Favorite Villian in the Expanded Universe

[Trejiuvanat]

Villians, each new book has portrayed new villian i, I had wondered which of them had the strongest and more lasting impression on each of us.

I personally vote Thrawn he was the only one who actually managed to put the Rep on its knees, while following another secret agenda at the time. The way he was portrayed was also very nice, ever seen from another perspective added mystery to him.

I`m still wondering about Heir to the Empire page 175, his only failure out at the Fringes, the civ he wound up destroying....

[Jahled]

I'm with Thrawn for the simple reason he was portrayed brilliantly as a tactical genius not in possession of a Super Star Destroyer, Super-weapon, of super Jedi-abilities. IE: The Thrawn books were reasonably sensible and a made a damn fine read! All that Dark-Empire nonsense got a bit silly.

[Guest JediIgor]

Can you imagine what could've happened had Thrawn got his hands on a Super Star Destroyer?

[Jahled]

No, but the concept does beg some drooling over! Given the stupity of Star Wars books, no doubt it wouldn't have made much difference. Wedge and the glory boys would have pulled something impossible-off and blown it to kingdom-come!

[ElvisMiggell]

Hey hey, check out the rpg and drool at the potential for US TO DECIDE!!!

[Trejiuvanat]

Weird that the post is twice.

I agree with Elvis on the Thrawn novels, partly I guess it's because there was always left some little tid-bit that needed an explanation. now I wonder about Thrawn's defeat, but bofore of that I used to wonder a lot about the beckon call luke found on the dagobah, and look it was solved in the hand of thrawn books. In survivor's quest we'll porbably learn more about the clone wars, and probably more thrawn, c'baoth, wayland, spaarti, jorg car'das and hopefully the civilization he destroyed. and there is always the hijarna issue... and how that damn hard black stone wound up on Nirauan.

Thrawn with an SSD, I guess he would have thought that the rebels thought it would be the spearhead of his operation, so they would have wound up chasing it all over space, and no matter what wedgie's boys did with it, it wouldn't have mattered to the overall scheme. Perhaps he would have sent it to the unknown regions.

[ADarkJedi44]

Not even Wedge's boys could have stopped Thrawn with an SSD.

[Paul]

Thrawn is great, but I also like Daala. I think they didn't portray her well in the books though. She was supposed to be a great tactitian beating the best of the Imperial teachers when Tarkin found her, yet they have her screw up continually in the books. Just goes to show that the writers ALWAYS make the rebel scum win. I still think that the way Thrawn dies is bull. -Grand Moff Conway

[ElvisMiggell]

He would have used an SSD as a distraction, to get Wedge and the boys out of the picture.

 

Daala was a brilliant tactician and is portrayed as such, BUT, her tactics were old because she was isolated for so long, so the rest of the galaxy had time to catch up with her. Also a crazy Jedi with a solar system destroying weapon tends to put the hurt on your little fleet.

[ADarkJedi44]

The way Thrawn dies definatly sucks.

[ElvisMiggell]

It could be much worse. At least being killed by a highly trained assassin isn't too shameful. It's not like he got seriously outwitted by some halfwit Republic tactician.

[the_mask]

Think about it this way: Rukh was the only one being able to kill Thrawn

 

Also Daala's tactics were known to Ackbar, cause he had to endure time as Tarkin's pet. With no access to improvments to their tactics she still had to use her best knowledge and failed. Another problem she had was, that she became too furious at times. Thrawn was always level-headed, even when something blew up in his face, like Ferrier's little ambush for the smugglers, or that sabotaged ISD.

[ElvisMiggell]

Thrawn was ICE cool man.

[Trejiuvanat]

Yes, Daala is portrayed as an outdated tactician, who can be easily driven mad, Thrawn is glacially calm. Thrawn reacted like, "In every problem lies an opportunity" instead Daala reacted like: "Aaaaargh, those Rebels I'll take my Star Destroyer and bombard Dantooine!!!! "

[Jahled]

Gosh! Have you guys checked out the results of this poll? Thrawn is way up there on 75%!!!

 

I think we can safely deduce from this that the reason being so is that the Thrawn trilogy had a level headed tactician as opposed to a super being with super powers as the villan, which is a bit more believable and entertaining, right?

[Trejiuvanat]

Thrawn is a more interesting and entertaining character because you don't know what he thinks, or waht he wants. In every Thrawn part you look into Pellaeon's thoughts, or Mara's or even Ferriers. That too makes it more entertaining.

[Paul]

You do get some insights into Thrawns inner thoughts here and there. This helps make you yearn for more understanding of the character.- GM Conway

[ElvisMiggell]

Indeed, he and I are much alike. Good friends are we.

[Trejiuvanat]

Where did you meet him? In the last Grand Admirals adn Warlord's gathering? Or was it in a seminar for addicted Rebellion players?

