fieldofheathers-stuff

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Why Thrawn stayed with the Empire

More thoughts inspired by the books. So my reread journey has finally taken me to Thrawn (2017) and a little line of dialogue that’s exchanged between Thrawn and Palpatine when Thrawn is first brought to Coruscant caught my eye.

Before I go there, I’ve mentioned how I believe that part of the reason why Thrawn stays on the sinking and morally deteriorating ship that is the Empire is because of his inherent intractability as a character.

Ascendancy provides some insight into how Thrawn’s mind works and there’s the sense that his intuition is so strong and vivid that it’s difficult to put into words or control. Funnily enough, it’s almost like Zahn is drawing a parallel between the strength of Thrawn’s foresight and the various force-sensitive characters and character groups in the books. It’s an ability that’s hard to control and hard to explain and has a borderline mystical quality to it. But I digress.

The point is that Thrawn sees future outcomes so clearly that it leaves little room for doubt in his mind. In that sense his plans are almost like visions and Ascendancy gives us a good idea for why he trusts them – Thrawn is rarely if ever wrong in his predictions and the times that he is, it’s either because of forces he can’t control (see every time his plans are thwarted by some involvement of the Force) or his one blind spot, politics.

The few times that he is wrong are hardly enough to justify any self-doubt and Thrawn is a supremely confident character in the books, not arrogant perhaps but confident. There’s the question of whether that confidence stems from his experience, that of being mostly right, or if it’s an inherent quality amplified by it but guess who’s digressing again.

My point is, a large part of why Thrawn throws in with the Empire so consistently is because he sees a way for it to succeed in his mind and because of his stubbornness and the trust he puts in his abilities, he pursues that path relentlessly. The problem is that while that path may exist, that doesn’t mean it’s worth the collateral damage or that it’s not precarious by virtue of all the unknowns and chance happenings it can run into. Yes, the Empire can succeed, Thrawn is right about that. But is it worth it and is it guaranteed? That’s the questions Thrawn neglects to ask himself imo.

Something something, a poetic parallel between characters who go down a dark path by misleading visions that torment them. But that’s a meta for another day.

That said, let’s finally look at the passage I mentioned at the beginning of this post. We could argue how much of what Thrawn says to Plapatine is true – even when reading his own pov of events, Thrawn is a slippery one and we know from his conversation with Nightswan just how layered his plans are.  But there’s one part of the conversation that rings very true to me because of just how much it sounds like a quotation:

“I am a warrior, Your Majesty,” Thrawn said. “A warrior may retreat. He does not flee. He may lie in ambush. He does not hide. He may experience victory or defeat. He does not cease to serve.”

Now, we know that much of the book is a direct excerpt from Thrawn’s journal. We know that Thrawn is eloquent and philosophic enough to express his thoughts in such a way. And we know he’s clever enough to twist words around to sound like maxims in order to convince Palpatine of his loyalty. This is all plausible but there’s just something about that quote that makes if feel so much like a learned dictum that it makes me wonder if it’s not part of some deeper cultural philosophy that Thrawn takes to heart.

Mainly because this motif of dictums and cultural philosophies is one that repeats itself throughout the books. It’s one of the many effective ways Zahn gives depth to alien cultures without explicitly explaining where these ideas stem from.

e.g. the Ascendancy books open with a description of the Ascendancy that Ba’kif later quotes indirectly in chapter one. It’s not an old saying because it mentions the EDF which is a fledgling organization at the time but its wording makes it sound like a maxim, like something fancy and quotable they would teach at schools and that Ba’kif possibly modified with the addition of the EDF.

Then there’s the subtle hints we get of an existing warrior culture among the chiss, kind of like that of the Mandalorians. Their soldiers are called warriors and get training in hand-to-hand combat like stick fighting that feels like an art with pretty old roots. All of this makes me wonder if there isn’t some existing chiss warrior code kind of like bushido or The Art of War that some chiss officers are aware of and use to inform their personal philosophy or treat as teachings.

