A Brief History of the Last Time Star Wars Got Dirty With Extragalactic Ambition

Ahsoka explode star Wars opened wide last year with the revelation that Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return required a trip there and back to an entirely new galaxy—a first at the time. star Wars The canon had envisioned space beyond the far, far reaches we’ve already explored. But while Thrawn’s knowledge of outer worlds star Wars‘ The general purview was a shocking piece of new information in the modern continuity, the Grand Admiral had more than a few brushes with the idea in the old Expanded Universe.

What Was The Outgoing Aircraft Project?

Invented by Jedi Master Jorus C’boath, the Outbound Flight Project was a collaboration between the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to develop and fund a mission to travel beyond the edge of Republic space, through the “Unknown Regions”—unknown, though populated. a part of the galaxy that did not look to the Galactic Core as the center of interstellar civilization—and outside the known edge of the galaxy. She first became pregnant about three years after the events of The Phantom Menacethe project involved the recruitment of 50,000 colonists and a large number of Jedi, as well as the purchase of six dreadnaught-class cruisers attached to the main fuselage, forming the titular ship of the effort, Outbound Flight.

Although it appears to be a joint task force commissioned by the Republic and the Jedi Order, in reality the Outbound Flight Project was involved with ulterior motives beyond its experimental purpose. The Jedi Council hoped that the expedition could find the missing Fosh Jedi Vergere, who had been kidnapped by agents from a then-unknown extragalactic civilization that was eventually revealed to be the first agents from the Yuuzhan Vong. Now Chancellor of the Republic after the dismissal of Finis Valorum, Palpatine apparently supports the Senate’s hope that this expedition could lead to the establishment of Republic colonies in all the unknown regions and possibly beyond the known galaxy, expanding its reach.

However, in his true guise as Darth Sidious, Palpatine also saw this project as an opportunity to kill a large number of Jedi away from prying eyes, while also preventing the discovery of the extragalactic threat of the Vong before the galaxy was ready to deal with it. . In addition, there was Master C’boat himself, who had always been very focused on the Jedi as a ruling class, who secretly prioritized the selection of Force-sensitive candidates for colonists, trained in those skills in secret, in an effort to encourage new ones. Jedi outposts and colonies under his influence.

After several years of planning—and the project itself almost scrapped if not for the pact between Palpatine and C’Boath— Outbound Flight He set off from Yaga Minor, a world bordering the Outer Rim in 27BBY. However, almost immediately, it ran into problems. Two of the Jedi assigned to the mission, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (a last-minute addition intended to keep an eye on C’boat), were removed from the expedition before it could depart on Palpatine’s orders. Soon after, C’boath usurped command of Outbound Flight from its general captain, passing strict laws that violated the freedom of unenforced laborers and colonists. That, in the end, will prove less of a mechanical problem.

How Trown Was Linked To Outbound Flight?

Palpatine had never intended it Outbound Flight to pass through the Unknown Regions. Acting as Darth Sidious, he sent a secret team of Trade Federation ships to intercept Outbound Flight and destroy it by any means necessary. However, while operating in the Unknown Regions, the Task Force encountered a patrol from the Chiss Ascendancy’s Expansionary Defense Force. Commanded by the young Thrawn, the police destroyed all but one of the ships in the ensuing battle—interrogating the surviving commander to contact Sidious, who detailed the threat to the force. Outbound Flight placed when it revealed the presence of the Vong, already known to the Ascendancy through interviews with scouting groups in Chiss territory.

Thrawn agreed to Sidious’ request to use his vigilance unit to destroy it Outbound Flightsetting a trap that almost set it off Airplane and killed almost all the Jedi and eventually most of the colonists on board, except for C’Boath and his apprentice Lorana Jinzler. Driven to the dark side by destruction, Thrawn ended up killing C’boath, and Jinzler was forced to sacrifice himself (along with Thrawn’s brother, Mit’ras’safis, who had met Outbound Flight while investigating his brother’s war against Trade Federation personnel sent by Sidious) with a shipwreck on a planetoid at the edge of Chiss space, saving only 57 remaining colonists.

What happened Outbound Flight In Expanded Space?

With the ship thought lost by the Republic and the Jedi Order, the surviving colonists try to survive the remains of the ship, hidden away from the Chiss and the wider galaxy alike for nearly 50 years. When the Chiss agents discovered the existence of a colony that was still alive that had grown out of the ruins Outbound FlightThe Galactic Republic had been transformed into an Empire, which itself had fallen and been replaced by the New Republic, and the new Jedi Order founded by Luke Skywalker.

Chiss provided the presence of Outbound Flight“Surviving” Skywalker to make amends for their role in its destruction, but the colony refused to communicate with the New Republic, due to its association with the Jedi after C’boath’s brutal rule, eventually aligned itself with a group of known Imperial remnants. like the Empire of the Hand—which was founded by none other than the current Grand Admiral Thrawn, who died years ago Outbound Flightbeing rediscovered in his efforts to destroy the New Republic. Which, in itself, had more connections to the Outbound Flight Project: during his campaign against the New Republic, Thrawn had recruited a dark Jedi. Jorus C’boath (note the extra ‘u’): clone of the Jedi Master who died on the boat Outbound Flight. A small galaxy!

Is the Outbound Flight Project Returning to star Wars Canon?

Considering we are setting up a major storyline star Wars among the events of Return of the Jedi again The Force Awakens about a resurgent Imperial remnant led by Thrawn, it is clear that many of the events are touched upon in Timothy Zahn’s illustration. Heir to the Empire The trilogy will at least get some heads but this story will appear in all the same series Ahsoka second season, and upcoming films The Mandalorian & Grogu and Dave Filoni’s team film titled “Mandoverse”. But the version of Outbound Flight what we know of the Expanded Universe probably won’t be changed in any major ways—its connection to the original C’boath and his clone, Thrawn’s past before aligning with the Empire, or the presence of the Yuuzhan Vong involved. dirty to be completely removed.

But that doesn’t mean that effort wasn’t found in it. Zahn’s return to star Wars proceeding both separately Thrawn novel trilogies—one set during the Empire’s rise to power and his rise through the Imperial ranks to become Grand Admiral, the other a prequel series set during his time with the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet—authorized elements of the war against the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet . Outbound Flight which heavily refer to the stories Zahn previously discussed in The Expanded Universe. Although the ship is never explicitly named in those canon novels, details such as Thrawn encountering a human ship, and using it to set a trap and engage the Vagaari, a rival civilization in the Unknown Regions, and the death of his brother Mitth’ras. ‘safis, all of which are still part of Thrawn’s canonical domain.

That the ship will ever be revealed as Outbound Flight-and whether his inheritance can be bound or not star Wars telling an extragalactic present with Peridea and the original Nightsisters—remains to be seen. Stranger things have indeed happened.

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