This is a fabulous ask and a wonderful break from the holiday prep for me this morning. Thank you first of all as always for reading my stories. We have a lot in common (this was already known) and obviously that now extends to our opinions on Thrawn: Alliances. And it’s always a pleasure to be featured on the Asker’s Studio™️ 😊
So let’s jump to it 😊 And thank you again for the very kind words about my fic. It’s fabulous that you loved it so much and it inspired this ask.
Did you read Alliances as I, and come away with the same unsatiated feeling that I did?
I know I still have an unanswered ask from you in my inbox about the differences between “the Thrawns” as in Rebels Thrawn, Ascendancy Thrawn, The Thrawn Trilogy Thrawn, and what I would call 2017 Thrawn. Someday I will have the mental fortitude to tackle all that, but let it be known that Thrawn: Alliances really disappointed me when it came out. It was, as I said earlier, unforgivably boring, or as you say up above “a hot mess.” Hard agree there. I thought all the bits with Padme were just excruciatingly slow, and saw the entire story as squandered opportunity and a waste of time. After 2017 Thrawn, who is my favorite Thrawn, to call this followup a letdown is an enormous understatement.
There were many avenues one could have explored with this book (a bane & a boon it was) What made you decide on the Thrawn/Padme theme?
I don’t write gen fic really, I’m all about my men (Luke and Thrawn) getting with the ladies. And I’m always open to exactly who those lucky women may be…Rare pairs are a fun place to play for finding new partners. I used to participate more frequently in fic exchanges, and naturally one of my faves is the Star Wars Rare Pairs, as often the requests there fired the imagination. Some of my favorite stories started because of prompts there, including my Aesthetics series and my Luke/Guri fic, which wasn’t an assignment got, I but the ship haunted me until I wrote it for the requester anyway.
Another rare pairing on the list was Padme/Thrawn. I found this intriguing (although I wasn’t ultimately assigned it) because they do actually meet in nu!canon… I read a few frustrated fans’ comments (like the tumblr post that I responded to) about how Padme would never choose Anakin over Thrawn, and why didn’t she just get on Thrawn’s ship and leave behind her loser husband at the end, etc. and I thought hmmm….maybe maybe maybe…
Whenever I write a fic I try to make it as plausible as possible. I find spots for missing scenes (like in my Luke Skywalker/Mon Mothma fic) where we know people were in the same place at the same time, or find a canon-divergent way to set a story in a believable timeline (like Luke/Sabine or even Thrawn/Sabine). So I went to my copy of Alliances with nothing more than this goal: find a spot in the book where Thrawn/Padme could happen, or find something—a hint, a clue of a future opportunity for Thrawn/Padme to happen. I’m not a fan of cheating in real life or in fic, so the latter option was my preference at the time. A Padme Lives AU, perhaps, where Chiss envoy Thrawn comes to rock her world after her husband is out of the picture.
In short, I had no idea what I was going to write, but was looking for openings.
And boy, the openings I found. As you righteously point out, when you are LOOKING for it, you realize that Zahn has basically already written the fic between the lines. He gives us SO many opportunities to read an attraction, while also helpfully making Anakin the most annoying, unsympathetic, and immature he’s ever been. Zahn keeps separating them—Anakin going off his way and Thrawn and Padme having another adventure together. Sometimes he tells us what they were up to, sometimes he doesn’t. Imagine my eyes growing comically wider as I scanned the text and realized I didn’t have to write a missing scene, I just had to tell you what happened when Zahn didn’t.
This was an unusual approach for fic: it was almost line and verse accuracy to the original text! In your notes, you specify that this format was quite intentional. Do I interpret correctly that this was done to emphasize that, indeed, Zahn was suggesting the same thing all along: there was chemistry between Thrawn & Padme?
You do interpret correctly. Instead of my original concept, I decided to simply remix the novel, filling in those blanks and using Padme’s pregnancy (which is not at all mentioned or implied in the book) as an excuse for her oversexed response to the handsome alien that is repeatedly shoved in her direction. (Much as I am not a real believer in the Padme/Anakin chemistry, I didn’t really want to make Padme an unfaithful hussy, so the prenatal hormones were a convenient way to abet her reactions.)
