Why Thrawn never got a Super Star Destroyer 

Palpatine had to nerf Thrawn fr, if he had one he’d be too elite

Thrawn with a SSD would had been unstopable, but the idea of him having a standard ISD demonstrates that his strategies works quite well no matter what ship he commands

I think we can all agree that whatever he would have done with a SSD, it would have been *artistically* done.

Another thing I could note is the cost of maintaining a SSD. Considering that thrawn was in the unknown regions cut off from the now fractured empire he probably wouldn’t have the resources to maintain it

There is actually a passage in the original Thrawn trilogy, where he considers the loss of the Death Star and how in his opinion the only real loss was, that it took the Executor with it.

I feel like he also wouldn't want one. An Imperial Star Destroyer was already at the max of size for a ship he'd find use for. He preferred smaller more easily moved and maintained ships.

I'd also imagine that resupplying an SSD would've been a massive pain and slowed down Thrawn's operations significantly, especially in the Unknown Regions. As the famous quote from Napoleon goes, "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.".

Super Star Destroyer: "You see, you're not dealing with the average Star Destroyer anymore." Rebel Alliance: "We feel like we've been here before. Have we been here before?"

#AskEck you brought it up in this video, so here’s a discussion topic for you: reimagine Heir to the Empire with an SSD in Thrawn’s fleet. What would he do with it? Would the SSD make a difference in Thrawn’s campaign or were his plans too complex for his underlings to follow and therefore be ultimately unsuccessful (especially considering he was stabbed in the back). Another angle to consider is what if Thrawn gets a hold of an SSD in Ashoka season 2 -what do you think would happen?

I would see thrawn using it as a "fleet in being", basically a way to tie down enemy forces where they always had to protect against the threat of an SSD, preventing them from responding quickly to attacks elsewhere and tying up resources (a whole fleet would be needed to counter the SSD theoretically, disregarding rogue squadron shenanigans). He might first use it as a surprise, and then a way to pin down enemy forces and keep them from countering his attacks.

"Can't lose the battle if you get assassinated before it's over." -Sun Tzu Thrawn

Eck you should do a video of the perfect “police fleet” A fleet that a system would have to protect itself from pirates, smugglers or small enemy fleets You could have multiple episodes one for each faction from the Republic to the New Republic

I love this topic. Only you Empire at War players understand the math of Star Wars dreadnoughts. A battleship twelve times the length and twenty times the tonnage of its opponents would be conventionally unstoppable but also an absolute bullseye, especially in a setting where swarms single-seat fighters really can overwhelm a large ship. It happened in real life to the Bismarck and Yamato.

I don't think Thrawn would want a SSD to be his flagship. A ISD is power, and enough agility that he would prefer to be on the Chimera. However Thrawn would find use of a SSD in his fleet tactics. Even if it was such a inelegant, overpowered vessel.

hey eck, just wanted to tell you how much i appreciate your chanel. I remember days i stayed home from school and just watched your videos all day! Your a great creater and i wish you a great 2024, cheers!

Imagine if Thrawn legit did have an SSD ready for a decisive battle's turnaround. He would've called it in after the Smugglers' attack, but if I remember correctly, the Wayland report and subsequent assassination happened immediately afterwards, so he was distracted. Also, for why Thrawn didn't use one if you want to go with normal play, he probably only had enough men during The Last Command to even properly man it. Because another thing, SSDs are a logistical nightmare. You also need food and parts too for it, and the Empire seemed to be on the backfoot before Thrawn took command. Thrawn was doing more hit and run and being impossible to track. Cannibalizing an SSD could be more useful to keep smaller ships running so as to be everywhere over one single one that would get tracked and attacked at once, and SSDs are notably taken out by almost nothing in Legends a lot beforehand. You also add the whole, "Thrawn is doing all this without even a battlecruiser, how much can we actually hold up against this guy?" going into the fear campaign he did as well.

i can see Thrawn having a Super Star Destroyer that's on the smaller side but faster than its size implies, like the Bellator. interesting fact: the Chiss *are* human, they're skin and eye color started changing at some point due to the planet they settled on. as a result, they got the mixed bag of the Andorian's blue skin, (from Star Trek, minus the antennas) and red eyes of the Nocturneans, (Warhammer 40k) which is also the homeworld of the Salamanders. Vulkan lives!

