YMMV / The Crystal Star

• Complete Monster: Hethrir, part of a near-human race called the Firrereo, was once Palpatine's Procurator of Justice and the head of the Empire's justice system. To prove himself to the Empire, Hethrir had thousands of his people abducted and placed in suspended animation with the intention of awakening them far later where they'd worship him as a God. Millions of others were left on Firrereo, where Hethrir had the planet infected by a virus that agonizingly killed every living thing on it, an action which Palpatine happily approved. When Hethrir's wife escaped with their child, Hethrir hunted her down and placed her in a torture device where she remained in pain for five years, and took their son as a lowly servant. Hethrir took to enslaving children to build a new empire, selling those who weren't Force-sensitive or non-human into slavery, while also forming a cult dedicated to the alien being known as Waru. Hethrir promised Waru, who simply wanted a way to his home dimension, the lives of sapients, with intentions of sacrificing Force-sensitive children in return for great power.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Lusa for some fans, being brought back for the Young Jedi Knights series and then unceremoniously and unspectacularly killed — offscreen! — in the New Jedi Order series.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Fans would much rather deny this work exists.
• Memetic Mutation: While the book isn't well-liked by Star Wars fans, the creature Waru was considered so bizarre that he reached a memetic status rivalled only by Master K'Kruhk's "Freakin' Sweet Hat" and the badassery that is Kyle Katarn.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Basically a Star Trek episode set in the Star Wars universe.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Fandom never really forgave the book for leaving potentially fascinating Eldritch Abomination Waru a giant Big-Lipped Alligator Moment while focusing too much on Card-Carrying Villain Hethrir.

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