History Literature / TheThrawnTrilogy

* FourStarBadass: Grand Admiral Thrawn has no sensitivity to the Force whatsoever, and he'll ''still'' rip your battle fleet to shreds, you Rebel scum. That said, [[spoiler: the New Republic stymied him at Bilbringi even with his entrapping them, thanks to some help from Talon Karrde's people which forced him to split his forces: they might have actually defeated him even without Rukh's assassination of Thrawn. Though given his track record, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm he likely would have withdrawn had the situation become completely unwinnable]].]]

* HannibalLecture: Evil-on-evil version. In ''The Last Command'' C'baoth seizes control of the minds of all thirty-seven thousand of the ''Chimaera''`s crew, except Thrawn, Pellaeon and a few others protected by ysalamiri, and intends to take the ship to Coruscant to capture Leia's children. Thrawn might seem helpless, but he simply lectures C'baoth on how he will have to maintain that control for the days it will take to reach Coruscant and that even then, one Star Destroyer would never get through the defenses, forcing C'baoth down.

** C'baoth uses Fear, Mind Control, and Divine Right

** Also vetoed was the original name he proposed for the Noghri: the Sith. Which explains the Vader connections--Zahn, like many fans, was speculating just what Vader's title 'Dark Lord of the Sith' actually meant. At the time, evil Force-users were simply called "Dark Jedi" in the Expanded Universe.

** The biggest Clone Wars related issue is that Zahn sets them over a decade before the eventual timeline established by the prequels. This was actually Lucas's fault rather than Zahn's--as Zahn revealed in his annotations in the 20th anniversary edition, Lucas hadn't yet settled on a concrete timeline for the series pre-''A New Hope'' and eventually compressed it from the more expansive one he'd given Zahn at the time. That being said, unless certain events unlikely to be even implied in Star Wars occurred, it seems unlikely that Anakin had been Vader for twenty years when Luke nad Leia were born.

** A likely inspiration for Pellaeon's appearance as a heavyset man with a bushy mustache with Thrawn's tall, slender build and chiselled features is the similarity of both characters to Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes, who are frequently depicted in a similar way.

** Thrawn is a very gifted tactician who is excellent at deduction. Later books by other authors treat him as being omniscient and undefeatable, despite making several clear mistakes in the books, notably underestimating the Noghri. This was mocked by Zahn himself in the ''HandOfThrawn'' books, with several aliens in the Senate who never encountered Thrawn the first time being terrified of his reputation and the main characters {{Lampshading}} that he was never ''that'' good.

* FourStarBadass: Grand Admiral Thrawn has no sensitivity to the Force whatsoever, and he'll ''still'' rip your battle fleet to shreds, you Rebel scum. That said, [[spoiler: the New Republic stymied him at Bilbringi even with his entrapping them, thanks to some help from Talon Karrde's people which forced him to split his forces: they might have actually defeated him even without Rukh's assassination of Thrawn.]]

** The cloak comes up twice more. First, [[spoiler: he uses it to hide a bunch of TIE fighters ''inside'' a freighter, then have the freighter show up at a Republic shipyard with a cargo hold that read as empty on sensors, making a neat Trojan Horse]]. Second, he uses C'baoth's Force skills to coordinate cloaked ships that have gotten through planetary shields, in order to make it look like his lasers can pierce said shields.
** Even the Interdictor Cruiser trick, which few characters (or authors) have tried before or since. Interdictors are supposed to create inverted {{Hyperspeed Ambush}}es--instead of jumping in on the enemy, Interdictors use huge gravity projectors to ''un''-jump the enemy onto ''you''. Thrawn uses this to his advantage by re-inverting the trope: by having his backup wait just outside the battle zone and having his Interdictors aim their gravity wells in certain directions, Thrawn can order the ships in on a heading that directly intercepts said gravity wells and essentially ''spawn reinforcements exactly where he wants them.''

* MyGreatestFailure: Thrawn has one piece of art, which looks like thrashing liquid, which he keeps to remind him of the one time that said art did not give him any insight into the race that made it - which he then casually adds he [[KillEmAll destroyed their home world.]] Lately, it's been hinted that this was the home world of General Grievous,but the full story has never been told.