…the algorithm hadn’t shown me one of your videos in years (literally)… …this video was awesome… ..thank you for making me excited about a Star Wars story in years as well…

#AskEck How much stronger would the Rebellion be if they set up in the unknown regions?

It would be cool if the canon reason was that Thrawn had some well thought out, highly esoteric reason to eschew one like "the SSD may seem superior to the ISD in every aspect but when it's caught between 4 gravity wells it is a veritable death trap; one potentially catastrophic to the fleet's survival if its commander in chief were to choose it as his residence."

Happy New Year, Justin of EchkhartsLadder!

#AskEck: What are your thoughts on Operation Domino and how the Galactic Civil War would've gone if it was successful? I wish we could've gotten more lore about the "Secession Worlds" mentioned in The Essential Guide to Warfare that the Empire crushed early on.

after a one year leave from the internet itself i am back to grind ur videos and the first one i see is just fun

great video, explains a lot!

Palpatine: You are in this navy, but we do not guarant you a SSD Thrawn: This is outrageous, it's unfair

I think he would use it like an aircraft carrier/C&C ship for directing operations and not necessarily being on board .Thanks Bud, great work as always.

Happy New Years Eck! Hope you, Mrs. Eck and the little Ecks enjoyed the holidays! 😊 Loved the video and very interesting the idea of SSDs being political favours. Dumb af, but so was the Empire’s bureaucracy. With Star Wars drawing on more and more bits from Legends, I would LOVE to see some of Thrawn’s elite troopers do a heist-type mission on Corusant so we could see the Lusankya’s rise happen in live action within the current/upcoming Thrawn arc. Shit would be iconic.

*_Thrawn doesn't need to compensate_*

6:35 uh, wait, why is Thrawn dressed as Boba Fett? Or just, a Mandalorian? That is such a weird thing to see, and with freaking Darth Vader there, too

whenever i hear hopefully this coming year will be better i almost cry my brother died yesterday and this year is aready the worst

