Start The Clock: Eli Vanto Watch Begins
Ahsoka's surprise Tuesday premiere looms
You were going to read all the Thrawn novels before Ahsoka’s August 23 premiere date. But now that the first episode is dropping on August 22, you don’t have the time. I feel you. So let me quickly explain the difference between the 1991–93 Thrawn trilogy and the 2017–19 one.
The original Thrawn novels were a Skywalker Saga continuation set shortly after Return of the Jedi that are now wholly contradicted by both the sequel and prequel films.
The new Thrawn novels are, basically, detective fiction in space.
Who is organizing the nascent rebellion on Batonn? Why are mynocks chewing on the Death Star? Who attacked the Chiss homeworld?
Thrawn will investigate on behalf of his bosses, though he may not always share their agendas. So how will Ahsoka work narratively when the central mystery of the plot is the guy who usually uncovers them?
My hope: Ahsoka and Sabine chase after Thrawn to rescue their friend Ezra Bridger, only to discover Ezra has joined Thrawn’s efforts to fortify the galaxy’s borders against a larger, looming threat. (I’m trying to be vague here in case you really haven’t read the books.) We get a hero-villain team-up twist far more satisfying than five minutes of Ben Solo.
My fear: We’re just doing that original Thrawn trilogy but with the Rebels character subbing in for Han, Luke, and Leia. Thrawn’s motivation is…revenge? Against whales??
Either way, there will be clues early on. The big ones to look out for are which Thrawn-adjacent characters show up. In the original Thrawn trilogy, his right-hand man was Captain Pellaeon, an older officer whose reactions exist to underscore the differences between the bloated, brutal Imperial navy of the movies and the kinder, gentler Imperial remnant.
In the new Thrawn books, the blue fella instead has two protégés. One is Commodore Karyn Faro (more on her in another post). The other is Eli Vanto.
Since these books are detective stories, Thrawn needs a Dr. Watson against whom he can bounce off brilliant observations. Eli is an intergalactic hick—an Imperial cadet from a backwater planet—whose plan to keep his head down in the navy are upended when he becomes Thrawn’s translator. Initially skeptical of Thrawn, Eli becomes a central player in the grand admirals’s schemes to save the galaxy (still trying to be appropriately vague here).
Everyone loves Eli. He’s Thrawn’s best and only pal. His Dick Grayson. I don’t feel as strongly about Captain Pellaeon.
But we know Pellaeon will be around. He’s name-checked at the end of Rebels and he heralds Thrawn’s arrival in Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
Ol’ Pellaeon suggests in this scene that Thrawn will stall the New Republic for time so General Hux’s dad can have time to resurrect Palpatine, I guess? I’m not one of those people who wants the sequel trilogy erased from canon (far from it), but I’m worried that Thrawn’s story is getting squeezed into an increasingly smaller box between the start of the New Republic and the rise of the First Order.
More bad news on the Eli front: If Thrawn has teamed up with Ezra, that’s already one wisecracking young sidekick with shoulder-length brown hair. Is Ahsoka going to be the first show since Frasier to cast two people in basically the exact same role?
Here’s hoping. We’ll know more tomorrow.