The Truth you need to know about Thrawn

Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most complex characters in Star Wars, but I don't doubt that things will be a bit less complicated when it comes to his upcoming appearance in Ahsoka. All that and more on today's Star Wars Legends and canon lore video!

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[rexlumontad]

"To defeat the enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics but their history, philosophy, ... art." - Grand Admiral Thrawn's establishing character moment.

[TalonKarrde]

Knowing that Dave Filoni is taking over Thrawn and isn’t consulting Timothy Zahn at all is heartbreaking. I wished Disney and Lucasfilm would tap Zahn’s amazing creative talent so we can get more shows like Andor

[PhantomObserver]

It’s not so much whether Thrawn is “good” or “evil, ” the real question is: how effective is he going to be as an antagonist?
One of the things people liked about Thrawn is that he has positive virtues: he develops his subordinates rather than dismisses them, gives them a chance to contribute positively, shows respect for his opposition’s culture, and so on. That portrayal rationally explains why his subordinates want to keep working for him, and aren’t tempted to join the Rebellion / New Republic.
Also, Thrawn’s virtues — intellect, inductive reasoning, cunning, etc. — result (in Legends) in his ability to inflict real harm on his opponents, of the type that forces them to give him respect despite their hatred of him as representative of the Empire. This means that, in the Ahsoka series, the climax should *not* be Ahsoka capturing or defeating Thrawn easily, but either being thwarted or being forced to pay a heavy price for victory.

[arthasmenethil]

I swear, they better not do Thrawn dirty. Even if they succeed in this, they still have to make it very clear that this man is a tactical genius. I always felt his defeat in Rebels was underwhelming. I know it's practically certain the Yuuzhon Vong will not be part of Disney's canon, but it would be epic.

[BagelMaster]

Honestly if I had to fight against Thrawn in a war, I'd just give up. Only reason Ezra beat him was because the Purgill were nearly impossible to predict, and Ezra used the force against him.

[The-Casual-Wizard]

Y'know I first found out about thrawn from one of Eckharts videos. And ever since then, I absolutely love Thrawn. He is so unbelievably cool to me, I can't really word how much I've obsessed over him. I have a bunch of wallpapers of him, books, and continuously search for new stuff with thrawn in them. Bottom line. Thrawn is epic.

[tjlnn]

My personal headcanon that helped me hold Thrawn from rebels as the same character as Thrawn from the new novels, is that at the time of rebels is shortly after Eli leaves. Without Eli there to sort of regulate him and be that one friend he had who could understand him, he slipped further into the darker aspects of his personality and what his role in the empire demanded of him. Just my own personal headcanon though. Also the whole “the Emperor threatened to kill me if I don’t deal with these rebels real soon” probably didn’t help

[sergioruiz]

I kinda hope Zahn writes another post Endor trilogy for canon after his appearance in Ashoka. That's all I really want. Zahns canon books are the only modern SW books I really look forward to.

[mightheal]

Based on how Dave and John have been handling antagonists I'm not expecting to see much of Thrawn even when he's not hiding anymore so I'm not expecting much characterization for him.

[chewy.]

I really hope they have Zahn is there in at least an advisor role for his character in the Ahsoka series. He knows Thrawn best, and I hope they don’t just go the pure villain route. I like the more complex and good version of him.

[SephirothRyu]

Plot Twist: Thrawn is actually a doofus who has just stealing tactical advice from Eckharts Ladder this whole time. He met his demise because he didn't get around to using Ladder Formation in time, and also because one of Eck's agents was sent to stop the thief from stealing any more Eckhartian military secrets.

[dereksherwood]

My beef with the Rebels/Filoni version of Thrawn is not that he's a villain, but that he's surrounded by morons.

They squarely dumped him into the 'unbeatable strategist surrounded by imbeciles' trope and it's just... tired, lazy, and unentertaining at this point. The heroes didn't beat HIM, they beat the up jumped, empty headed, generic henchmen he'd been saddled with. You may as well make him a Saturday morning cartoon villain if that's the track they're going to continue plodding along.

The original Thrawn books were excellent in large part because he rooted out the idiots, the incompetent, and the rigid in favor of capable, adaptable, effective subordinates which allowed him to accomplish incredible feats in a credible manner.

[thesting]

Love you Eckharts, thanks for brightening up our days! <3

[TheRevanchrist]

I personally feel Thrawn's acts of cruelty in Rebels may still be used smoothly to his book portrayal. Thinking back to Thrawn's open acts of cruelty in Rebels, that i can quickly think of, appear to be directed to who he clearly defines as "the enemy" from Mr. Sumar in the factory (as it was safe to assume most if not all the workers were Rebel sympathizers) and bombarding Lothal's Capital (as Thrawn likely understood that Pryce had lost the loyalty of the people.) Of course, he bombardment may also play into his character of if given a choice, he would rather take the action that complete his mission with a few imperial lives as possible. Considering the Ezra was his sole target, and that the Imperial Garrison has been conveniently moved out of the line of fire, Thrawn wagered he would play to Ezra's Jedi nature as he understood it and placed the citizens in danger but not intentionally target them just long enough to make Ezra yield.

[generalsmite]

I like the idea that thrawn slowly started down a dark path where he becomes more open to evil as he tires of years of hard fighting and political headaches

[jacksonstoever]

#askeck Eck, buddy, you’re killing me! Can you please give us a breakdown of the Chiss ships????

[jeanniefromtahini]

He's an antagonist. He's not the hero, he's not the evil villain. He is a force that works against the heroes but has nuanced and interesting reasons. He doesn't have to be one extreme or another. That's why he's fascinating.

[landonjamison]

I don't necessarily think that there really is a big difference with Thrawn between Rebels and the book, I think of it more like he does what he has to do, like with the example of bombarding a city to get Ezra to come to him, he did that because Palaptine wanted him, and he knew he couldn't defy him, but left to his own devices, I'm sure he wouldn't have done that. IDK, I've only seen Thrawn in Rebels and read the first trilogy of new Thrawn books and have watched a lot of videos about him and this is sorta how I combine the different povs

[SHJIN]

I hope they write Thrawn smarter in the live action version, than he is in Rebels. Bring in some more of that genius strategist intellect, not just the art references. Tony Gilroy would write a good Thrawn, always 3 steps ahead of everyone else.

[GummiArms]

I suppose I would have to be in the Thrawn as a villain camp. From the narrative perspective, he really stands out more in that role. In the original Thrawn trilogy from the 90's he was really a stark contrast to your typical Imperial officer. I think Captain Pelleon was a beautiful example of that dynamic at play. He was kind of underrated in that role imo.

I believe that the strength of his character was really in how he flipped the script with the protagonists. The rebels had always been the ones who had to outsmart and outmaneuver a superior force in the galactic civil war. But suddenly they were up against an enemy who was outsmarting and outmaneuvering them. And it was terrifying. And I loved every second of it. It was what made him such a compelling character. But he really needs to have that antagonistic role for it to work. That doesn't mean he can't have some redeeming qualities. But it does mean that he needs to drive his enemies before and hear the lamentations of the women, at least until the plucky band of heroes can manage to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.