Allegiance (novel): Difference between revisions

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As the title suggests, this book features people and groups who are having allegiance issues. Han Solo is resentful about how it seems like everyone is assuming that he's committed himself to the Rebellion, although he hasn't left yet, and while Luke Skywalker is utterly committed, he worries about Han and is very green. The five stormtroopers who form the Hand of Judgment desert and form a sort of vigilante group believing that the Empire has abandoned the ideals that they signed up for. Consciously, Mara Jade is absolutely certain of the rightness of the Empire, but she is on the hunt for traitors and there are numerous tiny hints that she's against various aspects. Meanwhile, Leia is sent to negotiate between various Rebel leaders who are threatening to leave, and speaks with a district head who claims to want to secede, but is really doing all of this to gain power.

It's a Zahn plot, so a lot of things are happening at once, and the plotlines tangle together. Luke and Mara don't meet until [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], so it's the stormtroopers who interact with both Mara and the Rebels. This is notable as being the first Zahn Star Wars novel to never mention Thrawn. Not ''once''. There's a fleeting mention of Grand Admirals, but that's it.

 

 

 

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* [[Awesome By Analysis]]: The Commodore tries this, enduring mild sensory deprivation in order to concentrate on voices. Doesn't work on Mara.

* [[Body Motifs]]: Mara Jade: the Emperor's Hand. The [[Badass Army|501st Legion]]: Vader's Fist. Five idealistic stormtrooper deserters: the Hand of Judgment.

** Zahn uses the hand motif a lot. There's also the Empire of the Hand and the Hand of Thrawn. It's an easy metaphor.

** Lampshaded; LaRone, the leader of the five stormtroopers, when asked for what his squad is called, goes blank and ends up blurting "Mostly, we're known as the Hand of Judgment." Away from everyone else, he gets ribbed relentlessly by the other stormtroopers.

'''Grave''': "No fair. ''I'' want to be the thumb." }}

*** Lampshaded again later, when Mara saves them from Vader and the 501st and [[Reasonable Authority Figure|hears out their story.]] She lets them go, but tells them to

**** Ironically this is not true at all, much to Mara's displeasure in future stories.

* [[Bullet Holes and Revelations]]: LaRone shot first.

** A bit stretched, but it works.

* [[Fix Fic]]: [[Mooks|Stormtroopers]] who are not only useful, but ''badass''? Also, their [[Armor Is Useless|armor]] is actually effective against small arms fire.

** It isn't just the Hand of Judgment — the narrative in ''Allegiance'' also goes out of its way to remind the reader that the stormtroopers on the Death Star were under specific orders to let the heroes go...

* [[Good Feels Good]]

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Luke and Leia explicitly feel oddly close to each other. If you didn't know they were twins, this closeness might be predictably interpreted.

* [[Horrible Judge of Character]]: While in his presence Mara Jade thinks of the Emperor as "a good and wise man". Of course, she ''is'' his agent, connected to him by the Force, and there are a lot of subtle cues that she subconsciously knows how evil he is. Plus, her snap judgments of everyone else are pretty sound.

* [[Human Shield]]: Attempted, but Grave just shot past the hostage.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: When Leia sees burglars breaking into a house that has a child in it, she barely thinks about the fact that she's hiding out and firing shots will probably call official attention to her. She's seen what burglars can do when they run into someone.

'''Leia''': "It might. But it was something I had to do." }}

* [[Informal Eulogy]]: Mara for Tannis.

** Most fans go on the Stormtrooper Corps' side. Of course, it's ''[[Star Wars]]''; fans naturally look for the good Imperials.

** Mara and Vader don't like each other, either. Their relationship seems to range from Vader trying to kill Mara to both of them calmly trading their impressions of a possibly-corrupt governor, and Mara asking Vader to keep an eye on Ozzel, since she doesn't trust him. She does muse that at least they both hate the [[Internal Affairs|ISB]].

* [[Not in This For Your Revolution]]: Han. But he doesn't leave.

* [[Two Lines, No Waiting|Six Lines No Waiting]]: It's a Zahn book. Of ''course'' it's going to have multiple intertwined [[Plot Threads]].

* [[Spirit Advisor]]: Obi-Wan.

* [[Sympathetic POV]]: Zahn likes portraying Imperials who aren't [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]].

** ''All'' ''[[Star Wars]]'' fans do. Everyone's played "good Imp, bad Imp".

 

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[[Category:Star Wars]]