I've been working on a fanfiction series that beefs up the Empire of the Hand (making it stronger and more active, instead of fading away after Thrawn's death and his clone's in Legends - i.e. other authors not named Timothy Zahn completely forgetting about it). Anyway, my Empire of the Hand constructs a new type of Super Star Destroyer to use as its flag ship against the Yuuzhan Vong, and it doubles as a mobile repair station for other capital ships: *Renaissance-class Super Star Destroyer* (about 12 km long) Built: Kuat Drive Yard’s Spiral Shipyards, Nirauan system. Officially finished construction in 21 ABY, but Admiral Parck would occasionally make use of its incomplete state before then. The Renaissance class is a shorter, wider, heavier-set, ship than the more familiar Executor-class SSDs from the old Galactic Empire, taking several design features from the prototype Eclipse class, including integrated interdiction technology, a complement of over 400 TIE Defender fighters, and a superlaser capable of cracking a planetary crust (or a Yuuzhan Vong world ship). Like other Empire of the Hand designs, the Renaissance-class’ bridge is not located in an exposed tower, but rather deep inside the ship, with cameras and a powerful sensor suite compensating for the lack of viewports. Borrowing from Mon Calamari designs, the Renaissance-class also utilizes overlapping shield technology. As well as standard Imperial weaponry like turbolasers, tractor beams and ion cannons, the Renaissance -class also utilizes Chiss Ascendency weaponry such as Plasma ball launchers and breacher missiles. The main difference from the earlier class (and, the “selling point” that convinced then-Grand Moff Xelarra to sign off on its creation) is the ability of the Renaissance-class to carry up to five Imperial or Spiral- class Star Destroyers on the hull itself, with the smaller (but still capital sized) ships docking on five triangular recesses on the main hull, 3 on top of the superstructure, two below. The Renaissance-class can thus act as a mobile repair station as well as the command ship. Its main hanger bay can internally carry ships up to 300 m in length (i.e. the size of an Arquitens-class light cruiser or an Explorer-class research/scout vessel). The Renaissance also has integrated Interdictor technology, and is equipped with several cloaking devices (necessary because of the ship’s size). These two systems cannot normally be used at the same time, though Grand Admiral Thrawn remembers a few tricks learned earlier in his career to get around this limitation. As cloaking devices are double-blind - they protect a ship from detection, but said ship also cannot see outside of it when activated through conventional means, the cloak is most effectively used with the cooperation of an Imperial Knight, who can use the Force to sense outside the cloak. However, with proper timing and practice the cloaks can be used without the assistance of Force-users. As the Empire of the Hand did not sign the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty, they are not prohibited from using cloaking devices. Known vessels in the class: SSD Renaissance CO: Fleet Admiral Voss Parck (19-28 ABY), Grand Admiral Thrawn (28 ABY +) XO: Commodore Eli Vanto (28 ABY+) Starfighter commander: Colonel Jagged Fel (28 ABY +) Flagship of the Navy of the Hand. Displays the same Paccosh signil as the ISD Chimaera on its hull. Commissioned by Fleet Admiral Parck, in anticipation of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s rumoured return in 19 ABY. Thrawn (actually his clone, known as ‘Raw’nuru’ until he was ready to retake the mantle of Grand Admiral) did not take command until the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, after the Evacuation of Lysatra.

Love this for you it is so brave

Grand Admiral Thrawn: "I'm surrounded by idiots." Ezra Bridger: "I thought you're surrounded by gumdrops and ice cream."

Happy new year , love your channel

I’ve often seen it said that Thrawn wouldn’t want an SSD, I suspect based on a scene from the first of the new novels where he explains to Eli Vanto that ISD sized vessels and accompanying escorts are the most efficient forms of projected naval power. I’ve made the point before though, not unlike Eck, that Thrawn is not the type to waste an available resource. Indeed a large part of his characterisation is the clever use of what he has available. He usually doesn’t have the biggest, the best, or the most numerous, but he does have the genius to use what he has to win anyway.

Can you do a video about the infighting the empire had I'm really interested in this

Love to videos about thrawn

Not only could I see it as a mobile base, I could see it as a mobile shipyard and factory. I think I heard somewhere that the hanger was almost large enough to take a Victory class. At least early on, then use it to establish mines and factories away from the Republic. Just being able to build Tie Defenders or Avengers as a stop gap or supplement would go a long way into helping Thrawn rebuild the Empire.

It's not just the resources needed to build the things, but also the resources needed to _maintain_ them.

#AskEck In Legends after Endor, what was life like as or under an Imperial Warlord. How did they rule their territories, maintain the economy, build armies and ships, pay for those armies and ships. I ask for the small Warlords that controlled 1-3 planets but you could talk about the bigger ones like the Pentastar Alignment or Zsinj too.

For some reason i just picture thrawn's SSD having a sick paint job and pulling handbrake turns/drifting maneuvers that would make the cast of fast and the furious gasp 🤣🤣

Would love to see an SSD in the upcoming shows / movies Thrawn will be in. Even though its unlikely it's been forever since we've seen one in film

Could you imagine seeing the Chimera paint on the bottom of an Executor Class? MAN that would look great.

Now that Outbound Flight and Survivours’ Quest have audiobooks, will there be any videos about them in the future?

