Grand Admiral Thrawn
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| First appearance: | Legends: Heir to the Empire (1991) Canon: Star Wars Rebels (2016) |
| Last appearance: | Legends: Crisis of Faith (2011) Canon: Ahsoka (2023) |
| Created by: | Timothy Zahn |
| Portrayed by: | Lars Mikkelsen |
| Species: | Chiss |
| Occupation: |
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Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn for those that don't like tongue twisters, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise — who held the rank of Grand Admiral within the Galactic Empire. He was first created in 1991 by Timothy Zahn as one of the greatest villains ever concieved, Thrawn lost this title after Dave Filoni added him into the third season of his animated show, Star Wars Rebels — as the Grand Inquistor was killed off during the first season, and Darth Vader left the show after the second season to spend more time with his family. With Thrawn now in animated form, as opposed to his previous only written state in which he was a tactical genius, Filoni had to nerf Thrawn's character as to not have the show end after just the first episode, in which Thrawn would destroy the Rebel Alliance quite easily.
In 2023, Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced Thrawn in seasons three and four of Rebels, returned to play the character, but this time in live-action on the second The Mandalorian spin-off, Ahsoka.
Creation[edit]
The character of Thrawn began when Timothy Zahn realized that all Imperials are dummer than doornobs. He made the character have blue skin with red eyes, as that's what he got when he rolled for random alien features. When deciding what made Thrawn original, he decided to go with the classic 'Supreme Intelligence Matched by No Other'. Next, he decided to give Thrawn companions — because he was trying to think of any way possible to make a very un-Imperial... Imperial. He gave Thrawn an ally named Dwayne "The Rukh" Johnson, a Noghri assassin. Once his character planning sheet was filled out, Zahn began to write his trilogy.
Legends[edit]
Thrawn trilogy (1991-1993)[edit]
In Heir to the Empire, Thrawn was banished to the unknown regions of the galaxy because most of the Empire is racist against aliens, and Thrawn comes back after the Empire is all but destroyed — because Timothy Zahn needed a good reason for him not to have killed all the Rebels quickly and effiecently during the films. Now leading Gilad Pellaeon and the last of the Empire, Thrawn goes up against all the most popular and favourite Star Wars heroes such as: Han Solo, Carrie Fisher, C-3PO, and of course, their epic leader Lobot. Thrawn grabs some Ysalamir, which are salamanders that can repel the Force, making it so that force users can't use the Force — even though the Force is, y'know, the binding of all living things. He also manipulates the evil clone Jorus C'Baoth (even though he is insane... and mentally unstable... and bipolar... and has extreme ADHD... and never brushes his teeth). But since Thrawn is smart, and can manipulate people that don't know what they want fourty percent of the time, he is able to control him. At the end of book, Thrawn outsmarts everyone, and takes over an old Imperial storage facility, stealing a bunch of cloning tubes that sets up the second book.
In the second book, Dark Force Rising, Thrawn uses those cloning tubes to clone millions of soldiers quicker than should be possible using the Ysalamir, even though that's not how it works. Thrawn then begins to manipulate the New Rebublic, dividing them. Eventually, Thrawn is racing against the New Rebublic to get to the Katana Fleet, a huge group of warships floating in space. But Thrawn has manipulated them so well that they completely fail, and Lobot & Co. are the only ones there, and are understandably, unable to pilot 10,000 space ships all at once. The book ends with Thrawn outsmarting everyone, and getting hundreds of warships now staffed by thousands of clones.
In the final book, The Last Command, Thrawn locks down the New Rebublic, while Carrie Fisher goes and tells Noghri that they have been manipulated. Meanwhile, Jorus C'Baoth begins to manipulate Thrawn by mind tricking Gilad Pellaeon. Eventually, the Lobot & Co. go to fight Jorus. However, it turns out that he made a clone of Luke Skywalker, named Duke Skywalker. During the fight, Luke is killed by Mara Jade, but the others go home to party, not realizing that Luke was killed and been replaced by Duke. Meanwhile, Thrawn is killed by his bodyguard, Dwayne "The Rukh" Johnson, who somehow got word that he was getting manipulated by Thrawn.
Yes, this how Thrawn is killed — because Timothy Zahn didn't know how to kill off an omnisentient character.
The Hand of Thrawn (1997-1998)[edit]
The Hand of Thrawn was a dualogy that served as a sequal to the Thrawn Trilogy, consisting of Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future. They were the last Star Wars book published by Bantha Spectrum, before the license for publishing Star Wars books was turned over to Del Rey. The books was sold under the pretense that Thrawn would apear, and the closest thing to that happening was Duke Skywalker ruthlessly killing a helpless clone of Thrawn in the second book.