This is just conjecture on my part, of course, I’m literally going off vibes here but it would fit nicely with the existing cultural parallels to Japanese history and philosophy that we see with the chiss (isolationism, clan structure, collectivism, fashion, etc.). Add to that how tradition-bound the chiss are and how Thrawn’s primary interest is military tactics and the ways they connect to philosophy and even lifestyle (cough bushido again cough) and I can easily see him being very devout to any such code if it exists or at least being closely familiar with it.

But even if he isn’t quoting from some code here and this isn’t any specific maxim but just his own beliefs that we accept are genuine, it’s still interesting to look at.

A warrior does not flee, hide or cease to serve. These are all binding commitments that prevent Thrawn from making the stealthy exit from the Empire we saw him capable of arranging for Eli. Thrawn could have at any point contacted his people and used Palpatine’s lack of information on them to quietly return to the Ascendancy. But that would have meant doing all three.

You could argue that he didn’t want to make an enemy of Palpatine and by extension the Empire but this is Thrawn – if Thrawn wants the seemingly impossible, he has ways of achieving it. Faking his death is one strategy that comes to mind. Or even sabotaging the Empire to the point where it’s unable to mete out punishment. The problem is that in Thrawn’s mind, he’s already decided that the Empire is important to defeating the Grysks.

Whether that’s objectively true or whether that’s the only way he can participate in that victory with a reasonable degree of control and influence on his part is a different question.

(I feel like it’s reasonable to assume that his vision like intuition and multi-step plans are only possible if he’s there to tweak things along the away. Take away his influence like they did in the Ascendancy and suddenly the path to victory is much less clear. Not impossible but not clear. Which is something I can’t imagine him coming to terms with.)

By the way, it’s worth pointing out that Tharwn was only expecting to be given the role of advisor at first and only in regards to the Unknow Regions. It’s Palpatine that offers him a more involved position. Again, you could argue that Thrawn is making some complex 4d chess move here that prompts Palpatine to give him more power but him not expecting to be put in the heat of things is more in line with the prediction he makes about the duration of his absence in Lesser Evil.

With that in mind, his commitment to Palpatine as being somewhat unexpected and hastily accepted makes even more sense. The problem is that once Thrawn commits, he commits on a moral level. This isn’t just a matter of objective practicality for him, though we know that’s also a main driving force for him, it’s also a matter of honor. Of principle. He has a system he doesn’t budge from and honor is part of that system.

And Thrawn is at the end of the day and at his core a very methodical character. That’s what, to me, puts him firmly into the military man category and not that of the artist – he analyses art through a military lens rather than creating it – and as such discipline and principle are key parts of his character. That rigidity however can mean that he’s particularly intractable in some aspects.

All of this isn’t to say that Thrawn is a cold or callous character – that’s the way he interacts with the world around him and the filter his morals and emotions are passed through. He has both of those but he’s also stiff and practical and those are the traits that inform how he behaves. And in the most extreme cases, probably override everything else.

The military is Thrawn’s comfort zone. The Empire is the epitome of a military regime and that’s why he slots into it so easily. I talk more about this in this meta but in Thrawn’s case, that military mindset bleeds into his worldview and choices, ultimately binding him to the Empire and the commitment he’s made to it.

That commitment may have been further strengthened by the connections he builds with the people in it, the subordinates he can’t help but care about, and ultimately the no flight, no surrender, fight-to-the last mentality chains him to that particular sinking ship. Which, as tragic as it is, is an Anakin Skywalker situation where a character has just as many opportunities to change their ways as there are circumstances pushing them towards them.

Tldr, the tragedy of Thrawn is that of his own nature which is neither inherently virtuous nor inherently corrupt but determines where his story ultimately ends. Doomed by the narrative or the simple fact of the Empire’s existence and how easily such a regime accommodates him. Or alternatively by how easily his own people reject him. Or both honestly.

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

the most important thing you can do when writing a story is to include an alien character whos like incredibly bizzare and weird and eccentric and seems to go against like EVERY aspect of your worlds expected norms, and then later introduce more characters of the same alien species, but theyre like perfectly normal and Also find that first guy weird

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Thoughts on Thrawn stemming from a curious scene

So I’m rereading Chaos Rising and I’m noticing many interesting bits about Thrawn as a character that fit nicely with his eventual joining with the Empire.