I feel like eck has to talk about this at least once a year

#Askeck I've been diving into legends expanded universe materials and something that pops up from time to time are characters like the hand of judgement and to some extent Paelleon that serve the empire yet see it as what was advertised when Palpatine first formed it. A government formed to bring peace and order to the galaxy. Id like to know your thoughts on some of these character and if you think implementing these character and giving the empire a more grey tone in some degree is a good idea lore wise?

I think Thrawn would object to having SSD on two accounts: logistics burden in the UR, and putting too many eggs in one basket. Look at what loss of Executor did at Endor.

from the narrative perspective giving him an ISD is pretty genious, since after we saw those deadly ships being controlled by morons it's refreshing to see them being used to their full potential and absolutely deadly. Although I'd love to see him have an Allegiance battlecruiser as his right hand to be used as a deadly finishing move, jumping from a nearby starsystem mid battle to show up and wreck havoc

Logistics. He's already out in the Unknown Regions far from the main Imperial supply chains and lines of communications. Even if he's working to establish bases and supply depots out there, imagine trying to keep an SSD properly supplied in what was essentially the middle of nowhere (Chiss Ascendancy notwithstanding). Just think about the challenges involved in doing so. And keeping the SSD properly supplied would also be taking supplies and equipment away from Thrawn's task of establishing those aforementioned bases.

#AskEck What Space Marine legion would be most effective for the Imperial Army in Star Wars

@askeck where did the night sister in Ahsoka find all the SSD drives to build the hyperspace ring for the Chimera to come back to imperial space and what were the names of the ships they are from?

Can you make a video on the UNSC infinity vs the Executor

#AskEck What do we know of the development of the Venator? Was it ready at the outset of the Clone Wars or did it enter service sometime after it began? And what did the Republic Navy have before the Venator (and by extension, the Victory) came into service that could stand up to Seperatist capital ships? Lore ship Versus video request: Resurgent vs. Starhawk Tie Striker vs. New Republic V-Wing World Devastator vs. Vong Worldship Tie Silencer vs. X-83 Twintail Tie Silencer vs. Tie Defender (legends version) Keldabe vs. ISD II MC90 vs. Nebula class star destroyer Nebula class vs. Pellaeon class Majestic class vs. Bothan Assault Cruiser EAWX: FOTR’s Mandator II portrayal vs. Subjugator Praetor vs. Subjugator EAWX: TR’s Mediator portrayal vs. Resurgent Starhawk vs. Bulwark MK III Gargantua/Aratech 520 Battle Platform vs. A6 Juggernaut

I can imagine Thrawn would have seen a Super Star Destroyer like a master Swordsman would see a Warhammer.

If you really think about it... A huge advantage of a SSD is it's size imagine the factory's and research and development center's you could fit on it. For crew you could replace most of them with droids. With the Tie Advance and defender it could hull around hundreds. And if you put in a factory it could produce it's own. Then enemy fighters would be out numberd and out teched. With it's shielding and fire power it could take down the most important ship of an enemy fleet. Thrawn if he had a SSD could turn it into a mobile bass of operations although it is slow it's still faster than a planet and tactically, it is an unmatched opponent give it an escort fleet and an upgraded point defense along with Thrawn's Tie fighters and his tactics and an opponent wouldn't stand a chance.

Can you do a want if video. What if thrawn had the bellator or an executor for his campaign

I agree thrown would definitely use a super star destroyer as a base of operations or maybe an R&R facility for his men

Also what's the backlash from the admiralty pre endor or ESPECIALLY pre lothal in Canon if you give an alien an ssd

#AskEck what species or particular person would you make a clone army of for Star Wars.

I think Thrawn would also get a lot of use out of a SSD by using it as a "fleet in being." This is basically a strategy where fleets (or even large ships) are kept in friendly ports with the intention of tying down enemy forces to guard or counter it. He could station the SSD somewhere, wait for the New Republic to redeploy their forces in systems near it, and launch a diversionary attack with great effect.

