Predicting the Plans of Grand Admiral Thrawn

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The man (Chiss), the myth, the legend. What is Thrawn up to in Star Wars Rebels, and can art help US predict his next move? Courtney explores.

Master of combat tactics. Remarkable commander. Military genius. Grand Admiral Thrawn has come to Star Wars Rebels.

Long-Term Planning

According to Rebels Recon, the show writers wanted to keep Thrawn’s character as close to the Timothy Zahn novels as possible. Thrawn is a strategic mastermind, he is always many steps ahead of his foes, and always has long term goals in mind. In this episode, he is already plotting how to take down the rebels. He states, “They will be the architects of their own destruction.”

This being said, how is Thrawn plotting his grand trap of the rebels? What is he going to use to have them bring about their own destruction? let’s take a look.

When the Empire arrives as the crew of the Ghost is fleeing with the stolen Y-wings from Reklam Station, Thrawn directs Governor Pryce to let them go. The rebels only managed to steal three fighters, so they didn’t seem to get away with much. Thrawn says that was not the entire Rebel fleet that appeared, thus there isn’t a need to engage them.

But Thrawn is crafty. Why would he shrug off the stolen Y-wings? There is a deeper plot here, a small chess move in a much larger game. Knowing how Thrawn meticulously plans his moves, he let the rebels go here for a reason, not just that he wants to engage the whole Rebel fleet.

Were the Y-wings secretly meant to be stolen, similar to how the TIE fighters were set up to be stolen later in “The Antilles Extraction?” Maybe Thrawn knew that Ezra would say to take the ships if he saw them being destroyed.

Perhaps Thrawn put trackers on the ships, therefore he would be able to find the rebel fleet easily. But…this is just too simple of an explanation. There’s more to Thrawn’s actions than just tracking devices.

Perhaps in this first encounter, Thrawn was just testing Ezra’s leadership, using knowledge of Lothalian art. Thrawn likely wanted to see if Ezra would actually do what he theorized he would.

Pawn to Queen’s Knight 4

So, what other plans or traps does Thrawn have in mind for the rebels? He uses his knowledge of the art of a species or culture to better understand his enemies. In “Hera’s Heroes,” Thrawn uses his knowledge of Twi’lek culture and art to discover Hera and Ezra inside the Empire base (and Hera’s former childhood home) on Ryloth. Ezra and Hera are subsequently captured. A small victory for Thrawn, who is only interested in the larger picture.

However, during a prisoner exchange, they are able (or allowed) to escape. He watches the escape, and orders to let them go. This is done to study each member of the core rebel team. He is looking for their weaknesses. First Ezra, now Hera.

This is data collection, by way of small skirmishes. Thrawn is gathering information bit by bit; he’s planning more by dissecting the rebels idiosyncrasies. The more data he gathers, the better he can build a plan. He’s letting them build his plan for him. In a very literal sense, they are becoming the architects of their own destruction.

Thrawn vs. Vader

Thrawn is also not a person to waste resources. He knows when to engage the enemy, and when to show restraint. As shown in the first episode, he is willing to admit defeat. In the Legends novels, he often promoted creativity in his crew, and unlike Vader, rarely punished failures. This could lead the way to something of a confrontation if Thrawn and Vader meet in Rebels.

How would they work together? Could they work together? It also leads to a question on rank. Does Lord Vader outrank Grand Admiral Thrawn? Or, are they completely separate ideas. The Grand Admiral is a military rank with control of part of the Imperial Fleet.  Does a Sith outrank him? Who would the Emperor listen to (if either) during a battle or any type of action against the rebels?

Legendary Tactics

What other plans or traps does Thrawn have in mind for the rebels? He uses his immense knowledge of the art of a species or culture to better understand his enemies. And, he was able to pull vast knowledge of a species’ weakness just from studying their artwork. He would use this to conduct flawless strategic victories over his opponents.

Nothing Thrawn does is ever as it seems. He always acts for a reason. He takes his knowledge of a species and builds layers upon layers of traps that lead his enemy to what he ultimately wants them to do. While his opponents are just figuring out the first stage of his plan, he would already be onto the next phase. Just when you think you’ve figured him out, he’s always plotting steps ahead of his enemies.

An example of his master planning would be from Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy, which is now under the heading of Legends. Thrawn worked on a plan to bring down the New Republic for five years. He built up secret military forces in the Unknown Regions, searched for the Emperor’s forgotten storehouse (which contained a multitude of technologies), gathered ysalamiri (to fight the Jedi/Force users), started cloning operations, and put cloaked asteroids in Coruscant orbit to prevent Republic response to his actions.

Those are just the major plots. Often, He would send forces out to raid Republic bases only to divert forces from his actual plan. He would even send Imperial forces to battle, even if outgunned, and then would watch the battle and identify the pattern of attacks, thereby being able to identify the New Republic commander in charge of the battle. Then he would then set about organizing their destruction. That’s how good he can be.

Without a doubt, now that Thrawn is in the game, this season the rebels are in for the fight of their lives, whether they know it yet or not.