10 REASONS Thrawn was the BEST Imperial Officer 

"In a sense Thrawn was like a jedi, only more goal oriented and less focused on kidnapping force sensitive babies." You got a point there.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is the Sun Tzu of the Star Wars universe.

Hands-down the scariest thing about Thrawn is that he respects people, both allies and enemies. Respecting his allies makes them more willing to trust him and be a more effective force, and it means he rarely, if ever, underestimates his enemies like the rest of the Empire.

You think we need a list? He almost single handedly destroyed the new republic in legends and is one of the most respectable fictional characters ever written.

You flatterer, you.

Number one: blue boy bias is the only acceptable bias

So Thrawn is your exception of “Humanity First”?

numer one: HE IS THRAWN: 2: HE IS THRAWN: 3: HE IS THRAWN. ETC...

His competence and overall effectiveness for one.

I was already aware of this but thank you anyways.

"Chiss do not make idle boast or promises. Once they set their minds to something, they succeed. OR die in the attempt".

Number two: He can defeat the brightest commanders in the Galaxy by following them into a restaurant and discerning all their strategies and tactics if the commander in question happened to have left a napkin sketch behind.

It’s over Thrawn i have the high ground!! Thrawn: not really you’re on slightly elevated ground i can still put you down just with a little more effort than needed.

Don't even have to watch to know I will like it. Thrawn is my favorite Imperial, he is not necessarily evil he is more practical, he is with the Empire because they are the best way to counter the greater threat in the Unknown Regions.

*fox shoots fives*** *Fives looks at Anakin and says weakly* "Shot through the heart and you're to blame, darling You Give Love a Bad Name"

And he would have succeeded if it wasn't for those meddling kids …

11: He was the super weapon of the original Thrawn trilogy. A super weapon based on brilliance, not the freaking Death Star...again.

Thrawn trilogy is the bomb

I swear he's the best looking alien ever

Personally, I feel like if they were to put Thrawn into live-action a good person to fit that role would be Benedict Cumberbatch.

While the best stormtrooper is Garry

If you look it up on wookieepedia, it says Thrawn (and Ezra but who cares) survived the whales somehow.

You have my respect. Join the Empire today!

I love Thrawn, however I don’t necessarily agree with his loss in Star Wars Rebels, yes it’s a kid show but I hoped that the bad guys could’ve won for once. I mean, it’s one of the best Imperial officers ever, if not then definitely a fan favourite, I was quite disappointed when a number of space whales took him down. I would’ve preferred to see Thrawn defeat the rebels, save the Lothal Installation and be sent back to the unknown regions to explain why he wasn’t present during all the events afterwards I.e episodes 3-6. Just my opinion

I am not the biggest Rebels fan but I will always be grateful to this show (and Dave Filoni) for making my favorite Star Wars character canon again.

If I could pick a officer to train and operate under I pick Thrawn

i would follow thawn to the end. The rebels thrawn, maybe not so much, but the canon book thrawn and legends, definitely

I would have definitely funded the TIE Defender project and reformed Imperial policies

Wait so you forgave the chiss for being alien just because of thrawn Wow Humanity first Chiss second

Ok now I'm getting even more dead set on reading Timothy Zahn's Thrawn books. All of them. Cause if this is who Grand Admiral Thrawn is, then it's no wonder he ended up taking the mantle of Emperor in legends.

Personally I was happy with how "Rebels" portrayed Thrawn...until the very last episode. His threatened bombardment of the city was very OOC for him and way too much like your run of the mill Imperial officer. I never liked Ezra's space squid-whale buddies (or Ezra, for that matter) and those creatures being the means of Thrawn's demise added insult to injury.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was probably rooting for Thrawn. I find him just well amazing being one word for it. The way his mind works is just so fascinating and how he applies it to combat and achieving his goals. Caesar, Sun Tzu and Mael Radec eat your heart out.

If he was the emperor he would beat the rebellion you should do a what if on that.

GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN FOR PRESIDENT 2020!!! 👍😲 ALL HAIL GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN!!! 👍😲 DILLY DILLY!!! 👍😲😎😁

As a person who was only aware of Thrawn through his portrayal through Rebels, I still really liked his character and saw him as so much more, the way you describe in your videos. For example, as a brilliant, but compassionate humanoid who if allowed to become the leader of the Enpire, he could have talked down and reasoned with the Rebellion and create a better and peaceful New Republic. I hope this makes sense. 👊

If the Emperor didn't let all his Sith urges come through so much and put Thrawn in charge of military doctrine instead of Tarkin ( who gets construction kickbacks or needs physical validation of of his masculinity through giant weapons), the Rebels would have been crushed instead of the Empire falling. They could have still made Kyber crystal super weapons, but they would have instead been the main guns on the latest class of Star Destroyer, used in mass flotillas for planetary destruction, had effective point defense systems, and several wings of either TIE Advanced or TIE Defender star fighters. The fighters would have had hyperdrives and shields allowing them to be used for power projection from the carrier and for deployed hyperspace exiting assaults. You could even used them for hit and runs just like the Rebels did with the X and Y wings. The Rebellion would have had no chance to survive and there would have been a wider Imperial presence in every system because of this doctrine of power projection. Of course, letting Thrawn be that high up in the military command structure might have shown him the weaknesses the Emperor had and that Vader would make a better ruler or Thrawn might try to take out both of them and put himself in charge, so I could see why he was kept at arms length by Palpatine.

"...but less focused on kidnapping Force-sensitive babies." 🤣 Said with great irony, no doubt. That's what brought him down in Zahn's original trilogy, using the Noghri to try to abduct Leia and her babies. I know it was for C'baoth's sake, but it was Thrawn's idea.

Generation tech please make a theory video about what if obi wan kenobi left the jedi order to be with Duchess Satine after his padawn mission to protect her.

I havent read the Legends trilogy Timothy Zahn wrote back in the day, but I finished the 1st new Canon book and just bought Thrawn: Alliances, but I love how my favorite Chiss seems to be the most level-headed Imperial ever, he makes a good lesson about how to deal with others and to be the best you can be at whatever you do, military-wise or not..

I am just going to say this right now, this video, in my opinion is one of the best Thrawn videos ever. In fact this is one of my favorite videos on this channel. All the Thrawn videos are. I just like how Allen goes into detail discussing more than Thrawn's history, but it discusses his personality, intelligence, skills, and abilities in far more depth. That's what I like. Keep it up Gents from Generation Tech! 👍

A point I noticed in the post op of how Rebels played out....Thrawn for all extents and purposes beat the rebels, and while yes he was "beaten" by Ezra it was less being defeated and more being taken off the game board so he couldn't play at all...basically removing the threat he posed to the rebellion. The method of his defeat was also much like how it was in the books in that a third party force that he did not calculate or expect to enter fray appears and tipped the scales at the last second (this happened in rebels twice). You remove the heroes pulling a win out of left field and the fact is Thrawn had the rebellion dead to rights, they didn't have anyone who could match him.

Thrawn is awesome. When the vast Bendu creature is nailing everybody at random with lightning, and everybody else runs away/escapes, Thrawn and his Shadow Troopers boldly face this new "Jedi deviltry". Then Thrawn calmly directs his troopers to fire with "best intellectual guess" targeting information that takes Bendu out. For awhile, anyway. Awesome. He deserved better than being tentacled, though as I understand it is canon that he kept the faith and went on to form the glorious First Order.

so two things 1. 10:34 a good example would be when the three cadets rushed him and Eli at the academy in the comics. which afterwards instead of wanting to bring them to court he suggested they be sent to the piolet academy to be tie fight piolets instead, one of the reasons being how they fought and maneuvered 2. I would really like a buddy cop kind of styled show with Thrawn and Eli Vanto

To be honest He is like General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel "The Desert Fox"

He is the best character in star wars!!!

for having an anti alien ideology u hold this alien in high esteem, which is odd...nice vid btw

Thrawn, the one alien that Allen respects.