I think Zahn has progressively fallen more and more in love with his blue man, to the point where Thrawn has gone from Villain to Antihero to straight up Hero in some of the newer books (which is why I find him less and less interesting to be honest). It’s clear in Alliances that he wants Thrawn to outshine Anakin in every way. I couldn’t believe Disney let him get away with it. Anakin’s decisions are wrong, Thrawn is always right—even Padme sees this and acknowledges it in the text. Anakin isn’t as smart/rational/creative/cool etc. Zahn gets to hold up Thrawn as capable, honorable, resourceful. All things Padme recognizes. He even has Anakin confront her at one point with the “now you’re taking his side”.
In order to achieve this—and let’s be clear, I’m not a huge Anakin fan—I think Zahn did some serious character bashing/warping of Anakin in the book. After working so hard to find his wife, do I think right away he would send her off with a guy he barely knew to retrieve his lightsaber? Hell no I don’t. I think the “real” Anakin would be more jealous, more possessive, and more cautious than this version. Zahn’s Anakin is stubborn when it suits the story, and relents just as conveniently. In my fic, Padme has quite a bit of introspection about this—WHY is her husband sending her off with this stranger so often? She was in mortal danger, he came to save her, but is more concerned with destroying shit and having some weird revenge against no one in particular than overseeing her personal safety.
Sorry Zahn, your motives are super transparent here.
…was it harder to write this fic with the stricter format hugging so close to the actual text of the book?
It was the opposite! I loved uncovering this story from the clues in the novel. It didn’t take long to write at all, once I got started. I scanned the book, identified the key scenes I could use to make Padme/Thrawn happen, and the bones of the fic was done in about a day. The research/rereading took longer than the writing, I think. I found out in the meantime that one of my talented artists friends @sometimesartmostlychaos, was a low-key Padme/Thrawn shipper, so the story was a gift to her upon its completion.
Zahn’s version of Anakin allowed my fic to take shape, as you mention, using total accuracy to the text, dialogue, and repeated separations he inflicts upon the newlyweds. While I don’t 100% buy it (more reasons why the novel just was an overall mess), I certainly see what Zahn was doing, and what he was doing was making Thrawn better in all aspects than Anakin. How could a smart woman like Padme NOT notice, particularly when she’s having so many traumatic experiences?
I compounded it with hormones to serve my own nefarious purposes, but as I said in the author’s note, I didn’t really have to do a lot of work to get there. Zahn laid it all out and I just had to massage the attraction from latent to overt. It was a super fun exercise and I absolutely enjoyed it. Making it better, making it INTERESTING, if I do say so myself.
As I thought about it, perhaps the same scenario could be explored with Thrawn/Thalias? (I’m not a huge fan of Ascendancy Thrawn, so maybe leave that 🤣)
I too am not a huge fan of Ascendancy Thrawn (understatement, I kind of hate him) see above about how the more perfect and heroic he gets the less interesting I think he is… I don’t care at all about these new books although I read them out of a completist sense of obligation…I don’t know. I loved Outbound Flight Thrass… and Aralani was cool and all (not anymore though ugh) but Thalias is SO ANNOYING and always has been, I’m sorry. She has this hero worship thing going on with Thrawn and it’s sort of icky and not inspiring for smut. And clearly Zahn is trying to use her to swat away the slash fanfic but it’s not working. I mean…he LITERALLY SHIPPED THEM in a shipping container overnight I can’t even…
In general, I find Thrawn’s solicitude towards Thalias contrived, I don’t like daddy!Thrawn to Cheri (god really?! That’s the name we’re going with?!), and I should probably just stop there. But in brief, I’m not the person to write Thalias/Thrawn. If I did, it would be super dark, not this let’s drink hot cocoa and eat cheese platters playing cards in a little shipping container. Maybe have him be like “oh you think you want this?! Muwahahah evil laugh proceeds to wreck her completely in every sense” ah what a digression.
In conclusion, I vote that we replace the original Alliances your version, because it was such a more satisfying meal.
I adore you for voting this way, and am humbled by that assessment! I have threatened at times to remix my remix, in essence write a “what if” where Padme jumps on Thrawn’s ship last minute instead of just wistfully watching its departure. I probably will never write it, but I think it could be done and done well. Thrawn in this case would be the hardest to twist (he was, as you see in my story, under no illusions about what was going on with those wacky humans), but in fanfic all things are possible. Which is why we love it!
Thank you again so much for this ask @beebee-76! I am grateful for the chance to explain my process for this fic. Never wrote anything like it before but absolutely loved the chance and the writing exercise and ESPECIALLY the reactions of readers who, like us, saw the plausibility and enjoyed what I did with it.
