Coolest (and lamest) Star Wars novel villian?

Cafe Society
1

So, with all the multitudes of Star Wars novels floating around out there, with all their multitudes of villians…

Which one was the coolest?

My vote goes to Grand Admiral Thrawn. The dude was just too…

The thing about Thrawn was, he wasn’t really evil. He was just a devoted servant of the Empire. Not even loyal to the Emperor, really. For him, the Empire transcended whoever was ruling it (of course, for all intents and purposes, Thrawn himself was ruling the Empire when Heir to the Empire, etc. took place.) He was a brilliant military strategist, keen observer of humanoid nature, art appreciator extrodanaire… He was also such a cool customer. Yes, if someone failed him through incompetence, they would be summarily executed, but he didn’t have them killed in anger. He simply made an example of one person so that the rest would be more, um, diligent. He also rewarded exceptional performancewith promotion and increased responsibility, and the prestiege that came with it.

It’s obvious that Timothy Zahn had read, and re-read The Art of War. Thrawn seemed to be Sun Tzu’s ideal military commander.

As for the lamest, I’d have to go with Admiral Daala. IIRC, she was a Kevin J. Anderson creation (I could be wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve read the novels she appears in), but really, only a hack like Anderson could have written her). But here is a woman who is supposedly such a brilliant tactician and strateginst that she caught the eye (and other parts) of Grand Moff Tarkin, who had her promoted to Admiral in an Impeial Navy that was almost as prejudiced against women as it was against nonhumans, but after she leaves the Maw Installation, she gets her ass kicked in battle after battle. So, what, was she out of combat supervising the Ultimate Planet Destroying Prototype Weapon Thingy that she lost all of her Admiraling chops? She utterly fails to learn from her mistakes, repeatedly demonstrates glaring incompetence, and yet, her men still have faith in her.

Also (and this is another reason I think she’s an Anderson creation), it is utterly unbelievable that nobody would have bothered to give Daala a call and say, “hey, project’s over, we got our Ultimate Weapon built…”

OK, line forms to the left. Rate your SW novel villians…

2

I have a fondness for Ville Gramahk from Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Republic comics. Ville is a devaronian bounty hunter whom writer John Ostrander created to be the prequel-era equivalent of Han Solo in that he’s a cocky carefree character. Notwithstanding the fact that he’s evil, he’s very, very funny. (He also has a twisted way of speaking, much like Yoda.)

Possibly my favorite Ville story was around issue #40, where Ville recounted his version of how he began working for Darth Sidious. Some of my favorite moments involve his description of Sidious as a man named “Bobo,” and his description of Yoda as a little mongrel strikingly similar to LOTR’s Gollum.

3

Jar Jar Binks, that obnoxious loon nearly ruined everything!

4

Agreed with Thrawn as the coolest villain. I’m also very fond of Aaron Allston’s reinvention of Warlord Zsinj and General Melvar in his X-Wing books.

The villain in “The Crystal Star” (actually, the whole book) gets my vote for worst ever. Admittedly, my memory of the book is hazy, but I recall feeling thoroughly cheated of my time after reading it.

5

In defence of Kevin Anderson. (I can’t believe I just typed that, but…) I think you’re reading Daala wrong, and your reading makes Anderson look bad. If you take everything she says with a grain of salt, I think it makes more sense. That is:

She keeps going on about how great a commander she is and how horrible it is that she’s stuck out in the Maw pushing papers when GM Tarkin was so hot on her… repeat ad nauseum. If she really is that badass, why does she always lose? because she really sucks hard and has a slight complex going.

The way I understood things, Tarkin gives her the job because he’s got a major British hard-on going for our dear little admiral. He bones her, tells her how great she is and how underappreciated and so on, and then ships her off to “guard” the maw with a little 4 Star Destroyer fleet. He’s basically putting her on the back burner so whenever he feels the need to get some stress off his mind he can pop off to the Maw and pop one off with his honey. In the meantime, she’s off in BFE and he doesn’t have to think about her, except to send occasional telegrams about how great an admiral she is and isn’t it sooooo sad that she can’t get a real fleet and the empire is so very bad.

Yeah, anyway. Anderson is still a hack.

Tenebras

6

Daala sucks. She REALLY sucked. I hate her. (Although I did like her icon on theforce.net)

Best villain? It’s a tie-Thrawn and Ysanne Isard, aka “Iceheart”. She’s just so evil and so CREEPY.

Agreed that Thrawn wasn’t evil. He was just dedicated. He was ruthless, but he wasn’t deliberately cruel or sadistic.

But the worst villain? No dbout about: Waru. What the hell, it’s like a gigantic gallactic asshole.

7

OMG, I forgot about Waru!!! And hey, tell me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Waru another KJA creation? (or am I just attributing anything suckass in the Star Wars Universe to Anderson because he’s such a freaking hack that anything that sucks must be by him?)

8

Isard, hands down. She is as brilliant as she is evil. I haven’t gotten to Thrawn yet so I may change my mind later. I also like Ville.

And I have to go with Daala as the lamest, for precisely the above reasons.

9

Jean, if you meet Grand Admiral Thrawn, trust me, you will change your mind, unless you’re one of those people who can’t deal with a villian who is actually an admirable character with high ideals and principals. It actually makes him that much more frightening, because a really big part of you wants him to win.

I do recommend you lay your hands on a copy of The Art of War and read it before you get into the first Zahn trilogy. You will have more of an appreciation of the principals Thrawn runs his fleet by.

10

No, Waru was Vonda McIntyre. She wrote the pile of crap that is The Crystal Star. I believe it was her only journey into the GFFA.

And yes, Anderson does indeed suck.

Aaron Allston, on the other hand, is God.

11

Well, that was true of Darth Vader too, wasn’t it? You didn’t get the impression he was particularly mad at Admral Ozzel.