When do you get to know Thrawn's inner thoughts? Most of the time, you see Pellaeon second-guessing Thrawn's inner thougths.

[ElvisMiggell]

You gain insights from various seemingly flippant comments that he makes, and explanations of how Thrawn was found etc.

 

I met him at the last Warlords and Grand Admirals Gathering. We was the center of attention, as everyone wanted to know what it felt like to be stabbed in the chest with a stiletto.

[Trejiuvanat]

Hmmm... Just one tip for you Elvis, watch your back. You never know when one Noghri can appear. I gather some of them are working for Zoot. If you are stabbed, try to avoid wearing white. Use imperial khaki, or better yet a Rebel's pilotsuit. GEt blood out of white clothes is much trouble.

[SOCL]

Hands down: Thrawn!

 

Going back to what was mentioned A LOT earlier: Thrawn with an SSD. Had Thrawn gotten a hold of an SSD (perhaps one somewhere in the Deep Core or something), then he would have either (A) had the Rebels chasing it everywhere or (B) dismantled it and had the scrap used to make more regular Star Destroyers. Simply put, he would not have wasted anything the SSD would have had to offer . . . nothing.

 

Thrawn acted A LOT like Hannibal Barca of Carthage (I've done HOURs of research on those tacticians Thrawn is based off of and Hannibal is the most based off of). Hannibal would always be studying the tactics and personality types of the enemy commander and be sure to use the correct sort of tactics that would throw that commander into a fray. He would also use distraction tactics based off of Alexander's the Great own. I wrote Timothy Zahn asking him who he had based Thrawn off of and he said he was based off of the best tacticians of all time: Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal Barca, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Robert E. Lee, Erwin Rommel, and others. To get a half-way understanding of Thrawn, it would be wise to research these people and the like.

I have done so.

 

The civilization Thrawn did not understand makes me think that he has a personality flaw: what he doesn't understand frustrates him to the, possible, extreme. As much as I hate to write and admit that, it almost seems to be so, but I'm sure we'll find more about that later with Zahn's new novel that takes place between TPM and AOTC and talks about Thrawn and his destruction of the Outbound Flight.

 

Thrawn's death: I practically cried when I read that! I mean, I was sure he would have to go down and die (I was quite sure Rukh would kill him from when the Noghri decided to join "the Lady Vader" in Dark Force Rising), but even so it was sad! Horrible! I just hate the fact that Lucasfilm Ltd. has to let the so-called "good guys" win in the end. It pisses me off. It must have been frustrating to Mr. Zahn, who said he basically wrote the Thrawn series like a chess game, but he was both sides. Sounds, weird, but it makes for the perfect game. Both sides know what the other will do (or some how find out) and have to figure a way around it. He said that at one point (and I think it's evident in the novels) the Empire was vastly winning against the Rebels and he was forced to have MANY coincidences occur so that the tide would turn. In the end, with the Empire winning, he ultimatley had to let the Rebels win. But if you think about it, the Rebels didn't truly win, they simply came out lucky and won by default.

 

. . . that's why I have been writing a story that entails an alternate future to The Last Command where Thrawn predicted the Noghri's defection and betrayl and survived the Battle of Bilbringi. It's a great story that also brings in Daala and the Emperor's fleet in the Deep Core at Byss (Thrawn finds this all out over time and puts everything to work in his favor). I'm not 100% sure as to what will be the ending . . . but let me put it this way: the Rebels have three pawns (and their king) whereas Thrawn is missing three pawns. :twisted:

[TK421]

Well of course we all are (I am) interested in your story.

 

By the way, the good ones will always win? I'll keep that in mind reading the NJO books. It looks sad for the NR

[Trejiuvanat]

I am intrested in your story too.

TK even in NJO the tide is truning in the REbs favor in Destiny's way they:

-have destroyed a sizable part of the warrior caste

-they kill Warmaster Tsavong Lah

-foudned the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, and lay aside their stupid little political infighting

In Remnant they:

-brought the Empire back into the game

-are searching for Zonama Sekot and the resources they need to repel the invasion force.

It doesn't look that bad for them now.

Thrawn's failure was that he missed an essential piece of information. He did not know that Luke Skywalker and Leia were VAder's kids. Other wise he could have easily deduced that the Noghri would defect.

[SOCL]

Exactly what I was talking about, Trej, Thrawn should have been able to predict the Noghri's betrayl and defection (IMO) and thus in this story I have done what I think should have been done in the novel. Now, I won't explain how Thrawn in my story predicted the incident, but as of now I am still going to leave the whole Skywalker family tree (i.e. Luke and Leia's relation to Vader) out of it. I'm also going to go into a small explanation about the civilization Thrawn had mentioned not understanding. . . . Just one question: exactly how far away is the STAR WARS galaxy in relation to ours (supposing we all exist in the same universal plain, of course)?