** {{In-universe}}, used as a weapon by Thrawn when he forces Coruscant to cut itself off with its planetary shield by putting cloaked asteroids in orbit. He uses trickery to make it look like he launched many more than he did--so the New Republic has no way of knowing how many asteroids there really are or if they've accounted for them all.

** [[invoked]] Several characters make points of how Thrawn actually relies just as much on ParanoiaFuel as his own cunning. While legitimately brilliant, he wins many of his victories largely because people start to overestimate him and think he's planned for everything.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Mara is wounded at the end of "Dark Force Rising" and spends a month recovering, during which time she misses out on what Thrawn is doing. Winter fills her in one his new victories, but fails to mention he's using clones--the source of which Mara would know. Mara only finds out about the clones AFTER Thrawn has discredited her in the Republic's eyes using a XanatosGambit, setting up the prison break and our-heroes-stand-alone endgame of "The Last Command".

* PsychicStrangle: After Thrawn uses Mara to find Karrde, she tries to kill him with a Force choke. It doesn't work properly due to her lack of training and he's more confused by it than injured.

In addition to the character and universe tropes it carries over from the Original Trilogy, this series provides examples of:

** In-universe, Pellaeon wonders how the Battle of Endor would have turned out if Thrawn had been in command. Considering how close the ''actual'' Battle of Endor was and how brilliant Thrawn is, the answer would almost certainly have been "so long, Rebel scum." [[Literature/ChoicesOfOne A later book]] has Thrawn and the Emperor explicitly discussing the latter's plans for Endor shortly before the Battle of Hoth. Thrawn quickly picks up on the Emperor's ploy to leave Endor's shield generator lightly defended as a lure for the Rebels, and warns him about the possibility of the locals siding with the Rebels. The Emperor, [[FantasticRacism of course]], [[VillainBall dismisses the primitives as a threat]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: C'baoth's harsh judgments on the people of Wayland, which provides Luke with the first clue that he's actually [[spoiler: an insane clone]].

** In-universe, Pellaeon wonders how the Battle of Endor would have turned out if Thrawn had been in command. Considering how close the ''actual'' Battle of Endor was and how brilliant Thrawn is, the answer would almost certainly have been "so long, Rebel scum." [[{{StarWars/ChoicesOfOne}} A later book]] has Thrawn and the Emperor explicitly discussing the latter's plans for Endor shortly before the Battle of Hoth. Thrawn quickly picks up on the Emperor's ploy to leave Endor's shield generator lightly defended as a lure for the Rebels, and warns him about the possibility of the locals siding with the Rebels. The Emperor, [[FantasticRacism of course]], [[VillainBall dismisses the primitives as a threat]].

** Several characters make points of how Thrawn actually relies just as much on ParanoiaFuel as his own cunning. While legitimately brilliant, he wins many of his victories largely because people start to overestimate him and think he's planned for everything.

** The annotated version has an explanation for why the ISB ''Chimaera'' is named as it is named. In Greek mythology the chimaera was a monster considered unconquerable, at least until Bellerophon killed it; these days it's something made of disparate parts, something wildly imaginary, or something illusory.

* ParanoiaFuel: {{In-universe}}, used as a weapon by Thrawn when he forces Coruscant to cut itself off with its planetary shield by putting cloaked asteroids in orbit. He uses trickery to make it look like he launched many more than he did--so the New Republic has no way of knowing how many asteroids there really are or if they've accounted for them all.
** Also, while more debatable how deliberate it was on Thrawn's part, people in the New Republic government suspect each other of being Delta Source, Thrawn's source of information on Coruscant, and so don't trust each other. [[spoiler:It turns out Delta Source was an automated pre-existing listening system, so nobody was a traitor]].

** Harshly averted with the planet Honoghr, which was utterly decimated during a battle in orbit due to destroyed ships crashing into the surface, stray fire, and toxic chemicals being dumped into the atmosphere. And this was just with regular ships; there was no DeathStar involved. Honoghr's disaster was deliberately exacerbated by the Empire, who made the restoration slow enough to keep the Noghri in perpetual service. Even after the Noghri discover this and begin a proper clean-up, Luke and Khabarakh suspect that it's too late for the planet to be saved.

* EmotionlessGirl: Winter. [[{{Tsundere}} Mara]] goes back and forth between this and ''very'' emotional, depending on the topic at hand. Karrde, like someone poking at a loose tooth, takes careful note of her BerserkButtons: the pre-Endor Empire, the late Emperor, Luke Skywalker...

