| NOTE: This page should only contain information about his Canon version as his Legends version was not voted Magnificent Baddie. |
| “ | To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, art. | „ |
| ~ Grand Admiral Thrawn on how to beat an adversary - his most famous quote. |
| “ | A great tactician creates plans. A good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him. A fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval. Those with no tactical ability at all may never understand or accept it. Nor will such people understand or accept the tactician. To those without that ability, those who possess it are a mystery. And when a mind is too deficient in understanding, the resulting gap is often filled with resentment. | „ |
| ~ Thrawn on tactics and strategy. |
Grand Admiral Thrawn (born Kivu'raw'nuru with his previous core name Vurawn), also known by his real name Mitth'raw'nuruodo and initially known as Mitth'raw'nuru in his past military career, is a major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise. He is the main antagonist of the second half of Star Wars Rebels, the overarching antagonist of both The Mandalorian and Season 1 of Ahsoka, and the main protagonist of the Thrawn and Thrawn Ascendancy novel trilogies.
Originating from the Csilla system, home of the Chiss Ascendancy, Thrawn served in the Chiss Starfleet and later in the Galactic Empire's Imperial Navy, rising to the rank of Grand Admiral. He is known for his strategic intellect and tactical brilliance, as he believes that understanding an enemy's art, culture, history and philosophy is the key to victory.
He was portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen in Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
In General[]
- He is one of the most brilliant and strategic military minds in the entire franchise, possibly rivalling Emperor Palpatine in that aspect, and usually outsmarts his opponents. For this, he is considered a major threat to the Rebels.
- Studies the artwork of individuals and species to ensure their defeat and can identify their weaknesses from obscure clues in art.
- Is open-minded and willing to accept his subordinates' ideas into his plans if they are good enough.
- He also comments Morgan Elsbeth and her TIE Defender designs while telling her about the flaws in the Empire which is later proven true.
- Although he has taken many defeats by the Rebels, he patiently accepts them and always manages to learn more about his enemies through each loss.
- Always has a calm and collected demeanor and is genuinely friendly and polite toward his subordinates and even enemies alike. He provides great support to his allies, never punishes subordinates with killing, and disapproves of them failing to respect the enemy or appreciate their art.
- In addition to his intellect, he is a formidable fighter, being very skillful in hand-to-hand combat.
- He is ultimately primarily motivated by protecting his people in the Chiss Ascendancy, making him an anti-villain and well-intentioned extremist.
- He frequently shows great respect towards enemies whom he considers worthy opponents like Ezra Bridger, Hera Syndulla, Jun Sato, Nightswan and Ahsoka Tano.
- The fact that he was able to rise to such a powerful position in an empire that was generally very xenophobic against non-humans through sheer skill gives him a huge amount of villainous valor.
- He is one of the few Imperials who knows Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are the same person, even having fought alongside him twice. He also respects Anakin and intends to honor everything he stood for.
Thrawn[]
- Prevents attempts by Jixtus and the Grysk Hegemony to cause civil war in and conquer the Chiss Ascendancy.
- In one of these cases, he stages a fake attack on his cruiser to convince the Great Families to seemingly rescue him instead of fighting over a fake mine, which in the process is destroyed according to his plan.
- In a later battle, he deactivates his fleet as a deception to lure Jixtus' fleet and launches a surprise attack on the Grysks, destroying the enemy ships and leading Jixtus to self-destruct his fleet at the cost of his own life.
Star Wars Rebels[]
- Initiates the program to develop and mass produce TIE Defender starfighters to combat the Rebel threat on Lothal. This project is huge and useful enough to be a rival to the Death Star Project and very likely would have been way more practical.
- Sees through Hera's disguise as a servant just from looking at her family portrait and devotion to the kalikori.
- Immediately recognizes a disguised Ezra as a Rebel and stuns him.
- Sends E-XD infiltrator droids into the Outer Rim to search for the Rebel base and narrows down the search after one of the droids is sabotaged and used as a bomb to destroy a Star Destroyer.
- Through this tactic, he sets up a Xanatos Gambit with at least four potential outcomes: besides the scenario that happened, the droid could also have found the base and destroyed it, been disabled by the Rebels and self-destructed there, or been disabled and otherwise failed to return.
- After analyzing the Rebels' escape from the Lothal Imperial Armory Complex, he correctly deduces there is a mole within the Imperial ranks and suggests setting a trap for them.
- Destroys his two Imperial training droids in combat when they are reprogrammed against him by Agent Kallus (the Rebel spy).