There’s a line he says to Thalias that’s particularly neat: ‘Intent and motivations are irrelevant. Judgement can focus only on action.’ To give some context, they’re discussing how he was punished for wandering into a restricted area as a cadet despite managing to impress the captain. Thrawn here is in a sense defending the captain’s decision to punish him.

On a meta level, that line is packed with irony given how people’s favorite thing to do when talking about Thrawn is to defend him based on his motives for joining the Empire and act like it negates his actions there.

But in universe the quote becomes even more interesting. There’s no indication that Thrawn is saying this with any kind of bitterness or sarcasm. Which means that he either believes it or it’s something he’s come to accept. The latter is very plausible knowing his history with the Ascendancy at that point – even that early on, he’s already gotten several wrist slaps and reprimands, not to mention everything that happened with Thrass.

So it’s easy to see Thrawn as resigned to the fact that no matter what his intentions are for doing what he does, his people will ultimately judge him for his actions and whether they conform to what’s acceptable in their culture. Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails.

If there’s anything Thrawn is though, it’s stubborn and determined and he not only continues doing his thing, but I’d argue never stops doing it.

In any case, his conversation with Thalias continues and she confesses why she came to the Springhawk, reminding him of the words he said to her when he was a cadet: ‘You told me I’d find a new path, and that I could choose how things worked out.’ What follows is a seemingly lukewarm reaction from Thrawn that leaves her embarrassed. I had highlighted this part on my first reading and I remember thinking it was just a neat example of him missing an important social cue. 

But no, Thrawn here becomes thoughtful. He’s not sympathetic or encouraging because he’s too busy contemplating his own advice. Again, from a meta pov, this is clearly a reference to the choice he’ll make of joining the Empire and gaining the ability to choose, ie becoming much more influential there than he ever had a chance of being in the Ascendancy.

This becomes even more poignant when he steers the conversation towards Borika and tells Thalias that ‘The key to a satisfying life is to accept those things that cannot be changed, and make a positive difference with those that can.’

This is Thrawn admitting his acceptance. He can’t change his people’s philosophy or what they think of him but he can go and prosper in a place that allows him to make a difference. It’s a cute sentiment but it becomes quite sinister when you realize where he ends up because of it.

Because at the end of the day, Thrawn does have something in common with the Empire’s officers. He’s after power. Maybe not for power or glory’s sake but he wants the freedom to execute his plans and pass judgment as he sees fit. And his motivations are ultimately irrelevant.

Earlier in the book he’s all but begging Ar’alani to let him engage the Lioaoin. He’s so desperate about it, it’s almost eerie, telling her he can ‘see’ it all in his head. There’s a pattern in this book where you get the sense that Thrawn’s intuition is so strong it almost causes him discomfort when he can’t communicate it to others or act on it (which I suppose warrants some sympathy for him).

Though that sense is largely missing when he’s in the Empire because he no longer needs to explain himself to others or has any major obstacles standing in his way.

Thrawn in the Empire is a man liberated. This is the perfect environment for him.

Sure, there’s the usual court politics but with Palpatine and Tarkin’s support, Thrawn shoots up the ranks in record time. He faces some difficulties initially and by the end but we have to remember that this is Thrawn: confident to a fault and even to a point where we see him make plans for the future of the Empire after Palpatine’s death as revealed in his conversation with Nightswan.

The Senate itself holds power only in theory which I imagine would feel cathartic after so long of having his leash tugged by the Syndicure.

Going back to the Ascendancy for a bit, the end of Lesser Evil gives the impression that Ba’kif and Ar’alani are more affected by Thrawn’s exile than he is. My guess is that Thrawn saw the writing on the wall long before they did and had been preparing for this new beginning for a while now. I’m not saying he feels good about being separated from his people but he most certainly chooses to make what’s supposed to be a one-year absence into a commitment that lasts right up to his death.

