Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising is a 2020 novel in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, written by Timothy Zahn.
The novel follows a younger Thrawn during his time serving in the Chiss Ascendancy.
It was released on September 1st, 2020.
It is followed by Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendacy: Greater Good and Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil in the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy.
Tropes in this book include:
- Adaptational Name Change: In Legends, Mitth'raw'nuruodo was always his birth name. Chaos Rising by contrast reveals that Thrawn was born Kivu'raw'nuru and only took on a new name after he was adopted by the Mitth family. And the truth about the "-odo" suffix wouldn't be revealed until Lesser Evil.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: During a parley with an enemy species, one Chiss diplomat blows the coming surprise attack by pointing at the stars and announcing the next ships to come out of hyperspace will be the destruction of the Paatarus. What gets him in trouble back home is that he pointed at their actual attack vector, allowing the Chiss forces to be ambushed when they did show up.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Thrawn, naturally, but this book shows that his abilities are limited to art and military tactics. He is utterly blind when it comes to politics and ends up failing to figure out how to get the Vak to turn against their Nikardun allies. Ar'alani, however, does manage to figure it out.
- Bad Boss: General Yiv the Benevolent won't hesitate to order one of his own ships to put itself in place of acid incoming on his flagship. He also won't hesitate to blast that ship to smithereens in order to create a field of debris to intercept the acid.
- Bad Date: Downplayed. Thrawn takes Ziara on a friendly date as thanks for her getting him out of trouble. She was expecting a party or a concert... not a trip to the museum. She does initially complain, but goes along with it.Ziara: [flatly] An art gallery. You brought me to an art gallery.
Thrawn: [confused] Of course, where did you think we were going?
Ziara: You said there would be insight, drama, and the excitement of discovery!
Thrawn: There is! [starts talking about art, history, and battle tactics] - Big Bad: The main villain of the book is General Yiv the Benevolent, the leader of the Nikardun Destiny, a militant power rapidly expanding through the Unknown Regions and is slowly surrounding the Chiss Ascendancy.
- The Bridge: Like most ships, Nikardun warships have exposed bridges with a porthole. But the portholes on their bridges are oversized as a sort-of challenge to their enemies. Thrawn makes use of that to capture General Yiv at the end of the novel.
- Broad Strokes: Mitth'ras'safis, otherwise known as Thrass, was killed in some mishap involving the Vaagari, referencing the events of Outbound Flight.
- Call-Forward: Thrawn seemed briefly upset in Thrawn: Alliances when mentioning the Force-sensitive Chiss girls that became navigators. We learn that his own sister was one of them.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Thrass died in some incident involving Thrawn against the Vaagari, although it's not clear yet if he and Thrawn are still brothers here.
- The Sith Empire worked together with the Chiss Ascendancy at one point in history, though it apparently didn't end well.
- Cool Old Guy: The Mith patriarch is an intelligent man who is supportive of Thrawn and Thalias.
- Cowboy Cop: Some of the syndics consider Thrawn to be a loose cannon (or rather, an ungimbaled laser). They don't have anything against him personally and even admire his military skills, but they know full well that his political acumen is virtually nonexistent.
- Deflector Shield: Neither the Chiss not any other race in the Unknown Regions has this technology. Instead they have the significantly less effective electrostatic barriers. After Thrawn acquires a Republic shield generator, he realizes that once the Chiss reveal it in battle, it'll be a matter of time before other races either develop the tech themselves or find a way to obtain one from the Republic.
- The Dreaded Dreadnought: Battle Dreadnoughts are the most powerful warships used by the Nikardun Destiny. They are larger and more powerful than anything the Chiss have, much less any of the smaller civilizations. General Yiv's flagship Deathless is one such Battle Dreadnought.
- A Father to His Men: Not Thrawn, as he admits himself. Ar'alani, however, inspires her subordinates to serve her out of loyalty. Thrawn is served only because his subordinates are good Chiss soldiers and are doing their duty. He laments not being able to inspire such loyalty.
- I Have Many Names: In Chiss culture, parts of your name can be added or removed when you become a family member or leave the family (families working differently in Chiss culture as well). For instance, Ali'astov becomes Thalias after she joins the Mitth family, Mitth'raw'nuru becomes Mitth'raw'nuruodo (although the details of that aren't revealed until Lesser Evil), and Ziara becomes Ar'alani after she is removed from the Irizi family.
