Grand Admiral Thrawn

### Friends

Eli Vanto, Arihnda Pryce, Rukh, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Padmé Amidala, Palpatine, Agent Kallus (formerly), Kassius Konstantine (formerly), Tiber Saxon, Wilhuff Tarkin, Wullf Yularen, Vult Skerris, Captain Slavin, Gilad Pellaeon

### Enemies

Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger (formerly), Alexsandr Kallus, Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, Zeb Orrelios, Chopper, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, Mara Jade, Noghri, Talon Karrde, Rukh, Jun Sato, Mon Mothma, Jan Dodanna, Hondo Ohnaka, Rex, Cham Syndulla, Wolffe, Gregor, Nightswan, Ketsu Onyo

## Supernatural information

### Power(s)

Leadership
Genius intellect
 Mastery of strategy, tactics and analysis
 Expertise in psychology
 Knowledge in interrogation through leading questions
 Formidable hand-to-hand combatant
 Manipulation
 Master of reasoning (logical, intuitive and verbal)

**Mitth'raw'nuruodo**, better known as **Grand Admiral Thrawn** is a major villain in the *Star Wars universe*. He was introduced in the 1991 Timothy Zahn novel Heir to the Empire, being Commander of the Galactic Empires remaining forces after the defeat if Palpatine at the hands of his former Apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader), where he faced off the Skywalker twins, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo. He is seemingly resurrected in the *Hand of Thrawn* duology (1997–98), and his backstory is explored in various other novels, short stories, comics, and video games in the Star Wars expanded universe.Due to his popularity in the non-canon legends, he was re-introduced in the new Star Wars Canon as the main antagonist of the third and fourth and final seasons of *Star Wars Rebels* television series.

In the Legends material, Thrawn was voiced by Tris King in *TIE Fighter* and Robin Atkin Downes in *Empire at War: Forces of Corruption* (who also voiced Cham Syndulla in the *Clone Wars* and *Rebels* television series). In canon, he was voiced by Lars Mikkelsen. In both Canon and Legends continuity, he is voiced by Marc Thompson in the audiobook versions of both the Legends and Canon *Thrawn* trilogies.

## Personality

Thrawn is a cold-blooded Imperial and one of the Rebels' most dangerous adversaries. He was highly intelligent, calm, level-headed, and observant, as he believes that understanding an enemy's culture, history, philosophy, and art is crucial in order to discern their tactics and ultimately defeat them in battle. He is tactically superior to many other Imperial leaders who often used the same strategies, and, as a result, were defeated by the Rebels. When Thrawn is dispatched to fight Cham Syndulla and his Free Ryloth Movement, the latter does not expect his adversary's attacks to be as precise and devastating as they turned out to be. He also used situations to his advantage and could formulate creative strategies in his head that could be achieved without error. Unlike most other Imperial officers, Thrawn is not a particularly cruel or malicious individual. As a matter of fact, he is quite gentlemanly, being polite and cordial with even his own enemies. Thrawn is also very patient, preferring to study the tactics of his enemies rather than to instantly become the aggressor, even if it means allowing them to escape. However, Thrawn's patience does have its limits, as he sometimes becomes annoyed or enraged when others either question his views or fail to understand his appreciation of art.

Although antagonistic and quite ruthless, Thrawn is not pure evil. He generally preferred to avoid causing collateral damage, as was demonstrated during the Battle of Batonn, where he attempted to negotiate with the enemy. However, although reluctantly, Thrawn sometimes condoned civilian casualties if it meant a sure victory, as shown during the Liberation of Lothal.Even though he never told anyone, not even his most trusted friend, Eli Vanto, Thrawn despised the oppressive, racist, and corrupt Imperial culture, viewing many of his fellow officers as either evil or downright stupid. He was also one of the few within the Empire to realize how evil the Emperor is, even going as far to speculate that he could be in touch with the Force. Being a pragmatist, he believed the Empire to be a necessary evil and that serving it is the best way to defend his people. Ironically, he managed to obtain the rank of Grand Admiral, meaning that he is one of the highest-ranking members of a civilization he neither adores nor originally comes from. Even so, the fact that he purposefully infiltrated the Imperial hierarchy means that he must follow Imperial directives, meaning that, in order to fit in, he comes across as far crueler than he is on a moral level. He believes in the ends justifying the means, which is evident when he practically kills a mechanic to set an example. Finally, Thrawn inspires loyalty from his men. Where people like Darth Vader and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin seek to punish those who fail, Thrawn sees those failures as opportunities, so that his men can learn to do better and succeed. He views death as a means of punishing soldiers as being wasteful.