Why did Thrawn stay with the Empire, even after it fell apart? Because there was no other place where he would be that influential. Of course, this is all written into his story in retrospect but I think Zahn did a good job making Thrawn’s choice believable based on who he is as a character.

Which leads me to the discussion of Thrawn’s morality. There’s a case to be made for his motivations: at his best, Thrawn saves people that would have otherwise been killed or harmed as the Ascendancy looked the other way. At his worst, he makes up excuses for slavery. The problem lies in the extremes.

After Thrawn gives his little quote about coming to terms with what can’t be changed, Thalias doesn’t voice it but she disagrees with him: ‘But just because something couldn’t be changed didn’t mean a person shouldn’t hammer away at it anyway. Secrets could sometimes be brought to light, and even Thrawn could be wrong.’

Great line and strike three for the meta references.

And now, I wasn’t in Zahn’s head when he wrote this and you could easily say it refers to Thrawn hammering away at the Empire but I don’t think that’s the case here. The Empire could very much be changed from Thrawn’s perspective; he was very much aiming for it in fact. What I like to think this is, is a neat little prompting from Zahn for us to try and imagine what Thrawn’s life might have looked like if he hadn’t given up on trying to change the Ascendancy.

If he hadn’t stuck stubbornly to his ways, learning how to circumvent orders, lie and deceive in order to do things his way, instead of trying to meet his people in the middle. Of course that would have meant lives lost along the way but is that any different from the loss of life he caused one way or another as an imperial? There’s a point in Lesser Evil where Thrawn dryly remarks on how nobody would make him an Admiral in the Ascendancy. Which is an ironic parallel to how quickly he’s made one in the Empire and all of that because instead of changing his ways to reach that post, he simply found a system that catered to his worst impulses of need for control and excessive initiative.

Because there are things that even Thrawn doesn’t know. And even he can be wrong sometimes.

All of this to say that Thrawn has one big flaw as a person and that flaw is his insistence on control.

Chasing power for the sake of one’s own influence is a flaw. Not just because power corrupts or leads to places that are inherently corrupt but because power shouldn’t be concentrated in the hands of one person, whether that person is Thrawn or Palpatine. What always struck me about Thrawn’s whole spiel about someone better inheriting Palpatine’s position is just how wonky and short-sighted that is as an argument. Not just for him but in general.

Bottom line is, power should only be sought for the sake of distributing it. Because you can have a guy like Thrawn create a utopia but the person who inherits that power can be a lunatic, as ninety-nine percent of the people that get that far are. And just because you’re not around to see it, doesn’t mean future generations should suffer.

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

I find this reading kind of interesting, because I don't really see much of a difference between what Yoda and Nemik are saying.

I think Yoda's quote has been often misinterpreted because it's taken out of context, which makes it sound like some sort of normative prescription against "trying" as in "making an attempt to achieve something". But taken in its full context, this is clearly not what Yoda meant. This is the full context of the quote, from ESB:

"Luke: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different. [He's referring to trying to move his X-wing out of the swamp where he landed it when he and R2-D2 arrived on Degobah.]

Yoda: No. No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.

Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.

Yoda: No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try."

There's a million ways to interpret these few lines of dialogue - ESB is regarded as the best SW script and movie for a reason - but in essence what Yoda is telling Luke is that there should be no difference in his level of commitment when doing a small thing (moving a rock) or doing a big thing (moving an X-wing); that Luke should commit fully to whatever he is doing, be it big or small, and trust in the Force. And if he learns to do this properly, the underlying message is that the Force will listen.

I don't find this idea at all in conflict with the message of Nemik's manifesto. When Nemik says that "even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward", he's basically trying to convey the same concept as Yoda. Nemik's manifesto is obviously more overtly political, while Yoda's message is more mystical and spiritual, but the idea behind their philosophies is basically the same:

"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. (...) One single thing will break the siege. Remember this: Try."

"No. No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned. (...) Do or do not. There is no try."

