Over the years as the canon of the State Wars changed, so did certain things about the characters but throughout this post, we’re gonna be bringing you the most important points about Star Wars villain Grand Admiral Thrawn and our theories for where things could be going in the future.
Thrawn was actually born under the name Kivu’raw’nuru which if you’re mates with him he’ll let you shorten to Vurawn.
He’s also gone by the name Mitth’raw’nuruodo but obviously, no one has any fun saying that so for this video we’ll just be referring to him as Thrawn.
Thrawn’s Appearance
Thrawn has a very memorable appearance and the character stands out for several reasons.
Now the character is pretty much always seen in a striking white uniform and this makes him leap out amongst all the imperial forces who tend to wear black and dark when they’re at work.
On their days off though they can be seen donning a Hawaiin shirt and partying like it’s their last day on Coruscant.
Which spoiler alert it probably is…
Thrawn also has blue skin and red eyes as well as cheekbones that would make Janet Jackson jealous and dark blue hair.
Now, this has changed over the years and depending on what you read or watch it can be grey, black or several colours but for me, I imagine it as being navy-ish just because of the stuff I’ve been brought up on.
The continuity has also changed several times as well but I will be sticking to the more up-to-date one as that’s the one that will probably be brought across to the properties going forward.
Thrawn’s Childhood
Now very little is known about Thrawn’s childhood but we do know that he was born on Rentor and that he became an officer of the Chiss Ascendancy. Due to his ruthless and strategic mind, Thrawn quickly rose through the ranks and he was integral to the defence fleet of the Chiss. Rentor is actually a part of the unknown regions of the galaxy and Thrawn decided to part from his home to explore other parts of space.
Meeting Anakin
Upon doing this the character actually came across Anakin Skywalker and made an unlikely ally out of him. Thrawn actually helped Anakin to find Padme and thus the Jedi ended up owing a lot to him. Thrawn wanted to learn all that he could about the Clone Wars and actually got to see a large chunk of them first-hand.
Thrawn fought alongside Anakin Skywalker against a large number of droids and Anakin was extremely impressed by his combat prowess.
Thrawn shared a mutual respect for him as well and the two did eventually become heavily linked to the Empire.
Now, this is mainly because when Skywalker returned to Coruscant, he told Chancellor Palpatine about Thrawn and Palps told him the story of Darth Plagus the wise…which reminds me did I, did I ever tell you the story of Darth Plagus the wise… no…never mind. Now Palpatine naturally took an interest in Thrawn but, much to everyone’s surprise, Thrawn was actually quite unimpressed with the way things were running in the Republic.
He didn’t actually think that it was fit to join with the Chiss and thought that democracy was a stupid style of governing as it led to everyone getting to put their point across which led to never-ending discussions in which nothing was accomplished.
Galactic Empire
Clearly, Palpatine thought this was too and we all know how things changed after order 66 helped to make the galaxy great again.
This reorganising of the planets under the rule of one Imperial Force was more in line with the vision that Thrawn had for the Galaxy and thus he ended up joining the Galactic Empire.
This allegiance would be highly beneficial to the Chiss and he integrated with Galactic Society very quickly. Thrawn went to the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant and gained numerous promotions before The Emperor he bestowed on him the rank of Grand Admiral.
This was extremely rare and he’s pretty much one of the only aliens in the entire organisation. Typically, Imperial officers tend to be white dudes and being from another race or gender is often frowned upon. Thus we know that to be accepted into it Thrawn must be something special and it’s clear that his skill and tactical mind helped him to bypass several of the prejudices that existed within the empire.
The Seventh Fleet
Now because of this, Thrawn commanded a large fleet throughout the Galaxy known as The Seventh Fleet. His I-Class Star Destroyer known as the Chimaera was deployed to the Lothal Sector before the rise of the rebellion and he actually features quite heavily in the animated series.
Thrawn has worked alongside Darth Vader at numerous points and is arguably one of the most intimidating figures in the imperial line-up.
What makes Thrawn stand out from a lot of his Imperial colleagues is his willingness to try and understand his enemy. Whereas most of the Empire are happy stamping out all that try and oppose them, Thrawn actually sees his enemies as an opportunity to learn. Because of this, he’s studied the Jedi, Mandalorian and Rebellion, trying to learn all their ins and outs so that he can exploit their weakness.
The Fall of the Empire
Now the character did come face to face with Ezra Bridger, star of Rebels and after the pair were pulled into Hyperspace he disappeared for a long time.
During this, the Battle of Endor happened and as we know the Empire fell and there was apparently peace amongst the galaxy once more. However, in the unknown regions, Thrawn once more plotted away and in the uncharted areas he was able to gather his forces again and he actually went on to form The First Order.
Thrawn’s Role Going Forward
Now we know very little about what has happened with the character since then but due to the latest episode of The Mandalorian, it does seem like he’s going to be playing a big part going forward.
At the end of Season 2 Episode 5, it’s revealed that Ahsoka is actually hunting him and trying to track down his location which, going by the timeline puts him in the Unknown Regions…along with Ezra.
Now why this is important is because, at the end of Rebels, Ahsoka actually teamed up with Sabine to try and track him down.
Ezra had obviously disappeared and thus she was attempting to get to the bottom of where he is along with Wren.
However, what’s interesting about the latest episode is that Wren isn’t brought up at all.
Now what could be going on here is that Thrawn has managed to capture Wren and this is why Ahsoka wants to find him. Either that or she knows Ezra is with Thrawn and for some reason or the other Wren is off doing her own thing.
Now there are several possibilities and we won’t know for definite until things come to the forefront.
Wren could indeed be off by herself looking for clues and perhaps the pair split up to cover more ground so that they could find him the location of Thrawn quicker.
Or, they already found Ezra and he and Wren went off together.
Or…or…Or…like I said Thrawn has him and Ahsoka is simply trying to get him to kill two birds with one stone.
Mandalorian Season 3 & Other Shows
Now we do have it confirmed from Giancarlo Esposito that Moff Gideon will continue to be the big bad going into Season 3. I was kinda thinking that perhaps Thrawn would be teased here, everyone would team up to kill Gideon and then we would get a teaser of Thrawn being aware of what’s going on and that that could set up the character as the villain for Season 3.
However, unless Esposito is lying, it doesn’t seem like things are going to be going that way.
Now there are a lot of rumours that there’s gonna be several spin-off shows in the saga involving characters like Ahsoka, Sabine, Obi-Wan and a lot more.
Potentially Ahsoka could be going off and doing her own thing in which Thrawn will be the villain and I’d love to see someone like Mads Mickelson becoming the baddie.
I know he was in Rogue One but Warrick Davis has been like 50 different characters in Star Wars, just let me dream yeah.
Anyway, that’s pretty much everything you need to know and our theories on him so I hope you enjoyed the video as much as I enjoyed making it and my editor hated editing it.
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