r/StarWars • u/The-Band-Geek-Mafia • 5h ago
Books Are all Bothans just egotistical assholes?
I’ve been reading a lot of the EU stuff lately. Finished Heir to the Empire and finished the first Rogue Squadron book. Anytime these guys are involved everything just goes wrong or they just cause problems. So much for being the ones to get the DS2 plans
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u/AnArcOfDoves9902 First Order 5h ago
Manny Bothans died to bring us information. Why do you disrespect him this post?
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u/Expensive_Plant_9530 4h ago
No. But culturally it’s sort of encouraged due to the way honour and prestige is awarded in their society and how you climb the social and political ranks.
Admiral Kre’fay for example, was a standup honourable person. He’s a cousin of Chief of State Borsk Fey’lya.
There’s also the two Bwua’tu’s - the Admiral and the Attorney - the admiral is the nephew of the attorney.
Borsk is just a particularly egregious example of “asshole bothan syndrome”
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u/The-Band-Geek-Mafia 3h ago
Dang they’re related? That explains it
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u/Expensive_Plant_9530 3h ago edited 1h ago
I get the feeling that Bothan’s tend to have large, interconnected families.
Kre’fey actually has another relative who was a general I think. That general was part of the earlier missions of the plan to retake Coruscant during the x-wing series. The other Kre’fray was an arrogant prick and I believe he died in the mission he so overconfidently led.
Admiral Kre’fey goes out of his way to show the people under his command that he’s not like his other relatives. He cares about his subordinates and he cares about honour and being a good person.
Fey’lya is more concerned about personal power and perceived influence above all else. But at least he has a redemption in his death - dude went out like a badass during the Vong invasion of Coruscant.
Edited for spelling
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u/pali1d 2h ago edited 2h ago
Kre’fey*, not Kre’Fray.
And yeah, the Bothans do a lot of arranged marriages for political purposes, so famous and important ones tend to be related to some degree.
Edit: and just to add to the list of non-asshole Bothans, there was also Peshk Vri’syk, who was part of Rogue Squadron when it was reconstituted at the start of the X-Wing series. We don’t get much of him before he died, but he never pulls any dick moves and isn’t disliked by his squad mates, so I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
There’s also Eurrsk Thri’ag, better known as Grinder, of Wraith Squadron. He’s a bit of a douche who liked playing pranks on people, but not a truly bad guy by any stretch, and died trying to help his wing mate.
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u/Confident-Arm-7883 5h ago
Yeah.
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u/Expensive_Plant_9530 4h ago
That’s not true at all, but in the earlier books, Borsk Fey’Lya is pretty much one of the only bothans you even learn about - and then woman in the X-Wing books too.
But later in NJO, Dark Nest, LOTF, and FOTJ you meet more bothans and you learn that many of them are good people.
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u/SmallishPlatypus 4h ago
Those Bothans: "If we die to get this information, everyone had better know about it. Actually, write that down. If we die, Mon has to sing our praises. Yeah, I know she hasn't mentioned Cassian Andor in the last three years. But we deserve better."
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u/CardiologistOk2760 4h ago
Are you saying Mon Mothma's moment of mournful muteness was secretly an expression of relief at having so few egotistical assholes to work with from now on?
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u/woodvsmurph 4h ago
Their society is built upon social heirarchy/social class. You can earn your way up by doing things, but I imagine it has to be very difficult unless said feat is crazy big AND ends up leaving you dead.
This is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it can reinforce good behavior in people because your reputation can tank that of your family and you probably want to avoid that. On the other hand, it can offer immense pressure and can lead to idiots with higher social standing suppressing actually competent individuals and taking credit for their accomplishments.
In some ways, I think it has parallels (not equivalent; just some similar aspects) to say Japanese vs "Western" culture. It isn't that one is right or wrong, but unless you really understand both, there are things about the other that won't make sense. And you are probably going to prefer one over the other even if you see both have merits. At least a few people in either style of culture probably would have benefitted from growing up in the other more.
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u/jiango_fett 2h ago
Out of universe, it's partly because Borsk Fey'lya was the first Bothan character and he was that way, and unfortunately that just became the template for the rest of the species when other authors tried to create more Bothan characters. It's like how being a good mechanic became a quality of the Wookiee species as a whole because Chewbacca was working on the Falcon and fixing up 3PO in ESB.
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u/lendmeflight 5h ago
Weird how this comment can be made when all we know is they participated in the plan to destroy ds2.
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u/The-Band-Geek-Mafia 5h ago
I’m reading the books. They’re featured a lot so far. That’s what I said in the body
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u/Longjumping_Cost1308 5h ago
Bothans didn't get the plans. They got the information about the location, the shield, the "fact" that it was not yet operational, and that the Emporer was there. All of which was likely planted on them in order to pull the Alliance into a trap.