Ultimately, Nemik's "remember this: try" and Yoda's "there is no try" both mean the same thing: every gesture matters, and full commitment to "the pure idea" (freedom for Nemik, the Force for Yoda) is necessary to push the line forward, be it in a small or a big way. Just my two cents. :-)

A Little Rant About Star Wars

okay, so i was thinking earlier this week about Andor (as usual), specifically about the final line from the segment of Nemik's manifesto we hear: "...Remember this; try."

and it got me thinking about the other times we've had the act of trying, of attempting something, in Star Wars, decades earlier: "Do or do not; there is no try."

these two statements and the characters they represent are so fascinating to me. from the perspective of Yoda's philosophy, Nemik is a naive idealist fighting against a system he cannot hope to overcome, which consequently results in his death. Nemik tried to do the impossible, failed, and died. and then, we have Yoda, a relic who chooses to lives in hiding because he knows that there is no way he can take down the Empire, ultimately allowing him to survive the 18 years after Order 66 and train Luke. Yoda survived because he chose to not try, and lived.

however, from the philosophy of Nemik, their positions are radically changed.

Yoda lived alone for almost two decades because he knew he couldn't win against the Empire. he took no action, offering no support to the Rebellion, despite the fact that he is quite literally the most powerful Jedi who has existed in centuries, despite his wealth of knowledge that can be used in the fight against fascism, despite his knowledge of other Jedi that existed in the galaxy who needed his help (ex. Ezra speaking with Yoda in the temple). Yoda didn't try, despite the myriad valuable contributions he could have made to defeating the Empire, because he believed that he couldn't.

meanwhile, Nemik is a freedom fighter. his whole life's work is trying. against the Empire, a single person is meaningless. it is a hulking monstrosity of cold bureaucracy, impersonal massacres, and dehumanization. and above all, it functions on fear. the very act of struggle is a massive undertaking that shakes the very foundations of the mass of the Empire. trying is the whole point. the point isn't to succeed, it's to amass and gain momentum, to fail and fail and fail and try and try and try and hope and hope and hope until- the wall breaks. Nemik's pure love for freedom and his struggle against a tyrannical creature more powerful than himself inspires Cassian Andor to join the Rebellion, whose later actions go on to enable the destruction of the death star by Luke Skywalker. if enough people try, they can do.

Yoda ignores the profound impact that the simple act of trying can have. if enough people try, if enough people have hope that things can get better... they can. the act of trying is the most valuable act of rebellion the average person can take. hope is always the enemy of fascism, and really, the act of trying is an act of hope.

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Lucky Strike.

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A semi-spicy (sensual? sexy?) addendum to the lovely fic Presence, Connection by the amazing @marroniere, who wrote it as a gift for me. You may find the full, uncropped version here, since it is NSFW-adjacent (more suggestive than anything, but feel yourself warned) and I was afraid Tumblr would nuke it. There's also an extra drabble to go along with it, because Irina is the best. <3 <3 <3

Also, because I'm a goof, Thrawn's unfiltered thoughts under the cut:

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Presence, Connection.

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A little thing I drew as a side piece to @marroniere's amazing fic she wrote for me (AO3 link in the title!). çvç <3 <3 <3

I am so deeply flattered to have been the recipient of such a soulful gift. Do yourself a favor and go read it. It's touching, it's smutty, it's fun, it's angsty, it's healing and, most of all, it's very, very good.

THANK YOU AGAIN, I love it forever. <3 <3 <3

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

do you think. do you think dante put himself amongst the proud in purgatorio because he felt that when he got involved in florence's politics he got blinded by his own confidence, thinking he alone was enough to save the city, and instead all he obtained was guido's death and his own exile. like. looking back. he thought he could make things better because all the city needed was justice and rationality. but it was his own Justice and Rationality, which is not infallible, and in fact in the name of these Ideals he ruined the life of a friend. he ruined his own life. the life of his family. his kids. do you think he felt guilt for getting himself exiled

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Your art is so BEAUTIFUL!! WONDERFUL!!!! LOVELY!!!!!! Have a lovely rest of your day

THANK YOUUUU I was laughing so hard at your tags on my drawing <3 <3 <3 <3 He *is* invited to the carne asada and they *are* drinking Cerveza Cristal XDDDDD

Have a lovely day too <3

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Got inspired by @groovygrayvy’s Thrawn flavoured JC Leyendecker studies and @fieldofheathers-stuff’s chiss military portraits. I also figured out how to download speedpaint footage from procreate (!!!), so that’s under the cut along with the ref :)))

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

But instead, Eli asks, “Will we see each other again?”

