I see him as an antagonist. I don’t think his intentions, as shown in the Thrawn Trilogy and company, which is canon, can be boiled down to the title of villain. Is he a “villain” to the Rebels and Ahsoka? Yes. But I think it’s all about what perspective they’re telling the story from (which presumably, is Ahsoka’s perspective, so I suppose it makes sense here). In the Thrawn Trilogy and Co. it’s a story about Thrawn, so his intentions are explained, his actions have a motive, etcetera. But in Rebels he’s simply an imperial, a villain to them — and we don’t see much, if any, of his motives being explored as they are in the novels. Don’t get me wrong, I love both iterations of Thrawn, but I can’t break him down to the sum of his parts and call him a ‘villain’.
Ok, I understand. Thanks for explaining. (I never watched Rebels so my opinion is only based on novels.)
It is nitpicking for sure, but I see an “antagonist” as someone who has opposite goals from his opponents but is not necessarily morally corrupt or doing evil, while “villain” does immoral things regardless of the point of view of his opponents.
And while I certainly love Thrawn as a character and have moments when I genuinely feel sorry for him and want to protect him from everyone (he sitting alone at the table as a cadet and no family there to support him breaks my heart) I see him ready to do genuinely evil things.
He’s certainly not like the Emperor, evil in a selfish and self-absorbed way, but I still don’t see his reasons as an excuse for what he does. Am I making any sense?
He sees non-Chiss as assets, not people.
He avoids collateral damage but is fully ready to kill as many innocent non-Chiss civilians if it suits his goals.
He joined a dictatorship, supported it by climbing to the highest military rank there was, cooperated with Vader and Arhinda fully knowing what they did, manipulated his human friends to help the Chiss, promoted slavery:
So, even if he’s always working selflessly for the Chiss, not for his own personal gain, I still can’t see him caring only about Chiss lives and being ready to commit genocide or bring into slavery everyone else, as anything short of evil.
Thus, the villain.
Not to mention that his arrogance and inability to listen to others brought the biggest evil to the Chiss - Qilori figuring out sky-walkers were children and giving that information to Grysks which was what they needed to tear the Ascendancy apart.
(I love blabbering about Thrawn, if this wall of text is too much feel free to ignore it, it’s just my opinion).
The Chiss sent Thrawn out to get some milk thinking he’d be back in a year tops and a decade later they get a call, like, “Yeah so I run all the grocery stores in this sector now. Btw can you look after my favorite bag boy? K thnx miss you kiss kiss.” Perfection.
If you ever wanted one where Thrawn gets bitten and fucked with his own blood, here you go (dubcon; mind the tags)
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Adrenaline is already coursing hot and reckless through his veins with every rapid beat of his heart: an ambush; a flurry of brief yet brutal violence; and then, in the aftermath… an unnatural stillness, and Thrawn looks up to find Ba’kif’s gaze locked on him, unwavering, unblinking.
The familiar red glow of Ba’kif’s eyes has somehow brightened to a near-white; the smell of fresh blood and death is thick and cloying on the air in the small space. Lifeless bodies lie strewn across the floor from the failed attempt on— Thrawn’s life? Ba’kif’s? It doesn’t matter, in that moment— and as Ba’kif’s gaze flicks almost imperceptibly to one side and back again, Thrawn finally feels the cut stinging on his cheek. The bright, fiery line of pain in his flesh, and the wet trail of his own blood trickling slowly down his skin.
Thrawn doesn’t look away from Ba’kif’s intense gaze. He can’t, and he wouldn’t even if he could. He’s breathing hard, his pulse thundering in the hollow of his throat as he slowly raises one hand and runs his fingertips through the blood on his cheek— then over his lips and tongue in a wet smear of hot coppersalt that’s simultaneously repellent and compelling—
Ba’kif snarls and moves faster than should be physically possible, closing the gap between them in the blink of an eye. Thrawn has a split second to feel utterly paralyzed by a primal, exhilarating terror— before Ba’kif is somehow behind him, fingers like steel at his throat and breath coming hot on his neck.
“You…” Ba’kif growls, panting, drawing out each word into a hiss, “look… delicious.”
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(look, in my defense that scene was REALLY hot and if you just imagine those two as Chiss they fit my Ascendancy Thrawn and Ba'kif headcanons to a tee )
My big fat illustration to Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good, which is basically a story about how one brooch could ruin the whole civilization.
This art symbolizes the trip of these jewelry from Haplif’s hands to various Chiss, and eventually reaching the hands of Magys, who clarified its origin. On top of all Yoponek and Yomie, then Counsilor Lakuviv, lower be Haplif on the left with his grabby hands and shadow of Jixtus in behind and Lakinda on the right, casually passing the brooch to Thrawn, tangled between her duty to Xodlak family and to the Fleet, below her - the Magys who now got the hope for her people, and the final row - Lakphro and Lakansu, responsible Chiss rancher and his wife on the left, and Thrawn and Thalias on the right.
After all I can say I liked this book much more than Chaos Rising. It was entertaining and very tense, made me really feel for some characters (Yomie TT) and didn’t leave the feeling of Thrawn being an all mighty mastermind - his role was important but not overwhelming. I hope Lesser Evil will impress me the same way.
i had a dream that tim z released like an “extended version” of lesser evil that featured a handful of extra chapters at the end. the dream was so vivid that my first thought upon waking up was “omg i can’t wait to finally read that!”
the extended content was pretty dark and heartbreaking. apparently there was more to thrawn’s punishment than just exile: he was to be publicly tortured - not to death, but still. something akin to being tied to a cross for three days. his allies suggested he should run, but it’s thrawn, so he surrendered willingly. the other things i remember are more fragmented - a scene with a forest and a lake, a dam in that lake; thrawn underwater, struggling to swim upwards.
in the dream i also drew this fanart of thrawn holding che’ri who is clinging to him, so of course i decided to recreate it (i love drawing things that come to me in a dream. it makes me feel powerful.) something scary was supposed to happen to che’ri though i don’t know what, and in the epilogue she was shown many years later, married and with kids, and still remembering thrawn and honoring his legacy.
i’m glad it was just a dream because it was very much grim and dark, but if it was real it would be an intriguing thing to read. anyway i’ve literally been thinking about this dream all day so i hope yall enjoy this little art and what my thrawn obsessed brain has produced in my sleep.
After the duel, Trilla, Ahsoka, and Sacher all adjust their missions accordingly. Though in doing so, Omega reveals the truth about why she needed Ahsoka’s help—and Ahsoka is shocked by the news that a friend once thought to be dead is actually alive.
u know how sometimes a person will refer to their boobs as The Girls. i think samakro is one of those people but also he will occasionally switch it up with “the lads”
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