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Thrawn and Politics

Look, Thrawn is bad at politics. Yes, he’s a genius at military tactics and reading his opponents, but that doesn’t automatically translate to a new field!

For one, his reading of people’s body language is clearly practiced, not natural – in Thrawn (2017), he notes changes in muscle, expression, and body heat before determining emotions; someone who notes this naturally would note the emotion first, and might even struggle to describe how they could tell (much like Thrawn struggles to describe what he sees in art!).

He’s also tactless and blunt – he straight up compares the head of the ISB to his AIDE, mostly unfavorably! He might just want people to improve, but doesn’t seem to notice how his words can come off as condescending or rude.

Most importantly, politics rely on a completely different priority system, one that, honestly? Doesn’t make logical sense. And Thrawn thrives on logic and practicality!

Politicians (especially in the GFFA) are generally known for putting their personal goals first – or at least equal to – the good of the whole. We see this in both the Empire and in the Ascendancy (where they put individual families first). This breeds a network of under-the-table deals, games, and power shifting that Thrawn is completely blind to.

(This got a bit long…)

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BLADE RUNNER (1982) dir. Ridley Scott

It’s more that like the six new Thrawn novels recontextualised him so that a lot of people who read them don’t see him as a real villain anymore, understand that what he is doing is necessary for the greater good, and although the narrative of Rebels had him as a villain, objectively viewing what he actually did against what he threatened to do, he really seems to be not bad on his own merits. Just when following other’s orders is it when he seems evil, like Boba Fett did originally. Personally, I think that the live-action will start off with Thrawn still being the villain, then reveal Ezra to be now allied with him against the Grysk of those novels, have him be training those Chiss children Thrawn kept bringing up. Like if those Grogu experiments from The Mandalorian turned out to be not to give regular people Force powers like people thought, but allow Chiss children to not lose their abilities growing up?

oh boy. honestly (and leaving aside the fact that the post that prompted you to send this ask had a different point) i usually don't answer asks about this topic anymore because it's one of those things where everyone thinks they're right and the discussion just goes in circles because nobody ever wants to admit that the other side might have a point (including myself. i know i'm right. period. jdfhdfh) but i'm in a Mood today lmao.

just so you don’t misunderstand me (because that’s happened so many times i have to say it), no matter how hard i argue for him being a villain, i literally love him so much. he’s one of my favorite characters, if not the favorite character. my #1 blorbo. my glup shitto. and i love when he’s being an asshole. it sounds crass but i love when he has rukh, idk, murder a tractor technician (rest in peace king) or blows up people or bombards innocent civilians. like, people love vader because he’s so iconic right? it’d be boring as hell if he just didn’t mow down rebels on the regular during his Empire Prime Era(TM) yeah? that’s how i feel about thrawn. oof

objectively viewing what he actually did against what he threatened to do, he really seems to be not bad on his own merits. Just when following other’s orders is it when he seems evil

i'm assuming you're talking about book!thrawn? i'm not quite sure what you mean by 'what he threatened to do' but i am saying that maybe he isn't ~evil~ on, like, palpatine levels, but he definitely isn't a good person. i’ll even give you textual evidence to support that claim! since people are so adamant that new canon thrawn is the only valid characterization!

he murders at least two troopers and causes v-wing crashes with casualties to get onto the strikefast

he condones slavery (”imperial assets”) and i literally don’t care if he’s just saying that because he needs to keep his rank or whatever because he could’ve said so much more in that scene (like. “look vanto that fucking sucks but we can’t do anything about it because we’ll get shot” or whatever hsdhf)

he thinks dictatorships are cool and fun, effectively expressing the same views anakin did in aotc (literal quotes: “quick and utter ruthlessness is necessary when the galaxy is continually threatened by chaos” or “the Republic was weak and fragmented [...] The Empire, in contrast, is unified under a single man and a single vision”)

according to thalias, he’d resort to “straight-up, coldhearted murder“ to get out of getting captured

in the ascendancy he does seem to value non-chiss lives in contrast to most of his fellow chiss (and if that isn’t worth thinking about, nudge nudge, the ascendancy doesn’t seem too different to the empire in many respects does it?) but only as long as they’re useful/non-threatening to him (“He cares about non-Chiss lives.” - “Yes, he does. You threaten his people, and see how fast that changes.”)

^ that last point is literally, literally in relation to samakro ordering an orbital bombardment, which. that’s poetic as fuck, my dude.

the whole “i see people as assets” conversation with ar’alani

i could find more but i think i’ve made my point 😶 lesser evil characterizes him as very sympathetic, obviously, but there’s literally quotes like “If you lie to me, I will eventually know that. Do you wish me to explain what would happen then?“ (god i needed to include this quote because hnnn WHAT A GOOD QUOTE)

who does that sound like? that sounds like it’s the same thrawn as in legends and rebels, imo. [happy sigh]

zahn even said that if disney were to make alllll the old shit canon again, he wants the character and story in the canon novels to line up and make sense with the legends novels. i can’t find a source for that now, though, which is regrettable. maybe i dreamed it.

but! from an interview with the verge:

as for your theory about live-action thrawn: noooo way. there’s no way filoni or favreau or whoever writes it actually reads the novels and includes that material in one or more of the upcoming shows. especially stuff about the sky-walkers. or the grysks. i’d be SO HAPPY, even overjoyed to be wrong in this instance but everything we’ve seen so far points to them going in direction of referencing the heir to the empire trilogy. there’s statues of ysalamiri in thrawn’s office in rebels. they canonized mount tantiss on wayland in the bad batch. the mandalorian is set in 9ABY which is exactly when htte is set kshdfdh

look i’d literally love for him and ezra to be allies and fight the grysks and for sky-walker rights and shit but anon. it’s very, very unrealistic that that’s gonna happen :/

:o

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" 'Truth is stranger than fiction', as the old saying goes. When I watch a documentary I can't help crying and then think to myself 'Fiction can't compete with this.' But when I mentioned this to a veteran Manga artist friend of mine, he said 'Fiction brings salvation to characters in stories that would otherwise have no salvation at all.' His words strengthened the conviction of my manga spirit."

-- Arakawa Hiromu, 2005 (Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 12)