- Man Behind the Man: Thrawn starts to suspect that the Nikardun are a front for some other power. General Yiv resents the very idea that he could be someone's puppet. The ending reveals that someone calling himself Jixtus has been subtly manipulating the events, but ultimately merely observed, although his goal does seem to be the destruction of the Chiss Ascendancy.
- Meaningful Rename:
- Early in "Memories", a young but promising Chiss from the minor Kivu family applies to be adopted into the powerful Mitth family at the urging of his superior. His adoption is fast-tracked (thanks to the Mitth Patriarch, who takes a personal interest in him), and his name changes from Kivu'raw'nuru to Mitth'raw'nuru, and his core names changes from Vurawn to Thrawn. Later on, after he becomes a Trial-born, the suffix "odo" is added to his name (although the details aren't revealed until Lesser Evil).
- Irizi'ar'alani (Ziara) becomes just Ar'alani after making commodore, as per Chiss tradition that requires flag officers to give up their family affiliations. Had Thrawn ever reached such a rank before leaving for the Empire, his name would have been Raw'nuruodo.
- A former Sky-walker named Al'iastov applies to join the Mitth family after a chance encounter with Thrawn. She is accepted and becomes Mitth'ali'astov, or Thalias.
- Morton's Fork: Thrawn ends up putting General Yiv into a situation with no good outcome for him: either he stays with Thrawn but leaves his men to fight a battle on their own (making him look uncaring) or he leaves Thrawn and goes to the battle (making him look like he's running from Thrawn). Yiv tried to Take a Third Option, but Thrawn outmaneuvers him.
- My Greatest Failure: For Thrawn it's him being used by a race seeking to attack its rival. They fake an attack by that enemy and beg Thrawn to explain how to defeat them. In fact, they plan to retake their captured colony and take another for themselves using the insight provided by Thrawn. He is baffled by how he is able to be tricked so easily. Ar'alani explains that it's because of his utter blindness to politics. He resolved to study it.
- Never My Fault: By the end of the book, Qilori blames Thrawn for his life being ruined (the exact ruination left unspecified, as Thrawn agreed to keep quiet on his crimes) rather than acknowledging his own mistake in abetting ruthless conquerors.
- Number Two: Ufsa'mak'ro (or Samarko) was given command of the Springhawk after Thrawn was relieved of command of the cruiser. But then Thrawn was restored as the ship's captain with Samakro becoming his first officer. While not all of the ship's crew were happy about Thrawn coming back, including Samakro himself, he was, nevertheless, a Chiss officer and did his duty as first officer by suppressing any such sentiment.
- Once More With Feeling: The initial meeting between Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker is replayed, but this time from Thrawn's viewpoint, and we also learn that the person Thrawn referred to as his pilot was actually a Force-sensitive girl.
- Ramming Always Works: It does when it's a part of Thrawn's plan. Plus the goal here was not to do serious damage to the enemy. Thrawn had a freighter modifies with a Republic shield and its nose refitted to perfectly match the oversized bridge porthole on the Nikardun flagship Deathless. The shield allows the freighter to survive a barrage of laser fire from the battle dreadnought, and the nose plugs the broken porthole perfectly, allowing Thrawn to walk onto the bridge of the flagship and capture General Yiv. As for Yiv's bridge crew, well, Yiv did say he didn't want any witnesses to what he was going to do to Thrawn... It also helps that Che'ri and Thalias spread a gas that delays the bridge crew's reaction by a few seconds just before Thrawn's acceleration.
- The Reveal: Why did Thrawn seem uncharacteristically upset about something in his past when he talked about the Sky-walkers in Thrawn: Alliances? Thrawn had an older sister who disappeared and became a navigator.
- Servile Snarker: Ar'alani's aide Wutroow shows contempt for the bureaucracy and a sense of humor but knows to hide it under a mask of professionalism in front of the Syndics.
- Simultaneous Arcs: Thrawn's adventure with Anakin Skywalker on Batuu and Mokivj happens concurrently with Thalias's trial on Csilla.
- Time Skip: Indicated by Thalias being twelve at the beginning and being in her thirties later.
- Wham Line: The reason why Thrawn has a soft spot for Skywalkers:
- "I had an older sister," Thrawn said, his voice almost too soft for her [Thalias] to hear. "She was five when she disappeared. My parents would never tell me where she went."
- Would Hurt a Child: Yiv's fleet destroys a refugee ship from the planet Rapacc, with many Paccosh women and children aboard.
- Worthy Opponent: Thrawn and General Yiv see each other as this. During their first meeting they pretend not to know one another and talk about art and architecture, but both afterwards admit that the other is a very dangerous man.