---> Thrawn was respected and trusted. Thrawn used a small measure of fear, certainly: the Grand Admiral realized that [[YouHaveFailedMe fear of failure]] was a powerful motivating force in a military the size of the Empire. But Thrawn's ability to invoke a sense of ''pride'' in his troops was his most powerful asset. Palpatine inspired arrogance and callousness in his officers; Thrawn made his men proud to be Imperial soldiers. Thrawn's officers would have willingly died for the Grand Admiral.

** Zahn asserts that in the Clone Wars, it was discovered that clones would go insane if they were grown too fast [[spoiler:(due to resonance in the Force between the mind of the clone and that of the original)]]. Nobody else has ever acknowledged this as being true or, for that matter, happening. Zahn also has Mara claim that the Death Star I debacle is why Vader lost his right hand: in punishment for his failure.//
Zahn and a couple others actually did {{Retcon}} a form of this back into canon. A comic had a battle between Republic forces (including Pellaeon) and besieged Separatist aliens who were quick-growing clones of their warriors in tubes, and as they compressed the growth cycle further and further the clones started getting disjointed. The Empire started moving away from Kamino cloning to experiment with Spaarti cylinders, an entirely different tech, and growing clones too quickly in those tends to make them insane. It helps that he was vague about all of that the first time around.//
As for the hand, it's been implied (or possibly outright stated) that Vader has had that hand replaced more than once. It could have easily been that he had it removed as punishment by the Emperor for his failure. All the people who know for sure how he lost it (Dooku, Padme, Obi-Wan, Yoda, the other Jedi) were dead by this time in the books, so it could well have been a story spread by the Emperor to show not even his closest servant got away with failure unscathed, or even have lead in-universe EpilepticTrees and WildMassGuessing!

** Zahn asserts that in the Clone Wars, it was discovered that clones would go insane if they were grown too fast [[spoiler:(due to resonance in the Force between the mind of the clone and that of the original)]]. Nobody else has ever acknowledged this as being true or, for that matter, happening. Zahn also has Mara claim that the Death Star I debacle is why Vader lost his right hand: in punishment for his failure.
// Zahn and a couple others actually did {{Retcon}} a form of this back into canon. A comic had a battle between Republic forces (including Pellaeon) and besieged Separatist aliens who were quick-growing clones of their warriors in tubes, and as they compressed the growth cycle further and further the clones started getting disjointed. The Empire started moving away from Kamino cloning to experiment with Spaarti cylinders, an entirely different tech, and growing clones too quickly in those tends to make them insane. It helps that he was vague about all of that the first time around.
// As for the hand, it's been implied (or possibly outright stated) that Vader has had that hand replaced more than once. It could have easily been that he had it removed as punishment by the Emperor for his failure. All the people who know for sure how he lost it (Dooku, Padme, Obi-Wan, Yoda, the other Jedi) were dead by this time in the books, so it could well have been a story spread by the Emperor to show not even his closest servant got away with failure unscathed, or even have lead in-universe EpilepticTrees and WildMassGuessing!

*** Ironically, most of the instances when it's been used afterward have been by the Republic, and probably out of as much grudging respect as historical accuracy it's referred to as the "Thrawn Pincer".
* MindRape: C'baoth is a very bad man. See the spoilered part of CharmPerson, above.

* MyGreatestFailure: Thrawn has one piece of art, which looks like thrashing liquid, which he keeps to remind him of the one time that said art did not give him any insight into the race that made it - which he then casually adds he [[KillEmAll destroyed their home world.]] Lately, it's been hinted that this was the home world of General Grievous.

** Also TheGreatestStoryNeverTold--later books fill in much of Thrawn's backstory hinted at here, such as his encounter with the original Jorus C'baoth, but we are never enlightened about this. It's ''hinted'' in some sources that it was the Khaleesh, General Grievous's people, but nothing's ever been made concrete.
* NoEndorHolocaust: Harshly averted with the planet Honoghr, which was utterly decimated during a battle in orbit due to destroyed ships crashing into the surface, stray fire, and toxic chemicals being dumped into the atmosphere. And this was just with regular ships; there was no DeathStar involved. Honoghr's disaster was deliberately exacerbated by the Empire, who made the restoration slow enough to keep the Noghri in perpetual service. Even after the Noghri discover this and begin a proper clean-up, Luke and Khabarakh suspect that it's too late for the planet to be saved.