He ultimately underestimated his unworthy opponent Ezra Bridger, a young Jedi who managed to take out his entire fleet with help from the Purrgil.

## Star Wars

### Legends

In *Heir to the Empire*, which takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the last twelve Grand Admirals, secretly took command of a shattered Imperial Fleet, planning to attack the New Republic, who themselves are building ttheir own armies. He hoped to search for a Dark Jedi to join his side to restore the Galactic Empire. Elsewhere, the Skywalker twins have began building their lives; Leia has married han Solo, expecting twins, and Luke has become the long-awaited new line of Jedi Knights. Despite the New Republic's numerical advantage over the remaining Imperial Forces, Thrawn is still rebuilding the Galactic Empire. Visiting Emperor Palpatine's Waylland storehouse, he hopes to gain the storehouse's massive array of Spaarti cloning cylinders. With Gillad Pellaeon, Talon Karrde, and Mara Jade Skywalker , they obtain several creatures ysalamiri, possing the natural ability to disrupt the Force, to subdue the storehouse's guardian, Joruus C'boath, an evil clone of a Jedi Master Thrawn previously killed. C'boath offers his loyalty to Thrawn in exchange for two acolytes to bend to his will: Darth Vader's twins, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. He sends two Noghri killers to kidnap the twins, but Leia defends herself from one attack, as does Luke. The Noghri surrenders just as Thrawn launches his first offensive to the republich, making hit and run attacks to the New Republic's territory. Thrawn invades Nkllon because he is in need of Warships. His stormtroopers use the stolen miners to board and hijack the ships, but they are thwarted when Lando is able to seize control of the miners remotely. The Grand Admiral withdraws his forces, but thanks to Thrawn's plotting, his New Republic nemesis Admiral Ackbar is soon arrested for treason.

In *Dark Force Rising* it is revealed that prior to the Clone Wars, the Old Republic had constructed a fleet of highly automated heavy cruisers, known as the Katana fleet. A virus infected the crews of the entire fleet and drove them insane. The fleet was never seen again until smuggler Talon Karrde discovered it (several years before the events of the first book). With access to Palpatine's private storehouse on the planet Wayland, Thrawn presses his advantage to marshal more forces for the battle against the New Republic. Mara Jade, in an attempt to exonerate the Empire's warrant for Karrde's arrest, goes to Thrawn and offers to reveal the location of the Katana fleet. Instead, he has her followed and Karrde is captured. Mara and Luke rescue Karrde from Thrawn's Star Destroyer as Thrawn attempts to capture another man who knows about the Katana fleet. Meanwhile, Leia learns that the Noghri serve the Empire because they revere her late father, the insidious Vader, who they believe saved their planet Honoghr from ecological disaster. Leia convinces them that they have been deceived and effectively enslaved by the Empire, and they switch sides. With Ackbar temporarily neutralized as a tactical opponent, Thrawn leads an army of clones to claim the so-called "Katana fleet", outmaneuvering Luke, Lando, and Han Solo

A month later, in *The Last Command*, Thrawn uses the Katana fleet, manned with clones, to mount a successful offensive against the New Republic. Seizing one planet after the other, the Grand Admiral soon immobilizes the galactic capital world, Coruscant. He has placed multiple cloaked asteroids around the planet, and through a ruse he has led the New Republic leadership to believe that Coruscant is surrounded with them. Learning of the deception, the Republic fleet attacks the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi to capture a device that can find the cloaked asteroids, but Thrawn's forces crush them. Meanwhile, Luke and Leia lead a group to destroy the cloning facility on Wayland. Just as Thrawn and Pellaeon learn that the Noghri aided in the attack on Wayland, Thrawn's own Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, kills the Grand Admiral—whose last words are, "But ... it was so artistically done." With all hope of victory dashed by Thrawn's death, Pellaeon orders the Imperial forces to retreat.

### Canon

Annoyed by the recent rebel activity going on at Lothal, Arihnda Pryce approaches Grand Moff Tarkin and requests for the assistance from someone who sees a "bigger picture" about bring about the downfall of the rebels and requests for the Seventh Fleet led by Grand Admiral Thrawn.  While some officers, such as Konstantine, believed that these ships were the rebel fleet, Thrawn and Pryce actually both believed that this group of rebels were the key for the Empire to destroy the Rebellion before it begun. Pryce revealed Thrawn just didn't want to concern himself with just Phoenix Squadron, but the Rebel Alliance as a whole, starting with the rebel cell.