#AskEck Considering the price of ISD’s being astronomical and with glaring weaknesses, would it have been more feasible to cut the number of ISD’s down by at least half and supplant them with something like the Vindicator class Heavy cruiser? You could easily get near 14 of them for the cost of 1 ISD and they were more geared towards fighting rebel ships.

#AskEck What Warhammer 40k faction would've been the most/least helpful as an ally to the New Republic against the Vong?

If Thrawn had a SSD, I think he would have kept it hidden most of the time. A SSD in Chiss space would have alienated him from any alliance with them. I could see him use it for covert attacks against the Vagarri or Vong probes, but he would use it more as a hidden base. In HTTE, he would use it to guard Mt. Tantiss or as a staging platform to refit the Katana Fleet. At most, he would jump in and out of different sectors to lead the New Republic Navy on a distracting chase while hitting his real targets.

Thrawn with an Executor would more than likely one of two ways. 1: He uses it to distract the NR while running around with the Chrimera. 2: He uses it as a sledge hammer bringing it in to stomp NR fleets already engaged or as a Spearhead

I agree, if it was being built he would have disapproved but if already built he would have found a use for it. I would use it as a mobile base rather than a front line ship. Also would have tried to get more of the tie defenders for my pilots.

#AskEck which would be more dangerous, a battlestar carrying X-Wings or a cylon Basestar carrying tie fighters?

Agree that the political basis and intrigue of the inner workings of the empire would certainly make it difficult for Sidious to bestow a SSD on thrown without some controversy. However, think that the resource and military costs of maintaining such a weapon of war, while stranded in the unknown regions and even more importantly he doesn't need one in order to bring the new republic to its knees as he did in the legends verse. Though having one, once he had the clones and resources to crew it properly would have given him an edge for a key and crucial battle such as bilbringi that new republic could never anticipate before it was too late.

He didn’t want one. Thrawn didn’t believe in super weapons hence why he didn’t like the death star. Now if they had some of his tie defenders on it Im sure he wouldn’t mind. They would have made a difference in that last battle.

#AskEck What’s your thoughts on why didn’t the Empire focused on Ion loadouts for their Captial ships against the rebels alliance?

Hey eck? I was wondering, how does gravity in the Death Star work? Does it all pull towards one end of the structure, or does gravity work like a planet with a pull towards the centre? Stay awesome

Potential Thrawn Idea: "Super Starfighter Trap" - Put a lone SSD in the battle area, tempt New Republic to send swarms of starfighters to destroy it, use Interdictors to vector in Lancer Frigates to decimate said starfighter swarms.

#AskEck I've been listening to the new Rogue Squadron releases on Audible, and just finished "The Bacta War",. I had a thought about Ysanne Isaard. She's described as having black hair and oneblue eye and glowing red eye, but it's described more like it's her natural eye than a mechanical replacement like Booster Terrk's. Who else in Star Wars has black hair and glowing red eyes? We never hear about her parents, other then the possibility she betrayed her father who, was head of Imperial Security, then replaced him. Could she possibly have been the result of a dalliance between a certain Grand Admiral and her human Mother?

How do you get true battlefront to run? I have been trying on my PC and can't seem to pull it off...

I'd still think Thrawn would vastly prefer a more flexible ship over a completely vulnerable and overly expensive target. Yeah, he would USE it if he had to, but that's like giving him the Death Star or some other brain-dead Imperial weapon of fear rather than of actual utility.

#AskEck I would be interested in fleet logistics; fuel transport, cargo, that sort of thing

In Disney, he wouldn't have had one due to SSD's coming into play after Yavin with Vader getting the first one...which was after Thrawn was chucked out of the galaxy. In Legends, there's a massive suggestion that Thrawn did have at least one SSD with him when he was sent on his mission. It wasn't an Executor class, and is assumed to be the same basic frame as either the Arc Hammer or the production version of the type destroyed during the Dawn of Defiance campaign over Byss (The "Sarlacc Class" naming by the codename of the project of the prototype). It was lost or left behind when he returned to the Empire along with most of his forces.