* NonActionBigBad: Thrawn. Justifed because he's a FourStarBadass MagnificentBastard who is ''much'' more dangerous commanding his troops than personally leading them. Some of the later novels which elaborate on Thrawn's backstory, however, reveal that his abilities in personal combat are nothing to sneeze at either, at least when he was younger. He simply doesn't have any need to stroke his ego by putting himself in personal combat when there's no strategic benefit to it.
** Note that ''none'' of the original PowerTrio ever meet Thrawn face-to-face; the best Han and Leia ever get are glimpses at a distance, and Luke doesn't interact with him at all.

* ProudWarriorRace: The Noghri and the Wookiees.
** Khabarakh and Chewbacca eventually get along very well due to the [[NotSoDifferent similarities]] in their cultures.

* PyrrhicVictory: Sure, the Republic stopped Thrawn's plan to steal several dozen capital warships, but considering that the warships were crippled in the process, I don't think the Empire had too much to complain about...

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Averted as much as is possible for ''StarWars'': realizing that the galaxy has over a ''million'' inhabited worlds, Zahn (unlike some other StarWarsExpandedUniverse writers) doesn't recycle locations from the films without good reason. And at those times when the heroes know they need to find something on an unfamiliar world, they don't act like knowing what planet it's on will make things easy. Planets are ''big''.

* StunGuns: Zahn introduces the Stokhli Spray Stick, an unconventional weapon which can both stun people and also allow one to play at being [[SpiderMan Spider-Man]]. The Noghri use it when trying to capture a pregnant Leia because the normal Star Wars stun blasters have a better than fifty-fifty shot of inducing a miscarriage.

* VillainousBreakdown: Thrawn has one (at least for him- it probably wouldn't count as one for a less-controlled villain) when he gets hit by a whole bunch of things he didn't see coming at once. He regains his composure within moments--but those few moments were all that [[spoiler:Rukh]] needed...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally Zahn wanted the character that became Joruus C'baoth to be an insane clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the clone he unleashes on Luke at the end of ''The Last Command'' to be a clone of Darth Vader. Lucasarts vetoed both of these.

** In-universe, Pellaeon wonders how the Battle of Endor would have turned out if Thrawn had been in command. Considering how close the ''actual'' Battle of Endor was and how brilliant Thrawn is, the answer would almost certainly have been "so long, Rebel scum."
*** [[{{StarWars/ChoicesOfOne}} A later book]] has Thrawn and the Emperor explicitly discussing the latter's plans for Endor shortly before the Battle of Hoth. Thrawn quickly picks up on the Emperor's ploy to leave Endor's shield generator lightly defended as a lure for the Rebels, and warns him about the possibility of the locals siding with the Rebels. The Emperor, [[FantasticRacism of course]], [[VillainBall dismisses the primitives as a threat]].

* WickedCultured: Thrawn, so very much.
** Hell, he weaponized it.

* WolverinePublicity: Despite not being that important of a character in the first book, C'baoth is featured the most prominently on the cover, while Thrawn is given a very small space in the corner. While not quite the standard use of the trope since C'baoth was a new character, the publishers were probably going for "hey, look! a Jedi!". Oddly enough, even though it is in the later two books where the majority of his arc takes place, he gets much less cover space on the final book and isn't even on the cover of the second.
** Except for the [[http://www.starwarsklub.hu/10_konyvek/konyvek_001/jpg/thrawn_1_a_birodalom_orokos.jpg Hungarian cover]] which prominently featured the Grand Admiral... but not C'baoth!
* XanatosGambit: Thrawn successfully runs so many of these that he gets the protagonists chasing their own tails trying to avoid stepping into the next one. He pretty much defines the trope in an aside to Pellaeon, patiently explaining why they're considering attacking a world which the New Republic prizes greatly.
--> "When we're finally ready to draw the Coruscant sector fleet into ambush, Mrisst will be the perfect lure to use. If they come out to meet us, we'll defeat them then and there. And if they somehow sense the trap and refuse to engage, we'll have our forward base. Either way, the Empire will triumph."

