FLAGS! GET YOUR RED FLAGS HERE!
And Thrawn definitely isn’t helping. After Maris saves his life, Qennto freaks out…not about Maris saving Thrawn, Qennto doesn’t really seem to care, but about Thrawn’s boss possibly taking Qennto’s pirate treasure away. This is when the Admiral throws Captain Dirtbag in the brig and earns my eternal admiration for doing so. Damn did this book need more Aralani.
Anyway, it makes Thrawn assign guards both to both Quento and Maris, meaning they can’t move around without the discomfort of being conspicuously watched all of the time. This has the effect of keeping them mostly confined to their rooms.
If I were Maris, I’d be really hurt Thrawn did this. Heck, I’d be wondering if I did something to make him mad, and that’s why he’s having me watched. It’s not the living shields thing, is it? Because I thought we talked that out!
… Oh yeah, the one time we see Maris stick up for anything, it’s when a bunch of pirate slavers Thrawn is about to blow up have live prisoners in plastic bubble shells on their hulls which they are using as live shields. That’s … upsetting, and Thrawn’s not happy, but he orders the attack anyway, reasoning that the only way to really help those people is to put the pirates out of business for good. Maris is pissed and literally gives him the cold shoulder. He seems to reconsider and orders non-lethal weapons deployed when they come in range, but before Maris can react, a missile hits the bridge and Thrawn’s suit gets torn and Maris saves him with what I can only describe as the Hug of Life.
Her reward for all of this is to be mostly confined to her bedroom, placating her jealous, resentful boyfriend for the rest of her stay. It’s a full time job, since Captain Dirtbag quickly gets sick of being an alien’s house pet and becomes incapable of doing anything other then complaining about how much he just wants his treasure so they can go home. Car’das comments on how tense things are between them, without realizing what the implications of that really might be.
Let me put it this way: I was half anticipating an interlude where Thrawn and Caar’das show up to find Qennto taking swings at those Chiss Guards, while Maris nurses a black eye or a bloody nose and tries to assure them, no, let him go, it was HER fault, he didn’t mean it, he’ll calm down, please don’t hurt him.
…It didn’t happen. It never seems to occur to anyone that it could happen. But if it had happened, a lot of things would have suddenly made sense.
Meanwhile, while she’s doing all that, Cardaas gets to enjoy a deepening trust and friendship with Thrawn, a detail I can’t imagine Maris wouldn’t find extra painful if she was permitted to think about it. Because, the saddest part of this is… Captain Dirtbag is kind of right to be jealous. Maris HAS been making goo-goo eyes at Glowy-Eyes. And not just because he’s young, strong, intelligent, and ... you know, doesn’t require that she constantly be monitoring her every word and deed so as to avoid an explosion. Thing number #134,994jfd that makes Maris too good for Captain Dirtbag is, it turns out not only she she kind, principled, and thoughtful, she’s educated. She used to go to a university and hang out with art students and poets.
“Qennto snorted. You mean since you left those shallow, needle-headed idiots you used to hang out with?” SO Qennto is one of those boyfriends who insults your friends right to your face. Great.
“Yes, most of them WERE idiots,” she agreed without embarrassment. Of course she’d say that now, even if she doesn’t believe it. This isn’t about what she really believes, it’s about what will keep Qennto from going off. “Comes from being young I suppose.”
“But Thrawn is different?”
“Thrawn is a grown-up version,” she said.
… How old do you think Thrawn is? Chiss reach physical maturity twice as fast as humans do, and look like they are 20 when they are 10, so for all you know, he could actually be a lot younger then you. Which would incedently be hilarious.
But Maris isn’t done writing in her Hello Kitty diary yet. “His artistic sense is coupled with maturity and wisdom. I enjoy spending time talking with him.” Her eyes flashed. “JUST talking with him, if that matters.”
Oh damnit Maris! You were so close! SO CLOSE. I mean, I understand why you haven’t made a move, if you know he’s not interested and you want to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation, but …. damnit, the mere fact that you’re finding yourself attracted to him should, at the very least, make you question your reasons for being in your current relationship. Maybe Qennto just isn’t making you happy.
And how sad is it if she’s being honest, and she really is this thirsty just from the novelty of intelligent conversation with someone kind and thoughtful and curious who actually shares her interests? If they were just making out, that’s one thing. But if she’s interested in him intellectually, then... Qennto, I’d be more worried, if I were you.
And later on, when it’s time for the next action set piece, Thrawn comes to grab Car’das so he can ID some ships:
“You might have done better to being Qennto instead,” Car’Das warned. “He’s a lot more knowledgeable about those things then I am.”
“I thought it best to leave both him and Ferasi behind,” Thrawn said. “I’ve sense certain… problems there.”
You sense problems, so you decide the best thing to do is to leave them both in a room with nothing to do but resent each-other all day? Yeah, that’ll end well.
Car’das winced. “You’re right.”
And with that, they both abandon Maris to Captain Dirtbag’s tender mercies.
And predictably, when they come back, Captain Dirtbag is angrier then ever, and won’t stop yelling about how he wants his pirate treasure so they can go home. He tells Caar’das;
“You’re his confidant these days, kid. You think you can sweet-talk him into letting us have that Vagaari loot his brother locked away?” He jerked a thumb at Maris. “Or should I ask Maris to do it?”
“Rak…” Maris began.
“I don’t think sweet talk is going to be the issue,” Car’das said easily. The tension between Qennto and Maris was starting to drift into the red zone again.
