ADMIRAL THRAWN (Mitth'raw'nuruodo)
Role: Expanded Universe Big Bad
Group Affiliations: The Empire
PL 8 (128)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 4
AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 10
DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4
AWARENESS 4
PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Athletics 5 (+7)
Deception 6 (+10)
Expertise (Military) 11 (+15)
Expertise (Art) 4 (+8)
Insight 8 (+12)
Intimidation 1 (+5)
Perception 4 (+8)
Persuasion 4 (+8)
Technology 4 (+8)
Vehicles 4 (+8)
Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Benefit 4 (Rank- Imperial Admiral), Equipment 4 (Blasters & Stuff), Inspire, Jack-Of-All-Trades, Leadership, Ranged Attack 6, Ultimate Military Skill
Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Blaster +10 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +4, Fortitude +5, Will +8
Complications:
Motivation (Power, Order Throughout The Galaxy)- Thrawn wishes to lead the new Empire into dominance of the galaxy. In
Star Wars: Rebels, he is merely an extremely loyal, capable Admiral.
Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 52--26 / Advantages: 19 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 12 (128)
Admiral Thrawn- The Most Popular Aspect of the Expanded Universe:
-Among the few really well-thought-of
Star Wars novels is what's called
The Thrawn Trilogy. Grand Admiral Thrawn answers the obvious question at the end of the Original Trilogy: Now what? Sure, they just offed The Emperor, and Darth Vader went with him (even turning good!). The Death Star is broken. The Empire was dealt a major blow. But... there's HOW many Star Destroyers left? HOW many Empire Soldiers? They killed the two biggest leaders, but this is called the GALACTIC Empire for good reason. They'd earned their victory party on Endor, but there was still a huge amount of stuff left to do.
-And so we have Grand Admiral Thrawn, an alien who nonetheless rose to a high ranking in the Empire (which is typically staffed only by regular ol' humans, which got used to turn them into a Speciesist organization in the Expanded Universe). And when the Emperor goes down, it's Thrawn who takes command of the remainder of the Empire's forces, and ends up becoming a major thorn in the side of the "New Republic". Timothy Zahn, author of the novels, based him off of many real-life military geniuses, such as Alexander the Great (who took a small country's army across half of Asia) and Robert E. Lee (who helped the less-populous, under-industrial American South fight the powerful North to a draw for a few years), turning him into a sort of "Super-General" who used smart tactics and a "Good Boss" nature (to counter Darth Vader's more-murderous response to failure) to win battles. He forms a new army comprised of Clones, and moves against the Republic.
-Thrawn is killed at the end of the Trilogy by his own personal bodyguard, who uncovers that Thrawn was part of the betrayal of his species. Like Mara Jade, he's a very "FanFic" kind of character, being so brilliant and skilled that he can "Thanos" his opponents, as WELL as lacking the trademark overconfidence of most villains, and being "A Father To His Men" (sort of), but again, Zahn's skill as a writer seems to be his ability to make his OCs into popular characters in their own right- Thrawn reads an awful lot like "Competence Porn", but rather than just scoring win after win after win, he makes critical mistakes and underestimates various opponents, and that costs him his life.
Thrawn in Rebels:
-Of course, the character famously returned in the final seasons of
Star Wars: Rebels, and is the only person from the Expanded Universe to ever get to move into the "New Canon" of the Disney
Star Wars fiction. Here, he was a cool, calculating individual, and the producers were clearly fans of
The Thrawn Trilogy and went out of their way to make him look great. While a skilled fighter, that wasn't his focus- he kept traits such as "stare at the art of his enemies so that he can understand their culture and what they value", and called bluffs left and right- he figured out the Syndullas attempting to betray the Empire, and realized Agent Kallus was the Rebel spy "Fulcrum" and kept him on so that he could feed him false information and lure the rebels into traps. It never quite got excessive (villains are SUPPOSED to be extremely capable, so that helped), and really put him over as a dangerous threat. Ultimately, he meets his end in the Series Finale, when Ezra Bridger uses his "Talks to Animals" trait (even from the early seasons, he was communicating with and controlling animals at times) to lure some Space Beasts into the Imperial Star Destroyer, tearing Thrawn out of the ship and pulling him into space with Ezra. Ezra disappears and plots to make his way back, while Thrawn dies.
Thrawn's Stats:
-Thrawn's stats here represent a skilled, but not elite fighter. Chiss don't seem any different from humans in this universe, and he's more capable and brilliant as a commander than as a warrior like Vader or Palpatine. In a straight-up fight, the Rebels would probably kill him, but his Competence Porn abilities rendered him resistat to getting involved in those kinds of situations. He had good Insight, Deception and other people skills, and that was where he excelled.