# Ask Eck 1) How would B5’s Minbari Sharlin class war cruiser fare against an Imperial Stardestroyer? 2) How powerful would the Corporate Sector forces be if the had access to Cardassian Galors, Keldons, and a Hutet?

#askeck what is thrawn's story and how did he die, what are the key differences between legends and cannon thrawn as far as personality or flaws go?

I agree with your point about Thrawn using the SSD as a fake command post in battle while leading from else where, very good point. I disagree though about the SSD in the unknown regions / chaos because as we see in Episode 5 when faced with asteroids or debris, the bigger ship would get damaged more

I don't remember where I read it, but I thought it was funny that that Ardus Kaine was apparently just about to send Reaper to Thrawn when the battle of Bilbringi happened. It's funny to me regardless of whether that was true or not. Funny in a grim way of "Oh if only I had sent it sooner, we could have still won" or funny in a boasting way like he's saying a meeting "Yknow if I had sent Reaper to Thrawn we would have won."

What did thrawn tell palpatine in regard to “bigger is better”? It was something like “star destroyer sized warships and accompanying support craft is the most flexible fleet arrangement in both offensive actions and defensive actions”

Which admiral or warlord made the best use of their super star destroyer on a strategic scale?

#AskEck Would love for you to return to ship battles and do a breakdown of the Covenant CAS assault Carrier vs Resurgent class star destroyers If you think that match is unfair then perhaps a CAS vs 2 (or 3) ISD’s would be interesting too.

I would be intrigued as to what you think Grand Admiral Thrawn could do with a Super Star Destroyer

I want to make a meme with that image with the dominos with "Palpatine not giving Thrawn a SSD" "The fall of the empire"

When Eck talked about the first run of SSDs, there were 8 in the image. When were 8 in one spot, and how many existed at that point? And I came here with the though it'd be that Palpatine was afraid he'd use it to take over. The man afraid of his own apprentice would certainly be in line with that, though I honestly don't like that particular characterization of him. He's powerful enough that shouldn't be necessary or seen as so by him.

Having not watched the video yet...In Legends he was already sent to the unknown regions on his mission to Chiss space and in Canon he was already on Peridea due to the events of Star Wars Rebels before the first SSD was ever completed and deployed which was given to Vader. That's the answer.

What is the game being played in brief screenshots in the beginning and end of the video? Looks like Dooku running around killing clones, etc.

What game is playing in the beginning and end? I'd assume battlefront 2 but don't recognize the map

#AskEck What do you think would happen after the Battle of Naboo if the Trade Federation won?

Bruh the bots are faster than real people

#AskEck Okay, if Thrawn isn't going to get an SSD (or other Dreadnought sized warship) from the Emperor for the reasons you described but lets say the Emperor talks to Thrawn one day and says "name one OTHER ship in the fleet and it is yours my loyal servant." What is the one single ship Thrawn would have asked for (presumably that he didn't have already, I guess he could always ask for yet another ISD but that's not fun). I have an idea what it would be but I don't want to bias you; but lets just say its initials confusingly happened to be ISD.

I thought Thrawn didn’t get one because he was sent out to the Unknown Regions before the Executor-line even left the production line.

#AskEck does the TIE-Bomber have laser cannons?

7:47 Captain Gilad Pellaeon thought to himself that the battle was not lost, that Thrawn could still have won it ... but he couldn't. That was why he ordered the retreat. Since we know he was a highly experienced, and level-headed navy man, and knew what Thrawn was capable of perhaps best of all, I am inclined to trust his judgement.

Thrawn is a Giga Chad. He doesn't need to compensate for anything.

how do you find good art of star wars things on the internet? my use case is a little different (Magic the gathering cards)

#AskEck Will there be a Star Wars “What If?” show? What are your thoughts on this?

Pelleon in the books thought about what thrawn could have done with the executor if it hadnt been destroyed

#AskEck what do the Red, Blue, and Yellow rank insignas mean?