Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo Reconsidered : A Patriot ' s Perspective Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo Reconsidered : A Patriot ' s Perspective was a publication written by the Imperial partisan Lenang O ' Pali that was released in 55 ABY , which discussed the role that the Chiss Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo , better known as Grand Admiral Thrawn , played in galactic history . A highly - revisionist and somewhat - polemical piece , O ' Pali cast Thrawn as a principled being whose ultimate objective was to rebuild the Galactic Empire and establish a militarized society to resist the Yuuzhan Vong invasion . O ' Pali further cast this as being the ultimate goal of Emperor Palpatine , and claimed that the death of both and the defeat of the Galactic Empire by the New Republic was not a victory for freedom but in fact a disaster that left the galaxy defenseless when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded . Thesis . O ' Pali began with a brief discussion of Thrawn ' s background , citing sources within the Chiss Ascendancy and the Empire of the Hand to describe Thrawn ' s rise from a commoner to a merit adoptive of the Eighth Ruling Family of Csilla for his impressive military service . O ' Pali stressed that Thrawn decided to give up this good luck and his connections in Chiss society after he learned about the threat posed by the Yuuzhan Vong , then known only as the " Far Outsiders " . As a Chiss officer , Thrawn had already defeated Yuuzhan Vong probes at Vun ' Hanna and the Twilight Void , and O ' Pali believed that this threat led him to ally with Darth Sidious after he was introduced to him via hologram by Kinman Doriana , and destroy the exploration ship " Outbound Flight " , which Sidious told him he feared might lead the Far Outsiders back to the Republic . With this established , O ' Pali moved on to the main thesis , declaring that Thrawn was " a brave and principled being who devoted his life to preparing for the Vong . " O ' Pali believed that he broke with his people and served the Galactic Empire , despite the cost to his own reputation and the New Order ' s institutionalised xenophobia , because he believed that only a militarized , orderly society could defeat the Yuuzhan Vong . O ' Pali suggested that Thrawn ' s missions in the Unknown Regions and his establishment of the Empire of the Hand were to create a bulwark against the Yuuzhan Vong , and suggested that he was neutralizing other threats to the galaxy proper , citing his defeat of the Ssi - ruuvi Imperium at the First Battle of Lwhekk . O ' Pali believed that Thrawn ' s knowledge of the Yuuzhan Vong explained why he attacked the New Republic following his return to the galaxy in 9 ABY : rather than serve the New Republic and alert them to the encroaching Yuuzhan Vong , Thrawn believed that the new government would succumb to the same inefficiency , corruption and separatism that had destroyed the Old Republic . O ' Pali further believed that Emperor Palpatine – then thought dead after the Battle of Endor , but in fact recuperating in a clone body on Byss – had recalled Thrawn to the main galaxy to rebuild the Empire , which both men believed was the only type of society that could resist the Vong . O ' Pali went on to attack his critics , accusing them of being disingenuous to accept Thrawn ' s account of his discussion with Darth Sidious about the Far Outsiders but not revise their opinions of the Galactic Empire . O ' Pali believed that preparation to resist the Yuuzhan Vong invasion exonerated the Empire for its numerous atrocities , and declared that the Rebel Alliance , the Galactic Civil War , and the rise of the New Republic had only served to weaken the galaxy ' s defenses . O ' Pali was contemptuous of the Noghri : Thrawn ' s Noghri bodyguard Rukh had turned against Thrawn for keeping his homeworld enslaved and had killed him at the Battle of Bilbringi . O ' Pali held Han Solo , Luke Skywalker , and Mara Jade in similar disregard for their roles in killing Palpatine and Thrawn ' s last clones , at Onderon and Nirauan respectively . O ' Pali described galactic history from 4 ABY as being " a succession of unlucky events . . . and as a result we stood naked before the Yuuzhan Vong and the bleak destiny they sought for us . "