- Despite Kallus successfully framing Lieutenant Lyste as the Rebel spy, Thrawn concludes he is the true spy since he did not warn the Imperials about Ezra's supposed capture. Rather than immediately catching him, Thrawn uses Kallus to unwittingly help the Empire.
- Secretly follows Kallus and briefly jams his transmission to the Rebels, before quickly defeating him in hand-to-hand combat. He subsequently locates Chopper base through observing the intersection of the trajectories of General Dodonna's fleet and the transmission and the art of the Atollon natives, allowing the Empire to destroy the base.
- His original plan of just destroying the Rebel base through a bombardment would have very likely wiped out the entire Rebel Alliance and the only reason he was not able to execute it was due to Tarkin wanting the Rebel leaders alive.
- When the Bendu, an ancient god-like force entity he had no way of knowing about, attacks his troops, he launches a counteroffensive that actually manages to defeat and seemingly kill it.
- Correctly infers Sabine Wren and Ezra were piloting the Defender Elite which destroyed two of three TIE Interceptors, noting that Hera would have destroyed all of them in a much shorter time and its transponder was disabled in record time.
- Sees through Governor Pryce's celebration of Kanan Jarrus' death as a cover-up of her destroying the Lothal City fuel depot. Also, him threatening her life was understandable because she jeopardized his TIE Defender Project and got him in trouble in front of Tarkin.
- When threatening her Thrawn didn't raise his voice that much to where normals villains would be at this time. Also Pryce was the one responsible for the genocide of civilians at the Battle of Batonn, for which Thrawn was promoted to Grand Admiral. She shifted the blame for the civilian deaths to Thrawn, unwillingly causing his promotion. Thrawn understandably hates her for this, namely pointlessly killing civilians, not his promotion.
- Lures the Imperial garrison away from Lothal so he can attack the planet without Imperial casualties and force the Rebels to surrender.
- His defeats in the series can largely be attributed to the incompetence or disobedience of his subordinates or unexpected surprises.
- While he does show fear sometimes, he reacts reasonably to both the Bendu and the Purrgil, as the Bendu is prophesying an actually scary fate and the Purrgil incapacitated him and he had no way to defend himself from them. Even then, he shows bravery otherwise and proves to not be a coward as he calmly accepts his fate of going to exile with Ezra.
Ahsoka[]
- Upon meeting Sabine again, he returns her possessions (which had been confiscated by Baylan Skoll and Morgan Elsbeth) and gives her Ezra's last known location before setting her free.
- When he learns that Ahsoka Tano is alive and coming for him, he correctly deduces that her ship is in the mouth of a Purrgil. He immediately takes the time to learn everything possible about her, including her master.
- Once he learns that Anakin Skywalker was Ahsoka's master he is more cautious to defeat her, knowing Anakin is very unpredictable and dangerous due to fighting alongside Anakin during the Clone Wars and as Vader.
- He inspires loyalty in his troops to the extent that Morgan and several Night Troopers voluntarily stay behind on Peridea to stall for his escape.
- After successfully defeating Ahsoka, he contacts her to sincerely commend her efforts and tell her she has been a worthy opponent.
- Although he does start to hate all Jedi, both former and current, it is understandable as he was defeated and brought into exile by one and even then, he still retains affability to them. Additionally, he is very calm despite his hatred.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- Enforces a regulation in which Imperial Armory Complex workers must personally test the vehicles they built, leading to the death of Morad Sumar.
- Leads the Empire in destroying Chopper base and most of the Phoenix Squadron.
- He has Tiber Saxon capture Sabine to force her to improve a superweapon that she designed.
- Bombards Lothal's Capital City to force Ezra to give in to the Empire and resumes his assault anyway after turning Bridger over to the Emperor.
- He only gives Sabine the last location where Ezra was spotted so he can have his troops follow her to Ezra and kill them both.
- He orders a minefield to be set in orbit around Peridea to kill any arriving Purrgil in hopes of killing Ahsoka. Though all of the Purrgil do survive, this was not his intention.
- He orders his own fortress destroyed in a last-ditch effort to kill Ahsoka and Sabine.
External Links[]
- Grand Admiral Thrawn at the Villains wiki
- Grand Admiral Thrawn at the Star Wars wiki
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 Magnificent Baddies
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Bounty Hunters Confederacy of Independent Systems Galactic Empire Other Sith and Dark Side Force-Users Others | ||