Thrawn freezes, not saying a word, like Eli’s words have caused a system overload, a hyperdrive overheating, a—

He shakes his head.

“I see,” Eli says. “It’s a shame, then.”

It’s too many questions he doesn’t imagine he will ever find an answer for, and too many things he never had a chance to do properly. But in some odd way, this realization is freeing just as much as it is painful.

Eli takes a step toward Thrawn.

Thrawn eyes him with mute perplexity.

As Eli pulls him closer, he doesn’t resist.

(Excerpt from To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause by @marroniere, ch. 6)

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

For this week's update of To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause....

.... I don't really have a funny comic, BUT I do offer you some of the illustrations/"concept" art I drew as the wonderful @marroniere was writing the chapter. I have to say, I enjoyed this process immensely. So, without further ado, you have...

Thrawn and Dedra's shitty sushi date, as depicted in Ch. 6. The vibes are so rotten in here:

A few test drawings for Thrawn's Pantoran outfit (we ended up picking the dark blue one)...

.... and the absolutely unhinged Pantoran AU that came out of that, in which Thrawn decides to ditch the military route, embraces his Pantoran-with-an-eye-condition™ persona and goes undercover as esteemed visiting scholar Baron Mitthrawnoida (@marroniere came up with the name, BRILLIANT), art historian extraordinaire (here pictured with his library helper droid):

The unhinged Pantoran AU completely took over my imagination, and I ofc had to draw some Thranto (I guess Eli is his assistant researcher in this one. Thrawn needs help with big data processing, idk XD). They're going to the museum.

Last but not least, bonus post-museum bedtime review (slightly NSFW for nudity and implied horizontal activities of the bedroom kind, but nothing explicit) (Thrawn is doing the minute-by-minute gameplay recap of all his favorite pieces):

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Fic update: To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause, Thrawn & Andor crossover, Thranto rebel!AU, Thrawn & Luthen, 6/12

the author sincerely thanks @labelma and @fieldofheathers-stuff because THEY ARE THE BEST

Summary:

A discovery Grand Admiral Thrawn makes leads him to an unexpected alliance — and Luthen Rael needs all the heroes he can get.

read on ao3

Excerpt:

“For a future grand admiral,” Eli says, “you are remarkably naive.”

“It’s hardly the first time I’ve heard that,” Thrawn answers, with a dismissive shrug.

The last person who told him approximately the same thing is dead, due in part to Pryce’s actions and in part to his own idiotic, idiotic stubbornness.

“Then maybe it’s high time you ask yourself some questions,” says Eli. “Like ‘what happened the last time I genuinely thought the Empire was running on logic and basic common sense?’ That could be a great start.”

Thrawn opts against sharing his thoughts with Eli here. “I do not have time for this,” he says, making sure to keep his voice as even and emotionless as possible. “I know you work for Luthen Rael. I also have reason to think that you were recruited by Rael’s mole in the ISB. Am I right?”

In retrospect, it is often easier to piece the elements of some stories together.

The technical malfunction at the ISB interrogation facility seems manufactured.

Supervisor Lonni Jung seems like too professional a man to have accepted Thrawn’s challenge so willingly.

What Thrawn needs is a confirmation. Instead, Eli Vanto says, “So you really think I had to be led by someone — after everything we’ve seen?”

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Me rn

okay a 9,000-word chapter of to the success of our hopeless cause anyone how about that

(you can thank @fieldofheathers-stuff who gave me a medieval-style indulgence for that)

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Across the stars.

———————————————

I love those little moments when you put pen to paper (or should I say, um… pen to tablet?) and stuff just appears. This is one of those quick little pieces. What does it mean? Idk lol. Feel free to make up your own minds.