In his first major appearance, "Hera's Heroes," Thrawn moved his plans to capture rebels to Hera Syndulla's homeworld, Ryloth, where he helped the Captain in command, Slavin, on how to outsmart Cham Syndulla and the Rylothian resistance. During his visit to Syndulla's house, he had a battalion of stormtroopers move up to the Syndulla building. Slavin saw the new tactics unnecesary, believing the battle was no where nere here, but Thrawn assured that the battle was in that very building. They came across Twi'lek Hera Syndulla trying to escape with her companion, Ezra Bridger until she was brought back to her father's office while posing as a refugee. However, Thrawn was able to tell who Hera was while Ezra was a scout trooper in disguise. He stunned Ezra and had both rebels locked away. Taking the Kalikori as a trophy, Thrawn acknowledged his respect for Hera and left Slavin to deal with the rebel prisoners, seeing how the rebels would react to rescuing one of their own. After witnessing enough, he allowed the rebels to escape.

In "Iron Squadron," during a plot to lure Jun Sato out of hiding, he had Imperial forces attack his homeworld of Mykapo. He sent Admiral Konstantine to stop the Rebels from freeing their rebel sympathizers in one ship after learning about Iron Squadron. His plan worked and Thrawn arrived on Mykapo after being contacted by Konstantine, where he had seen his plan to get Commander Sato out of hiding. Welcoming the commander's return, Thrawn and Sato swore to meet again before the rebels and Iron Squadron made it to hyperspace. The grand admiral contacted Konstantine, who had called fit assistance but covered up his excuses by changing it to report that the rebels escaped. However, Thrawn could see through Konstantine's bluff and easily surmised the rebels didn't just evade capture, but with their sympathizers as well.

Following the insurgency of Mykapo, in "An Inside Man," Thrawn returned to the TIE Defender factory on Lothal. During his visit, he killed Morad Sumar (without knowing he was allied with rebels) through a demonstration of a speeder bike that they had rigged. Capturing the rebels was imperative to Thrawn, who wanted to make sure that his TIE defender project was not compromised, which is why he made sure that Section A2 was heavily guarded and those without the proper clearance be killed on sight. Thrawn studied his enemies' art after summoning Lyste and Kallus to his office, including holographic displays of the Spectres, Sabine's art, and a Jedi Temple Guard's helmet and showed Lyste and Kallus Sabine's Starbird painting. While Lyste was dismissive of the artwork, Kallus was able to tell that the graffiti was Phoenix Squadron's symbol. Remembering the spectres he encountered on Ryloth, he could speculate that the Ghost crew were connected to Lothal. Based on Lyste's report that two workers went missing after Grand Admiral Thrawn's speech, he was able to tell that the rebels have infiltrated his Imperial factory (Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus and their droid, Chopper); however, Ezra, Kanan and Chopper escaped with help from Kallus and attempted to escape on the AT-AT walkers until Thrawn told the other drives to fire at the ones controlled by Rebels. However, they escaped when Ryder Azadi and Marida Sumar. At the end, as Thrawn spoke with Kallus and Pryce and dismissed Lyste, Thrawn was able to tell that there was a mole in the Empire. Governor Pryce proclaimed that they must find the traitor. However, Thrawn told her to remain patient when she asked about questioning all Imperial personnel, and that they would set a trap for their Rebel spy.

He is briefly mentioned by Sabine Wren in "Visions and Voices" when she asks if Thrawn is there, but Hera reveals that they have no confirmation. Ezra was going to lead the attack, but was relieved of duties after seeing visions of Maul. Kanan and Sabine remained with Ezra to deal with the former Sith Lord.

In "Warhead," Thrawn planned to find out where the rebels were located and had E-XD infiltrator droid deployed to corners of the Galaxy. One found its way to Chopper base on Atollon but it was defeated by Zeb Orrelios, Chopper and AP-5. Fallowing the destruction of the Star Destroyer, Thrawn met with Kallus, who reported with the Grand Admiral how he suspected the rebels were able to foil Thrawn's plans with the infiltrator droids. However, the Grand Admiral remained in high spirits, Kallus was surprised by his superior's response. Thrawn revealed that the incident greatly narrowed down the planets from a thousand planets to ninety-four. Thrawn proclaimed the war would be theirs, as Kallus was left with worry his allies would be discovered.