* XanatosSpeedChess / GambitPileup: [[spoiler:Karrde desperately trying to keep Han and Lando from finding Luke and vice versa, and then trying to keep all three hidden from Thrawn while still not letting them become aware of each other]].
** The [[spoiler: raid for the CGT at the end of the trilogy had all three sides trying to outwit each other.]]

** Interestingly, Luke ''doesn't'' get this title, even though he's just as qualified for it (and, [[HeirClubForMen technically]], is [[RevengeOfTheSith the older of the two]].) This is probably because Noghri society is a matriarchy, at least on the family level, and would thus see Vader's daughter as his true heir.
** Also because for awhile the Nohgri ''didn't know'' that Vader had two children but once they do meet him he is also revered, if not ''quite'' as much as Leia (they did meet her first, after all), with them simply referring to him as "Son of Vader."

** The second time, the situation was similar, but the mook had shown quick thinking and inventiveness, even if he'd failed. Instead of killing him, Thrawn promoted him and told him to perfect the tactic he'd used. [[HandOfThrawn He did.]]
*** The difference: the first one had a situation whose solution was clearly stated in the training manual. The second ''explicitly'' had no such solution, because one didn't exist.
*** Another: the second officer took responsibility for the failure. The first one did not, and ''tried to pin the blame on his superior officer.'' One speculates whether he would have kept his head if he had just admitted his mistake; Thrawn doesn't punish failure, just irredeemable stupidity.
** Discussed by Thrawn. To Thrawn, doing this the way Vader and Palpatine did is stupid because killing failures leads to less innovation, and also people fight more effectively when their leader inspires them.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: You know Zahn cracked a nice little smile when he realized this.
** Though in earlier printings it was actually referred to as "The ''Empire'' Trilogy".

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted by some of the planet names. Zahn isn't scared of having some very consonant-heavy and undervoweled planet names, like [[TheUnpronounceable Bpfassh]], presumably named so by their alien populations who, you know, don't speak English. [[TranslationConvention Or Basic, as it's called.]]

* BatmanGambit: Thrawn is master of these, usually working out from an enemy's artwork how they will respond to a given tactic. He also realizes our heroes' penchant for choosing strategies on the basis of "our enemies can't possibly believe we'd be that crazy", and uses it to deduce that they'll hit the heavily defended shipyards at Bilbringi rather than the less-defended Tangrene.

*** Zahn and a couple others actually did {{Retcon}} a form of this back into canon. A comic had a battle between Republic forces (including Pellaeon) and besieged Separatist aliens who were quick-growing clones of their warriors in tubes, and as they compressed the growth cycle further and further the clones started getting disjointed. The Empire started moving away from Kamino cloning to experiment with Spaarti cylinders, an entirely different tech, and growing clones too quickly in those tends to make them insane. It helps that he was vague about all of that the first time around.
*** As for the hand, it's been implied (or possibly outright stated) that Vader has had that hand replaced more than once. It could have easily been that he had it removed as punishment by the Emperor for his failure. All the people who know for sure how he lost it (Dooku, Padme, Obi-Wan, Yoda, the other Jedi) were dead by this time in the books, so it could well have been a story spread by the Emperor to show not even his closest servant got away with failure unscathed, or even have lead in-universe EpilepticTrees and WildMassGuessing!

* CharacterisationMarchesOn: When Thrawn is asking C'baoth to join him, these lines seem rather out of character for the later Thrawn (though one can argue that Thrawn was simply trying to appeal to C'baoth and was caught flat-footed)--
-->''(Thrawn has explained what he wants C'baoth to do for him, coordinating his armies)''\\

* CharmPerson: Joruus C'baoth uses a simple Jedi Mind Trick on Pellaeon to get him to deliver an order C'baoth doesn't want Thrawn to know about, and then has Pellaeon [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forget]] ever giving such an order. Later we find out C'baoth is capable of far, ''far'' worse, [[spoiler:using a highly destructive form of mind control to destroy an Imperial general's mind and turn him into a near-mindless puppet. When the poor man passes into a Force null area, he operates on implanted instructions, then lies down to take a nap he never wakes up from - C'baoth had demolished so much of his brain he couldn't survive when not directly being controlled.]] Really, Pellaeon got off very lucky.

* ChekhovsGun: The ''Katana'' Fleet, Delta Source, ch'hala trees, Spaarti Cylinders.