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

Thoughts on Thrawn stemming from a curious scene

So I’m rereading Chaos Rising and I’m noticing many interesting bits about Thrawn as a character that fit nicely with his eventual joining with the Empire.

There’s a line he says to Thalias that’s particularly neat: ‘Intent and motivations are irrelevant. Judgement can focus only on action.’ To give some context, they’re discussing how he was punished for wandering into a restricted area as a cadet despite managing to impress the captain. Thrawn here is in a sense defending the captain’s decision to punish him.

On a meta level, that line is packed with irony given how people’s favorite thing to do when talking about Thrawn is to defend him based on his motives for joining the Empire and act like it negates his actions there.

But in universe the quote becomes even more interesting. There’s no indication that Thrawn is saying this with any kind of bitterness or sarcasm. Which means that he either believes it or it’s something he’s come to accept. The latter is very plausible knowing his history with the Ascendancy at that point – even that early on, he’s already gotten several wrist slaps and reprimands, not to mention everything that happened with Thrass.

So it’s easy to see Thrawn as resigned to the fact that no matter what his intentions are for doing what he does, his people will ultimately judge him for his actions and whether they conform to what’s acceptable in their culture. Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails.

If there’s anything Thrawn is though, it’s stubborn and determined and he not only continues doing his thing, but I’d argue never stops doing it.

In any case, his conversation with Thalias continues and she confesses why she came to the Springhawk, reminding him of the words he said to her when he was a cadet: ‘You told me I’d find a new path, and that I could choose how things worked out.’ What follows is a seemingly lukewarm reaction from Thrawn that leaves her embarrassed. I had highlighted this part on my first reading and I remember thinking it was just a neat example of him missing an important social cue.  

But no, Thrawn here becomes thoughtful. He’s not sympathetic or encouraging because he’s too busy contemplating his own advice. Again, from a meta pov, this is clearly a reference to the choice he’ll make of joining the Empire and gaining the ability to choose, ie becoming much more influential there than he ever had a chance of being in the Ascendancy.

This becomes even more poignant when he steers the conversation towards Borika and tells Thalias that ‘The key to a satisfying life is to accept those things that cannot be changed, and make a positive difference with those that can.’

This is Thrawn admitting his acceptance. He can’t change his people’s philosophy or what they think of him but he can go and prosper in a place that allows him to make a difference. It’s a cute sentiment but it becomes quite sinister when you realize where he ends up because of it.

Because at the end of the day, Thrawn does have something in common with the Empire’s officers. He’s after power. Maybe not for power or glory’s sake but he wants the freedom to execute his plans and pass judgment as he sees fit. And his motivations are ultimately irrelevant.

Earlier in the book he’s all but begging Ar’alani to let him engage the Lioaoin. He’s so desperate about it, it’s almost eerie, telling her he can ‘see’ it all in his head. There’s a pattern in this book where you get the sense that Thrawn’s intuition is so strong it almost causes him discomfort when he can’t communicate it to others or act on it (which I suppose warrants some sympathy for him).

Though that sense is largely missing when he’s in the Empire because he no longer needs to explain himself to others or has any major obstacles standing in his way.

Thrawn in the Empire is a man liberated. This is the perfect environment for him.

Sure, there’s the usual court politics but with Palpatine and Tarkin’s support, Thrawn shoots up the ranks in record time. He faces some difficulties initially and by the end but we have to remember that this is Thrawn: confident to a fault and even to a point where we see him make plans for the future of the Empire after Palpatine’s death as revealed in his conversation with Nightswan.

The Senate itself holds power only in theory which I imagine would feel cathartic after so long of having his leash tugged by the Syndicure.

Going back to the Ascendancy for a bit, the end of Lesser Evil gives the impression that Ba’kif and Ar’alani are more affected by Thrawn’s exile than he is. My guess is that Thrawn saw the writing on the wall long before they did and had been preparing for this new beginning for a while now. I’m not saying he feels good about being separated from his people but he most certainly chooses to make what’s supposed to be a one-year absence into a commitment that lasts right up to his death.

