SPOILER Epilogue of Aftermath: Empire's End

I agree it's unlikely Thrawn will make his way into a movie in any significant way. But note that Temmin is actually one of those characters who appeared first in a movie. Aftermath is where we get his origin story. On that note, I'm sure we'll get fleshed-out stories on Imperial remnant/First Order movie leaders in future books, as we did with Hux in Aftermath, but I doubt it will work in the other direction.

 

Almost like how the Rebellion formed...except now its the other side.

 

Regarding Thrawn, we do have the ysalamiri canonized as art in Rebels, so presumably Thrawn had that in his office as a reference to an actual living thing. Whether or not we'll actually see one in any other capacity is another story.

Another note is that in the teaser excerpt from Thrawn there is an interesting exchange between Thrawn and the Emperor that revolves around Thrawn's origins in the unknown regions. This seem to lead credence to the idea that Thrawn was sent ahead as part of the contingency plan once he had proven his loyalty to the Empire. Based on this, I am also voting for it to be Thrawn on the Eclipse.

 

Having just finished bloodline as well I started going through the same questions. How do all of these facts we know to be true - Mainly everything with Luke's academy, and Kylo turning - truly unfold. And in what form are we going to see it. Is it going to be flashbacks in Ep. IIX? are we going to get another clone wars/rebels type cartoon? (which I'm not entirely against) I have a feeling it won't be something left to Novels. based on the fact that we haven't seen Luke in any form show up between RoTJ and TFA

In terms of the First Order - I feel like Empires End gave us enough to assume that they are off in the unknown regions building their army, and preparing to return to the galaxy - that combined with Bloodline and Lady Carise's and her centrist allies, shows that there is a framework for the FO to step into. Whether this was in the form of forward scouts sent by the FO or some form of long range transmissions where Carise has no idea what small a role she is actually playing - In fact I wouldnt think it too far of a stretch for Carise to be on Hosnian Prime when Starkiller base destroys it.

I'm getting off topic - But I'm very excited to see how it all unfolds - Mostly the Snoke/Ben mystery and the Ben/Luke falling out.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 23, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 23, 2017 ---

I definitely feel this way as well - with one exception. Did the outright attack and destruction of the Hosnian system seem like it was born of the strategic genius we all know Thrawn to have? Sticks out a bit to me as posturing by Hux rather than a well laid out Thrawn style strike. And if he is in league with snoke and is one of the last remaining grand admirals from the original Empire, you would think he would out rank Hux in this situation or at least have a Vito power on a strike like this

 

I've been thinking about this and I think the First Order might have more people in the governing body other than Hux, Phasma and Kylo. Sort of what we saw in ANH, maybe Tarkin was a Grand Moff but there were some other people of importance involved in the government of the Empire. Since the FO is not the same organization, at first it makes sense it is only these three I've mentioned but, what if there's still some others like Thrawn, Sloane around?

 

I don't have any reason to think Thrawn was still around by the time of TFA, but I think he was likely on the Eclipse at the end of Empire's End.

 

I'm hoping so! And maybe there's a story to be told there in between A:EE and TFA of a power struggle where Thrawn becomes the odd man out via Snoke. Who knows but I'd like it if his story continued. Maybe the new Thrawn book will tell us more.

 

We don't have a full idea of the Chiss lifespan, as they are from the unknown regions, So I hesitate to completely agree with you. Do you have any other evidence to support Thrawn not being alive in TFA?

I do agree that he is most likely on the Eclipse.

Also, the original plan was to wipe the home galaxy out and move on - Would Thrawn have been privy to that plan? Would he still have followed through with it after having control of the Eclipse? Or do we have another situation like Sloane - where he saw his opportunity to create his own empire and is just waiting for enough reinforcements. -- Can not wait for the Thrawn book to come out!!

I 100% think there is room for a story to be told between A:EE and TFA - I think they're going to toss in a Standalone Feature of some kind - but they still have the whole story of Luke and Ben and Luke's academy to tell, and now whatever happens with the left over imperials and how they really became the FO

 

It's interesting in the Thrawn exerpt that Thrawn came to Palpatine after he had been "banished" from his home world where ever it is. Yet he still wanted to protect it from whatever dangers were lurking in those regions. It's not outside the realm of possibility that he goes back there at some point before the events of Rogue One/ANH. Whether or not that was voluntary is another thing - maybe Palpatine banished him back there for his failure with the Rebellion and Fulcrum etc. And maybe he was part of the Contingency plan all along, since his coordinates to the Unknown Regions came in so handy