"Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn Part 1 Quiz

Answer: By studying their art

Thrawn would study a species' art to learn their thought processes, and then would analyze them for exploits. His personal chambers often had many holograms of art that he was studying.

The beginning of the novel had Imperial ships returning from a raid on Obroa-skai, pursued by New Republic forces. Pelleaon ordered a retreat, but Thrawn belayed the order. Thrawn sent in some interceptors to see what the enemy would do. Based on the reaction, he determined that the pursuers were Elomin, and was able to destroy their force with a Marg Sabl maneuver. The Marg Sabl was well-known, but difficult for Elomin to process and counter. This was only the first time readers got to see Thrawn expose his opponents' shortcomings.

Answer: Hot Chocolate

"Heir to the Empire" really kicked off the "Star Wars" publishing craze. Before this, a lot of minor details were left blank, such as what kind of warm drink someone might have on a cold Coruscant night. Instead of creating yet another new word, Timothy Zahn went with simple hot chocolate.

Answer: Imperial City

Zahn came up with the name "Coruscant" for the capital planet, which would be used in many subsequent works, and adopted by George Lucas for the prequel trilogy.

Had Abbadon was the name of Imperial capital in early drafts of "Return of the Jedi". It was still used in other material. Dromun Kaas was a one-time capital of the Sith Empire, thousands of years before the movies took place. Bastion was the code name for the Imperial capital after they lost control of Coruscant.

Answer: Winter had a slight Force sensitivity

Winter was a childhood friend of Leia's and looked very similar. Winter was often mistaken for Leia, which Leia used to her advantage a few times. The most noticeable difference was that Winter had naturally white hair. Winter had a perfect memory, which helped her when she worked as a Rebel Alliance Intelligence operative.

Answer: Tatooine

Han met Dravis on Tatooine, in the very same cantina he'd met Luke and Obi-Wan in nine years earlier. There were no cantinas on Endor or Hoth. Nar Shaddaa was also known as the "Smuggler's Moon", and became prominent in the Expanded Universe, but was never seen in the movies.

Dravis easily spotted Han's backup, the pilot Wedge Antilles. He did not spot Wedge's backup, the commando Page.

Answer: Her promotion

Mara had only been working for Karrde for six months, but had demonstrated her ability. He was grooming her to become his second-in-command in the organization. Despite the discussion catching her off guard, she already had ideas about reforms she would implement. Privately, Karrde knew Mara was sensitive about the Empire and Darth Vader.

He vowed to find out about her motivations and her past.

Answer: Captain Pelleaon

Captain Pelleaon was the captain of Thrawn's flagship, the Chimera. He was also the viewpoint character who was closest to Thrawn.

Before Thrawn was going anywhere near a Jedi, he wanted some Ysalamiri, which were lizard-like creatures native to Myrkr. Karrde offered to help the Imperials in order to generate some goodwill, and for an opportunity to observe them.

Answer: They could repel the Force

Ysalamiri created a "bubble" around themselves, in which the Force would not work. When lots of them were together, their effects combined to generate an even larger Force-damping field. It was a good thing Thrawn brought the creatures, because Joruus C'Baoth tried to kill the Grand Admiral before even listening to the proposal. C'Baoth's lightning was dissipated a couple meters away from Thrawn, with no harmful effects.

Answer: New Jedi to train

Joruus C'Baoth had been content to lead his small village on Weyland, and had no interest in ruling over more people, or becoming a new Emperor. He was enticed by the prospect of new Jedi students though, and was particularly interested in Leia's unborn twins.

Answer: Spaarti cylinders

Spaarti cylinders were used to create clones, which would be important for Thrawn to build up his army. He'd been relying on conscripts whose training and loyalty were sub-par.

Being published a decade before the prequel trilogy, this cloning technology was different from that seen on Kamino in "Attack of the Clones". In the prequel trilogy, a clone was grown at double speed, becoming mature in ten years. In these novels, clones could be grown in months. This was justified by making the faster clones less effective, and less stable.

Answer: Bothan

A big complaint of the prequel trilogy was all the politics on Coruscant. However, there were plenty of politics on Coruscant before those movies were even written.

In "Return of the Jedi", when discussing the attack on the second Death Star, Mon Mothma said, "many Bothans died to bring us this information." The Bothans were a feline race known for their spy networks and Machiavellian politicking. Fey'lya embodied this stereotype completely, and was often at odds with the other council members.

Answer: Noghri commandos

The Noghri were a new alien species created by Timothy Zahn for this novel. They were short, vicious looking aliens, and Darth Vader employed them as his personal death commandos. Thrawn inherited the oath of the Noghri, and used them in special operations against the New Republic. Like almost everything Zahn created in his first three Star Wars books, the Noghri went on to become a staple in later Expanded Universe works.

Answer: Thrawn had the ability to shoot through the planetary shield

Thrawn managed to get some cloaked ships through the planetary shield before his attack. They hid just under the shield, and then Thrawn targeted their position. When the laser blasts from Thrawn's ships hit the shield, the cloaked ships underneath fired, creating the illusion of a single blast passing seamlessly through.