* ContestWinnerCameo: Of all the tropes in this trilogy, this one's what you'd least expect, but the tractor beam crewer and his officer in the first book, as it turns out...

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Zahn is fond of using these. Many of them proved to be CanonFodder for later authors, especially Michael Stackpole. A few were never followed up on, such as "that incident off Xyquine" where Pash Cracken invented the Cracken Twist (which by the time period Wedge gives should have been during the XWingSeries, but never came up).
** They've now followed up on that one too: [[http://web.archive.org/web/20101101111927/http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/pashcracken/index.html]], [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cracken_Twist]].

* DevilsAdvocate: In ''TheThrawnTrilogy'', Captain Pellaon acted as a DevilsAdvocate to Grand Admiral Thrawn, and later commended his subordinate for playing this trope in ''HandOfThrawn''.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Pellaeon is depicted as clean shaven in the comic adaptation and there is no mention of facial hair in the novels. Practically [[http://chinese-starwars.com/jediarchive/expanduniverse/donald/donald/24_captain_pellaeon.jpg every]] [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/f/f3/GiladPellaeon.JPG picture]] [[http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/images/features/general/PellaeonTournamentPack.jpg and]] [[http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/6/69/PellaeonYVW.jpg description]] [[http://www.imperialchicks.com/profiles/images/Grand_Admiral_Pellaeon2.jpg since]] (including [[HandOfThrawn Zahn's later books]]) have described Pellaeon as having a [[BadassMustache distinctive bushy mustache]] to the extent that at least one unnamed Imperial officer in a later comic was thought to be him just because he had a bushy mustache.

* EntertaininglyWrong: For all of Thrawn's reputation of AwesomenessByAnalysis, he does make a major miscalculation with a logical-yet-incorrect conclusion in the second book regarding Khabarakh's whereabouts during the month since the first book. Most of what goes wrong for Thrawn later on is a result of this error snowballing into disaster.
** The most plausible explanation for this error was that Thrawn didn't know that Leia and Luke were in fact Vader's children (see above). Without that key piece of information, drawing the proper conclusion would've been ''impossible''.
*** A later book, ''Tatooine Ghost'', has the fact that Luke and Leia are Anakin/Vader's kids be common knowledge ''on Tatooine'' at that time. And Thrawn visits Tatooine, with his agents all over it, so its author created more CanonDiscontinuity.

* EvilIsNotAToy: Joruus C'baoth. Unusually for this trope Thrawn is very much aware of the dangers of using the insane Dark Jedi and takes precautions. [[spoiler:They nearly work, too.]]
** In addition to the short-term precautions, Thrawn had long-term plans to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dispose of and replace C'baoth]].
* EvilOverlord: While Joruus is otherwise a dead-on example, he sees no appeal to the idea of ruling over millions of people he'll never even meet, considering total control over people he personally interacts with on a daily basis to be the true meaning of power. Which is what happens when you work with TheEmpire. [[spoiler:He changes his mind once he realizes he can personally put most of his minions under MindControl, made even easier by the legion of clones who have near-identical minds.]]
** Averted with Thrawn, who is certainly ruthless but treats his subordinates well (with the exception of those he finds unsalvageably inept). He's certainly a better man than C'baoth, Vader, or Palpatine. Later-written books, most notably ''OutboundFlight'', still have him as very ambiguous and ruthless, but somewhat less villainous.
*** Arguably, the later books depict him as a WellIntentionedExtremist type.

* AFatherToHisMen: Thrawn, while not to the degree of other examples on the trope page, certainly compared to what most of the Imperial commanders show in other works.
** This is hammered in during the third book, after the tractor beam incident and the operator's [[spoiler: promotion for thinking outside the box and the manual even though his idea didn't work.]] In fact, it's lampshaded by Zahn.
** The Noghri, on the other hand, have something to say about this after they find out he's been lying to them for ''years'' to manipulate them into being his EliteMooks.

* {{Flanderisation}}: Thrawn is a very gifted tactician who is excellent at deduction. Later books by other authors treat him as being omniscient and undefeatable, despite making several clear mistakes in the books, notably underestimating the Noghri. This was mocked by Zahn himself in the ''HandOfThrawn'' books, with several aliens in the Senate who never encountered Thrawn the first time being terrified of his reputation and the main characters {{Lampshading}} that he was never ''that'' good.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[MemeticMutation Internet memes]] were still a few years away from developing, but upon running into a huge fleet of warships set in ambush by Thrawn, Admiral Ackbar observes that "[[CaptainObvious it appears to be a trap]]". And again, in the first book, Han says his smuggler contacts are unwilling to work for the New Republic because they suspect a trap. Admiral Ackbar, on the New Republic's ruling council, wryly says "Because of me, no doubt." [[MakesSenseInContext It makes sense in-universe]], since Ackbar's species has gotten a reputation for being hard on smugglers.