Red zone. He actually called it the red zone. Again, I’m shocked Qennto doesn’t hit Maris. A passing acquaintance with the cycle of violence would indicate that’s what their relationship is building up to.
But maybe he doesn’t have to. Maybe it’s enough to continue to mock her for having the gall to develop feelings for one of those stupid art types that Dirtbag imagines he rescued her from, and that this proves how stupid and childish she is and how she should never trust her own judgement and that’s why he will make all of the choices.
And in the end, once the adventure is over, they are given their treasure and their ship and they head off into the wild black yonder like none of this ever happened. Happy ending.
That’s …. just not right.
… And for what it’s worth, I don’t think any of this was really intentional. I don’t think anyone set out to portray such an explosive subject as absusive relationships in a Star Wars book. You’re well within your rights to tell me I’ve got it all wrong, I’m reading too much into it, or you just don’t agree with my analysis. That’s all legitimate.
But I look at Maris and I see a girl who doesn’t even know what’s happening to her. She needs help, part of her is screaming for it, but she has no idea why. Again, it’s a common misconception that if someone’s not hitting you, you aren’t being abused, and Maris is just kind of … I just think nobody took her seriously, or stopped to think about what this implications of this relationship would really be. It wasn’t intentional. But it’s there.
….
…On a lighter note, you may have noticed I didn’t say much about “Outbound Flight” in this review of a book about Outbound Flight. Well that’s because I don’t have a lot to say about that half of the novel. Moral of the story seems to be that C’Baoth was always a psychotic overbearing piece of work, even before he was a crazy clone, and the fact that everyone around him has failed to notice or do anything about this really stretches my belief past the point where I care. He has a former padawan Lorana who has the all the backbone of a limp noodle and completely fails to be anything but a helpless victim at all times.
Actually, holy shit, if you want to talk about women in abusive relationships, Lorana has been gaslit so long she doesn’t know which way is up. Anyone with two brain cells in their head could see C’Baoth is one evil domineering bastard, but she’s gotten so used to not trusting her own eyes that it isn’t until he’s committing cold blooded murder that she really notices there’s anything wrong.
Anakin and Obi-Wan are there briefly, but they contribute nothing and I don’t know why they are in this book.
And can I say, just as an aside, how lame it is that Thrawn actually DIDN’T kill C’Baoth? Because he didn’t. It was Palpatine’s agent who did it. Just because C’baoth is such a piece of work even before he’s a crazy clone that it really strains belief that absolutely no one worries in more then a passing way about his obvious evilness and then act all surprised when he turns out to be murdering people in cold blood.
...Yeah, I know, killing him also required killing the other 500,000ish people on Outbound Flight, but I still say having Palpatine’s agent do it is weak.
Besides, I feel like it lets Thrawn off the hook too easily. We know he can be ruthless. Ruthless enough to sacrifice almost a half a million people and his carefully-lain plans just to save his own life? Actually... No. He’s not. Even if he’s choking, all he has to do is move his hand a couple inches to save himself. He didn’t do it.
If Car’das had done it, I’d say yeah, they’ve bonded enough by that point that I can see Car’das deciding to sacrifice a bunch of strangers to save his friend. If Lorana had somehow been there to cut down her old master in order to stop the murder, THAT would have been cool. But Doriana? I get that he’s totally got a huge man-crush on Thrawn, and really wants him as an ally of the Empire. But him doing it makes it come off like killing all of those people to save Thrawn is a “bad guy” thing to have done, and it really isn’t. Yeah it’s sad that a bunch of strangers we don’t care about had to die, but C’Baoth is pure evil, and Lorana’s going oh, who could have possibly seen this coming,” and Thrawn is basically our story’s main hero. No reader is going to regard his death, even if it comes at the cost of half a million offscreen lives.
Anyway, the big shocking reveal is supposed to be that Palpatine knew about the oncoming Yuuzong Vong threat and THAT is why he decided to take over the galaxy. Thrawn agrees because his people have actually tangled with the Yuuzong Vong before, and that’s what makes him agree to destroy Outbound Flight and generally gets him onboard with the Empire.
… And this is the part where I alienate any old EU fans who are still reading this by confessing that I cannot STAND the Yuuzong Vong. Not just because I think they were so….90s, with their Heavy metal hell raiser body horror schtick. Not because it was always lame that they hate technology and so everything they use us alive, but they also hate life and worship pain and oh they are immune to the force in that cheep, arbitrary way things in the old EU sometimes were, arrg, are you scared yet? They are like a cross between Spawn and the Borg; religious fanatics without much religion or personality, and their “invade the galaxy” storyline would be done later, better, when Mass Effect’s Reapers showed up and showed everybody how that should be done.
But they are also lame because the Emperor, one of the most enjoyably evil villains ever created, really didn’t need this kind of retroactive justification for his actions. He was so much more lovable when he was taking over the galaxy just because he kinda wanted to. Thrawn, too, was compelling because he was the first Imperial we ever met who wasn’t a dark wizard or a guy in a uniform doing a job: he sincerely believed the Imperial cause was the right one, and had convincing reasons for doing so. Injecting the vague threat of Space Cenobites into all of this just seems to be missing all kinds of the point.
Not to say he didn’t have some ulterior motive for conquering the galaxy. But in “Tarkin,” he reveals to Vader that his final plans don’t really involve the Empire at all. THAT, if you ask me, sounds much more promising.
…If it turns out to be the Yuuzong Vong after all, someone is getting punched.
Anyway, review done. First blog complete.
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