This incredible coordination was only possible with C'Baoth using the Force to guide the crew of the cloaked ships.

Answer: Wedge Antilles

Wedge Antilles was a character in all three of the original trilogy movies, but some viewers might have missed him. He flew in the major battles of each movie and survived, despite not having a character shield. Similar characters in different stories were sometimes called "Wedge characters", with the opposite being a "Red shirt".

In the original "Star Trek" series, red shirts were the lowest ranked crew, and often died first during a calamity.

Answer: It was a fake

A YT-1300 flew in to save Han, Leia, and Wedge, but it was not using the underbelly gun. Leia also did not sense Chewie onboard through the Force. The ambushers had been trying to herd them into a different trap. Han borrowed Leia's lightsaber to perform some quick sabotage, which saved them until the real Millennium Falcon and Rogue Squadron showed up.

This was the first time a fake Millennium Falcon had been used in the Expanded Universe, but far from the last. Notably, the Rebel Alliance deliberately created a fake called the Millennium Falsehood in "Solo Command" by Aaron Allston, published in 1999.

Answer: Dagobah

Luke returned to Yoda's hut on Dagobah, and the Dark Side cave nearby. Luke almost did not find it, even though he followed the coordinates perfectly. In the five years since his last visit, the hut had become overgrown with vegetation. Luke was not familiar with plants reclaiming living spaces. On the desert planet of Tatooine, abandoned structures could last a long time without any change.

Answer: The planet was too close to its sun

Nkllon was incredibly close to its sun. The mining operation was only able to operate on the night side of the planet. The planet's rotation was slow enough that the whole operation, Nomad city, was able to move on captured AT-Ats fast enough to always be in the dark.

The Maw, a maze of black holes, was an actual feature in the "Star Wars" universe. Kessel was a notorious prison planet on which spice was mined. The run through the Maw was the Kessel run that Han had famously shortened to 12 parsecs. A lot of similar ideas were kept when Disney reset the "Star Wars" canon, seen mostly in the movie "Solo: A Star Wars Story".

Answer: To steal mole miners

Mole miners were small ships that could only carry a few people. They had plasma torches to cut through rock on mining operations. Thrawn's forces stole 51 miners, which was about half of Lando's fleet. While the missing miners was certainly a blow to Lando's operation, no one was able to figure out why Thrawn had taken them.

It was lucky that Luke, Han, and Leia were in the system to fight off the Imperials, and prevent them from getting away with even more.

Answer: A beckon call

Zahn was a fan of puns. A beckon call ("beck and call") was a device used to remotely control a spaceship to a degree. When activated, the linked ship would start up, and fly to the device so its pilot could board.

Today, such technology might seem obvious, but in the early 1990s, the idea of automated vehicles that could home in on a signal was still quite new. Even in the "Star Wars" universe, the idea of ships flying remotely was seen as a major technological innovation.

Answer: C-3PO's voice was modified to sound like Leia

C-3PO's voice was altered to sound like Leia's, so he could stay aboard the Falcon with Han, and create the facade that Leia was also there. Han would feed Threepio lines whenever he made a call back to Coruscant.

Another bit of technology that dates this book a bit, when Threepio's voice was altered, it was a permanent change that required some hardware modification. Now, we might realise that a simple software package could be installed, and could probably be enabled and disabled at will.

Answer: By using an Interdictor to pull Luke out of Hyperspace

Interdictor Star Destroyers were originally introduced in the "Star Wars Roleplaying Game". Ships could not enter or stay in hyperspace too close to a gravity well. Interdictors had gravity well generators to simulate the effect, and could be used to pull ships out of hyperspace and keep them from escaping. All Thrawn had to do was place an Interdictor somewhere along Luke's route.

Answer: He fired proton torpedoes at the Star Destroyer

Once Luke was caught in the tractor beam, he had to come up with a plan fast. He was no longer able to escape, so he killed his thrust, flipped his X-wing about, and fired two proton torpedoes at the Star Destroyer. The tractor beams tried to latch onto the torpedoes, and Luke was free.

He just had to fly fast to get out of the Interdictor's gravity cone, and was able to jump to hyperspace. Unfortunately, he severely damaged his X-wing in the process.

Answer: Thrawn had Rukh kill Pieterson

This scene was the result of a charity auction. The first winner got to have their name in the book as a character. The second winner got to choose whether that character lived or died. Zahn decided to include the second winner's name also.

Some people have criticized this scene as breaking with Thrawn's established character, but Zahn was bound by the results of the auction to write it with a specific outcome.

Answer: He could speak basic

Ralrra was a Wookiee with a speech impediment, which conveniently allowed him to speak intelligible basic. He was a great help when dealing with non-Wookiees who could not understand Shyriiwook (the primary Wookiee language).

Answer: Mara had sensed Luke in the Force

Karrde had figured out that Mara was Force sensitive, and that she had a particular hatred of Luke, but he hadn't yet figured out why. When Luke reached out with the Force, he found Mara, and experienced the strongest hatred ever directed at himself, dwarfing even the Emperor's. Luke did not have too much time to dwell on it; he was stunned from behind by one of Karrde's people hiding in a Ysalamiri field.