Thanks again for your excellent content! You guys absolutely help me get through the day!

My favorite star wars character ever.

If you think about it. If the emperor didn’t use slave labor had a bill of rights and actually respected the senate. Then the rebellion wouldn’t have formed. Thrown could have easily led reforms threw the military and in the end when the emperor died the senate would reenste the republic

this is one of the most underrated starwars channels on youtube! they make incredible stuff, and even give neccesary info for the next generation!

Now if only a certain gifted subordinate of the Grand Admiral could get some new material.

The best army: Thrawn commanding Clonetroopers???

Thrawn was by far my favorite part of the Rebels series. It's a show focusing on REBELS and he is part of the Empire so of course it portrays him as evil but I'd you look past that it shows that he isn't really evil.

I wish they did a movie bout thrawn and his life from the chiss ascendency to the empire and his rise to grand admiral

As always, wonderful video!

Honestly, I would love to serve under Thrawn.

You just named all the reasons why I love this character so much 😎👌

Thrawn would often leave his lieutenants in charge of parts of critical missions and the greatest challenge for those lieutenants was realizing that Thrawn’s confidence in their abilities wasn’t misplaced.

I remember a scene in one of the books where Luke Skywalker manages to figure out a clever way to get his X-wing out of the grip of Thrawn's Star Destroyer's tractor beam. He interviews the tractor beam operator about what happened and instead of executing him, he executes the beam operator's superior officer for (iirc) "Not providing proper training" (something like that) I read the books like 25 years ago and I remember that scene perhaps the most out of the whole trilogy"

Humanity (and Chiss) First!

Thank you! I would suggest leaving the quotes up a bit longer, I read in the speed of Thrawn's voice.

Having read the books, I can safely say a film adaptation or series of Thrawn could breathe some amazing life in Disney SW

I imagine that he was given some attention by someone with influence, and as a result, the STARDISTROYERS ...eventually..would begin getting secondary command stations inside the ships' core. Superior security for the overstated placement of the primary one, unprotected, sticking out into space "...like a piece of bait".

Timothy Zahn is still canon. Lucas films and Disney can kiss my ass.

The only reason for Thrawn being great is good athor and a logical, well written story, smth the new trilogy (7-9) obviously lacks.

outstanding video. I was expecting a topical summary paired with lots of cut scenes from the cartoon series. Instead your in-depth critical review offers an accurate, deeply thought out analysis that is spot on. it wasn't long or short but exactly as long as it needed to be. Kudos and congrats. My only regret is I can only subscribe once. Thank you for taking the time to make this quality video. Your fans (me) love you for it. Parting thought: If Thrawn has the same level of Force powers as Darth Vader, would he force choke those he deemed in need of punishment? Like Xenophobes, or worse, officers suffering gross incompetence due to their arrogance /under estimating their opponents (something seen in the books as well as frequently in the movies- ie: Battle of Hoth when the fleet commander brings the fleet out of hyperspace too close to the rebel base thereby alerting them and giving them time to raise the shield and slow down the Imperial plan of attack. )

Now we need the empire of the hand to return

Thrawn is the only alien I like in Star Wars

He’s blue dabba dee da

Thrawn is the avatar of management excellence in contemporary fiction.

I remembered watching an episode of season 1 back when it was first on TV and never really liked it. Had to search for this video and thank you for getting me back into it. I got hooked and watched the entire 4 seasons in.. 5 days, lol.

Definitely my favorite 'bad guy' from Star Wars all around. For the exact reason I at least hope this Disney version doesn't bring in the Yuuzan Vong, they basically bore me as much as the Borg do, and trying to make them more interesting opponents just doesn't seem to work. Adversaries really are best when they're dangerously smart, but that takes more writing than monstrous weirdness with big power for only dimply-plausible reasons :)

Chiss are Star Wars Vulcans? I'll go self-flagellate now...