Why did Thrawn stay with the Empire, even after it fell apart? Because there was no other place where he would be that influential. Of course, this is all written into his story in retrospect but I think Zahn did a good job making Thrawn’s choice believable based on who he is as a character.

Which leads me to the discussion of Thrawn’s morality. There’s a case to be made for his motivations: at his best, Thrawn saves people that would have otherwise been killed or harmed as the Ascendancy looked the other way. At his worst, he makes up excuses for slavery. The problem lies in the extremes.

After Thrawn gives his little quote about coming to terms with what can’t be changed, Thalias doesn’t voice it but she disagrees with him: ‘But just because something couldn’t be changed didn’t mean a person shouldn’t hammer away at it anyway. Secrets could sometimes be brought to light, and even Thrawn could be wrong.’

Great line and strike three for the meta references.

And now, I wasn’t in Zahn’s head when he wrote this and you could easily say it refers to Thrawn hammering away at the Empire but I don’t think that’s the case here. The Empire could very much be changed from Thrawn’s perspective; he was very much aiming for it in fact. What I like to think this is, is a neat little prompting from Zahn for us to try and imagine what Thrawn’s life might have looked like if he hadn’t given up on trying to change the Ascendancy.

If he hadn’t stuck stubbornly to his ways, learning how to circumvent orders, lie and deceive in order to do things his way, instead of trying to meet his people in the middle. Of course that would have meant lives lost along the way but is that any different from the loss of life he caused one way or another as an imperial? There’s a point in Lesser Evil where Thrawn dryly remarks on how nobody would make him an admiral in the Ascendancy. Which is an ironic parallel to how quickly he’s made one in the Empire and all of that because instead of changing his ways to reach that post, he simply found a system that catered to his worst impulses of need for control and excessive initiative.

Because there are things that even Thrawn doesn’t know. And even he can be wrong sometimes.

All of this to say that Thrawn has one big flaw as a person and that flaw is his insistence on control.

Chasing power for the sake of one’s own influence is a flaw. Not just because power corrupts or leads to places that are inherently corrupt but because power shouldn’t be concentrated in the hands of one person, whether that person is Thrawn or Palpatine. What always struck me about Thrawn’s whole spiel about someone better inheriting Palpatine’s position is just how wonky and short-sighted that is as an argument. Not just for him but in general.

Zahn, I get the feeling, tacitly supports this idea of a benevolent dictator occasionally and I don’t know if he’s aware of the dangers of putting it in Thrawn’s mouth.

Bottom line is, power should only be sought for the sake of distributing it. Because you can have a guy like Thrawn create a utopia but the person who inherits that power can be a lunatic, as ninety-nine percent of the people that get that far are.

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Portrait of a Young Irizi’ar’alani.

I am loving this concept of the Chiss Renaissance portraits (first one here). This one is heavily inspired by the Profile Portrait of a Young Lady attributed to Piero del Pollaiuolo (Florence, 1465 ca.). I wanted to subvert the usual Early Renaissance trend of painting portraits with sky-blue backgrounds by choosing a night sky instead (which is more Chiss-appropriate anyway). Please feel free to imagine this very young Ziara as extremely bored. She’ll get out of those stuffy clothes as soon as the sitting session is over.

Fun fact: early Renaissance portraiture was almost exclusively painted in profile, as a tribute to the depictions of Roman Emperors found on ancient coins and medals. The three-quarters profile portrait we are used to today only became more prevalent from the end of the 15th century onwards.

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Just wanted to come say hi and that I LOVE your thrawn art!!!!! The way you draw that man’s fuckass forehead??? BEARDED DILF ELI????? It’s all so good. I’m reading thrawn 2017 for the first time and your art has become absolutely essential to my vision of them. Thank you for sharing so much cool stuff!

OH MY GODDDD dude next time warn me before sending me a message like this, I felt my heart grow three sizes as I was reading this <3 <3 <3

Thrawn's fuckass forehead is an essential part of his design IMO. #LetChissLookWeird2k25!!!!!!