SPOILER THRAWN DISCUSSION THREAD.

I haven't read the book yet but, I do think the threat Thrawn warned the Empire about is Snoke and the Knights of Ren. I think they're much larger in size than we've been lead to believe and Snoke has been off training them until one day the time is right to reveal his grand plan to the galaxy. I think the Knights of Ren take influence from the Sith of old but are a new generation of Dark warriors. The First Order I see as only a pawn until the time is right then I see the First Order teaming up with the Resistance and New Republic (and possibly a group of Jedi trained by Luke and Rey between the events of The Last Jedi and IX) against the Knights of Ren and different gangs like Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub in an ultimate showdown for long sought after peace within the galaxy.

 

what if snoke is a chiss and thrawn's true master.

 

Remember how badly damaged Snoke is physically , i was thinking that maybe he could be one but hids because he literally cant.

 

I really enjoyed this book and it really changes things in Rebels for Thrawn. This is another book that discusses dangers in the unknown regions of space. It seems to me that's where Thrawn's future lies. He'd likely be out of the picture by the time the ST comes around, but it seems the story group is laying the ground work for expanding the story past Empire v Rebels v Resistance.

"I see your defeat, like many arms surrounding you in a cold embrace." Bendu saw Thrawn's defeat. That quote could mean a lot.

 

i just started reading the book, so it's probably too early for me to form coherent thoughts.
but i wanted to read this thread to see what other people were seeing in it.

i'm confused, though, why people think Thrawn would carry out Palpatine's Empire ABY.
Rax and Thrawn hate the Emperor and they hate his Empire.
Rax for certain intends to rebuild his own new thing and this is the charge he gives Armitty Hux (forget Brendol--Brendol is a weak slobby pig who likely won't ever really control anything).
Sloane is a wild card who might be Imperially loyal, but was betrayed at the end; she's probably got her own ideas about how to rule as well.

and Thrawn? he seems to have his priorities in place for his people, not the Emperor.
and i don't know why, by i always believed he was out there on the Eclipse waiting.
but again, if he was waiting for Rax, he wasn't waiting for a new Empire, but something else.

the FO is not the Empire.
it's built on the grave of the Empire.
a grave most of these characters would have happily danced on.

 

hahahaha ~ i need to finish Thrawn to see if the FO is something he could have stomached, and you need to read A:EE to see if Rax/Sloane's leadership is where the influence comes from.

i think it's a mix of both somehow: that they have created their own thing which is distinctly not-Imperial.

the FO has a military structure, but they don't salute, bow, or kneel to anyone. they acknowledge roots in the Empire, but don't idolize or worship their forefathers. in fact they wear memorial bands on their sleeves as if a reminder of past failure. @RockyRoadHux noticed that once you get to Hux's level, the bands come off.

Spoiler

Rax had the Imperial Shadow Council destroyed to purge their influence. he kept people like Brendol Hux because Hux was useful but weak-minded (and he saw himself in his son). we just don't know whether Sloane (and possibly Thrawn, if she met him out there), kept to Rax's vision or burned that and started over.

i think Thrawn and Sloane started over (probably after duking out their own power battle), in which case it's anybody's game. this means Armitty Hux has even more reason to want to enact a hostile takeover once the FO amasses enough power because destroying Rax's plan would put Hux and Thrawn in competition.

makes you really wonder who dug up the fishy old fossil Snoke: and who's using who? it's like a massive galactic ouroboros.

maybe i should finish reading the book before i get too deep ~ hahahaha

hate is probably a strong word. but to me, dislike or disapproval is sufficient for any and all of them to dismiss Palpatine's scheme. they all thought it was lacking in some way. is the FO lacking? we don't know enough about them to determine where their true weakness lies.

we also don't know what Snoke thought of Palpatine. we only know what he says to Kylo Ren about Vader, and even that's calculated to steer Ren; that doesn't make it the truth of his feelings. know what i mean?

but yes, i need to get through Thrawn and Vanto and their quidditch travails to see if there are more clues, etc. hahahaha

 

i don't see this at all. they are using Imperial tech and castoffs to their advantage--and maybe even peacocking a bit, but that could be where the similarities end.

i think they want to be thought of as Empire 2.0 because it onboards the Centrists and scares the pants off the rest of the galaxy. but they are not the Empire.

agreed: as i said above. everyone is using everyone. it's going to come down to who manages to come out on top when all the cannibalizing begins.

well of course he has a southern accent ~ hahahaha

 

The impression that I got is that we are being set up for the next big challenge after the FO is taken care of.

The Empire was booby-trapped to collapse by Palpatine in the event of his death. Thrawn saw the Empire as a possible ally, or diversion for whatever pure evil the Chiss Ascendency is aware of that threatens the entire Galaxy. (You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the slowest member of the group. And if you are the slowest, trip someone else and throw honey on them )

The goal of the FO seems to be power for the sake of power. I can't imagine that the Chiss were frightened of a single adversary like Snoke.

Conclusion: Once we wrap up the Skywalker legacy and the FO has been defeated, the New Republic will be facing an external threat. It sounds a lot like the old EU, but I am hoping that they don't take the Vong straight from legends into canon. Between the observatories set up in ancient times and Palpatine's belief that the source of the Dark Side emanated from the unknown regions, Thrawn and the Chiss, and the FO biding their time there, we are getting canon backstory for a whole new dynamic in AGFFA. It is also still nebulous enough that the story group can let this lie if they choose to not follow this path later.

Regarding the book more specifically. Thrawn is a fascinating character study in his own right, but the story really serves two purposes.
One of these is to add some gravitas to the karma about to be served up on Pryce in Season 4 of Rebels. It is one thing to outwit an Imperial Governor on the show, but now we know that Pryce is guilty of killing almost 30,000 civilians to cover her own rear, and Thrawn knows about it. Aaaannnnnddddd, we know Thrawn places a very high value on innocent lives. I fully expect to see this play out. Thrawn is being set up as one of the "good guys."

Second, and more importantly, we know from the conversation between Nightswan and Thrawn that Thrawn was on a mission to serve/save the Chiss Ascendency and he felt that he would be in a position of authority to help direct the Empire after the death of Palpatine. Conclusion #2: Thrawn was in the unknown regions on the SSD Eclipse and tried to influence the direction of the FO. Once it became clear that Snoke was as evil as, or even more so than Palpatine, he bailed on the FO and returned to the Chiss.

Prediction: We'll see the Chiss, and maybe even Thrawn himself, on screen for the fourth trilogy, and they are likely to be allies, if not exactly portrayed as "the good guys."

Yep, I realize that was a whole lot of speculation, but that is exactly why I enjoy reading SW so much. I can't help but to let my mind go off on crazy tangents about what could or might be...

 

Yes moar! Moar! I did read a Zahn interview where he half-jokingly said he was wanting to do a quadrilogy. Also I'd like to get a non-timejumping book. I think that's one of the reason's I didn't care for Lost Stars was the constant timejumping. Thrawn overcame that somewhat, probably due to superior writing and my fanboy blindness.
Anyway, I'm ready for a book that doesn't span 15-20 years. Leave the gaps for between books. Like the movies.

Also...did you just quote a D&D PHB?

 

I wish they would just go ahead and make that into a movie.