@GenerationTech i know you said rebels is the poorest version of him but its the way I found out about him. And yeah maybe hes watered down in that version but I loved him so much it forced me to do more research which led me to your video.

Great content.

I would say less like a Jedi because the Jedi threw away the lives of the clone troopers. That is why the clones felt no remorse when order 66 was given.

He would have made an excellent Romulan Commander.

This isn't even a contest, he's more capable than all of the other officers combined.

Just a note: in the description you gave us the lens' link twice instead of the tripod link

Oh don’t mind me I’m just repairing the airlocks of this comment section. *Nervously continues to install a bomb while wearing a stolen emperial engineer’s uniform*

its a shame Thraws is so utterly underused and he was so wasted in Rebels. the ending in rebels was...pretty dumb at best.

You know what might have been interesting in rebels? Seeing thrawn progressively go crazy not being able to get these rebels, leading to his downfall.

Being a realistic war veteran, being a great leader means you’re mastering of a tactical strategy by the means of instilling you’re knowledge into your successors to ensure a legacy based on your foundation for them to continue on and successfully pass on that what they’ve learned to their successors!

Alex. I miss you bro. Have you read the Star Wars book, Crucible?

I literally finished watching rebels yesterday. And boy was I pissed on how they portrayed him. All the BS in the new Disney-productions aside, it was just plain wrong how they showed him. I guess I will just be forever salty that Disney ruined one of my most beloved franchises ever.... Basically with creating "Legends" they claimed that a huge part of my teens just "didn't happen". Which probably is true but that isn't the point xP

Shoutout to the stormtrooper flying in the thumbnail

Wow I barely knew much about this guy but he's amazing

I disagree, I think Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik, or Grand Admiral Miltin Takel are the best. Heck All the Grand Admirals are great. Grand Admiral Zaarin was beating Thrawn for a time. The reason I chose the ones I did is because Teshik has survived dramatically bad engagements that I don't think anyone could have, not even Thrawn. Because of an incident, Sidious openly put him on a mission that would get him killed in Haapin Space. Tashik was only allowed a light cruiser to fight a fleet of ships that numbers between 60 - 2000, all were Heavy Cruisers and Battle Dragons. He didn't win, but he didn't die as planned ether. He cared a lot for all the people under him, and during Endor he held off the whole Rebel fleet single handedly to make sure the Imperial fleet could escape. It took an hour to disable his Imperial Star Destroyer. Takel is really awesome, he takes drugs that make him a non-force based psychic. Because of this he never list any battle no matter the odds, which is why he is in the number 1 spot in Imperial records for most impressive battles. Though it didn't go into details of the actual conflict, it sounds like the odds were similar to Teshiks engagement with the Haapin Navy. One cool attribute I hope they bring back about him, that only made it to the idea phase when writing him was that his psychic abilities let him instantly understand any Language of anyone he was talking to, and speak that Language.

Admiral Thrawn. Years ago you served us fans in the Expanded Universe. Now we beg you to help us in our struggle against Disney. I regret that I am unable to convey this request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack by the Feminist Order, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to the silver screen has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Fandom into the memory systems of this RU-vid comment. My brothers and sisters will know how to decipher it. You must see this comment safely delivered to them on Wookieepedia. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Grand Admiral Thrawn. You're my only hope!

You should do a series of alternate star wars history or battles

These 10 things are like the commandments of what makes a good manager.

Generation Tech: We’re just going to ignore the space whales. Me: What space whales? The way I remember it happened was Thrawn took Ezra prisoner and continued to serve the Empire.

He was also in Outbound flight. Very good book.

Thrawn is in my top 5 characters and tied as my favorites legends character

Not the space whales!

Thrawns cannon death was planned by the dolphins. whales are related to dolphins

pretty chill dude

He's such an interesting character!

I also felt that the rebel alliance was a bunch of anarchists I’m autistic and intelligent