Disney adaptation[edit]
The Disney version of the character is different in many ways. For one thing, Disney Thrawn has no flaws at all — much like every other character to appear in the new Disney Star Wars, but every single surrounding Imperial character is a complete and total idiot. This is due to the fact that Star Wars Rebels, a show made by the same guy who made Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but somehow made Rebels a thousand times worse. In Rebels, the character has pupils, weird eyebrow things on his forehead, and a grudge against the main group of Rebels in the series.
Rebels (2016-2018)[edit]
In the show Star Wars Rebels, the writers were lazy and unimaginative. Because of this, they needed a way to get more people to watch the show. First they got Darth Vader, but when everybody hated how stupid it was that Darth Vader was called in to deal with a mere six Rebels, they instead called in Thrawn, not even trying to explain the reason as to why Darth Vader left. However, now having Thrawn in the show, he also had a stupidly hard time defeating literally six people. The writers tried to mostly blame it on Thrawn's underlings, but eventually, the Rebels defeat Thrawn by shooting him off into space using space whales that can go to hyperspace.
Imperial trilogy (2017-2019)[edit]
After Disney took over Star Wars and changed the entire Expanded Universe to become non-cannon (now called Legends), Thrawn was no longer in the Star Wars universe. However, Disney knew that Thrawn had money to be made off him, so they brought him back in a bad TV show. As Filoni ruined the character in animation, Timothy Zahn was locked in a dungeon and forced to make a second trilogy of Thrawn books. The first one, simply called Thrawn (which is as imaginative of a title as every other Star Wars origin story), is about how the Empire is racist towards Thrawn, just because he's blue.
This continues even when he proves to be better than all of them, twelve times in a row, in fact. Thrawn recruits Eli Vanto as his translator (since now Thrawn can't speak basic very well) and sidekick. Throughout the book, Thrawn's genius rubs off on Eli (and also rubbed off in other ways). The novel ends with Thrawn suggesting that Eli join the Chiss Ascendancy, and sends him to one of his old Chiss friends. We are not told what happens next, but can assume that Eli suffers the same horrible racism in the Chiss Ascendancy as Thrawn did in the Empire. As Disney wanted to be able to make as much money as possible with Thrawn, the original Thrawn trilogy was turned into comic books — even though they were not even considered "canon" by their standards anymore.
In the book, Alliances, Emperor Palpatine sends Thrawn and Vader on a mission. They are both seen as equals in the story, but as only Vader has been on the big screen, Thrawn is once again a victim of blue racism. Throughout the book, which also takes place during the show Rebels, Thrawn is teased by Darth Vader for getting beaten by the Rebels — despite the fact the Vader just gave up after a two seasons, as Filoni was too lazy to think up a proper reason — and besides, nobody above the age of nine enjoyed the show anyway.
In the final book, the word treason is said and stated well over a million times — almost like it's the name of the book or something. In it, Thrawn is accused of treason, Eli Vanto is accused of treason, Governor Haveland is accused of treason, as well as many others. Finally, the real treasonous traitor turns out to be Grand Admiral Savit, who has been stealing supplies from the Death Star so that he can expand his concert hall to fit two orchestras in it. Whoops, spoilers.
The Mandalorian (2020; 2023)[edit]
With Ahsoka Tano's cameo in season 2 of The Mandalorian, Thrawn is mentioned to confuse the live-action viewers, and give boners to the nerds that watch animated shows and read books. Thrawn would also be mentioned in season 3 to once again confuse the non-all knowing viewers — by fellow Legends turned canon, animated to live-action character, Captain Gilad "Hey It's That Guy" Pellaeon.
Ascendancy trilogy (2020-2021)[edit]
With Thrawn now a Disney Star Wars household name, Mickey Mouse once again locked Zahn in a basement and made him write a third Thrawn trilogy, but this time set during his early years and his climb to power. Zahn complied with his captors demands, but included plot holes and inconsistency in the novels that only effected Thrawn fans more than it did the executives at Disney and Lucasfilm.
Ahsoka (2023)[edit]
Grand Admiral Thrawn somehow survived his encounter with the space whales, and becomes the main villain of the Ahsoka series. Despite this, and being mentioned multiple times per episode, he did not actually appear until the sixth episode. His new Night Troopers have seen better bandaged days. Thrawn has also spent the last decade exiled in a different galaxy, to prevent any rebuttle in which why he was not present at all during the Original Trilogy.
Tales of the Empire (2024)[edit]
Before the events of Rebels season three, and the ending of the first Thrawn novel, Imperial Admiral Thrawn (as he isn't Grand yet) recruits Morgan Elsbeth as his padawan type thing that Ahsoka mentioned all the way back in The Mandalorian season two. It is also revealed that his personal project, the TIE Defender Program, orginally came from Morgan — because... reasons? Anyway, he has Rukh almost kill her, but when she gets the upper hand, Thrawn claims that it was "just a prank bro." It should also be noted that his measly assistant, Captain Pellaeon, somehow manages to get more screen-time in this twelve minute episode.
See also[edit]
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