* IControlMyMinionsThrough: Grand Admiral Thrawn used Money for mercenary types, Authority on some Imperials and the Noghri, Indoctrination on clones, Fear on the Noghri and sometimes his Imperials, Sadism (sort of) with C'baoth, and for the others... Respect. He knew that it's best to be feared ''and'' loved, and put a high value on people who were both loyal and competent.

* IdiotBall: Thrawn letting Mara Jade live after betraying her. [[BondVillainStupidity It doesn't turn out well]].

* KansasCityShuffle: The Republic tries one on Thrawn, by quietly gathering forces to make it look like they're attacking Tangrene, when they're really going after Bilbringi. Clever plan, but it [[OutGambitted fails spectacularly]] because, well, it's ''[[MagnificentBastard Thrawn]]''.
** However, they also manage to shuffle the [[spoiler: smugglers, which helps win the day.]]

* KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand: Mara blames Luke for Palpatine's death, and as such wants to kill him...[[HappilyMarried Of course, we all know where that ended up.]]
** For most of the trilogy, Mara is openly frustrated at the fact that she keeps needing Luke's help and thus can't kill him yet.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Pellaeon was the only Imperial commander at the Battle of Endor with the presence of mind to order a retreat. Despite several higher-ranking officers still being alive at Endor, Pellaeon's order was obeyed, because those higher-ranking officers were too panicked to countermand him. [[spoiler:When Thrawn dies, he does the same.]] More notably employed by Thrawn himself when his attack on Sluis Van fails. When Pellaeon is surprised at Thrawn's order to retreat, Thrawn explains "this is a setback, Captain, nothing more."
** It also is one of the reasons Pellaeon constantly wonders how things would've gone if Thrawn had been in charge of the Endor fleet.
** Thrawn says that he refused to lead foolhardy attacks, even when ordered to by the Emperor himself...who came to agree with him after the replacement commanders failed.

* ALighterShadeOfGrey: Compared to the Imperials from the movies, and to the Imperials written by just about every other Expanded Universe author, Zahn's Imperials really aren't that bad. They're... [[NotSoDifferent people]], who happen to be the enemies of our heroes, and who do things our heroes wouldn't do.
** Here's a quote from the [[AllThereInTheManual Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook]] about how Thrawn was regarded by his troops. The Emperor and Vader had been feared.

*** Thrawn, at least by this point, is still not a good person, though. He has absolutely no qualms about betraying Mara to get to Karrde in ''Dark Force Rising'', kidnapping someone's children and delivering them to be corrupted by an AxCrazy clone, and his military strategy involves growing his own [[CloningBlues slave soldiers by the thousands]] and throwing them at the Republic. Thrawn is more like ALighterShadeOfBlack; he's no CardCarryingVillain, but it should always be remembered that he is a ''[[ManipulativeBastard ruthless]]'' son of a bitch.

* ManipulativeBastard: C'baoth, though his insanity means he can't stay focused on his manipulations for long. When they fail, he generally falls back on MindRape.

*** Thrawn himself is more of TheChessmaster, but he occasionally showed tendencies of this as when he personally manipulated Mara Jade and Mazzic.

* MeaningfulName: The Noghri come from the planet Honoghr. The 'g' and 'h' in that name are silent, and that quality becomes well proven.

* PragmaticVillainy: Thrawn, very much so.

** However played straight in the numbers of ships aspect, which was apparent in the original trilogy. For the size of the galaxy, the 200 ship strong ''Katana'' ''Dreadnaught''-class Heavy Cruiser fleet should barely be considered a ''picket'' force, much less one that could turn the tables in a galaxy spanning War.

* FourStarBadass: Grand Admiral Thrawn has no sensitivity to the Force whatsoever, and he'll ''still'' rip your battle fleet to shreds, you Rebel scum. That said, [[spoiler: the New Republic was stymieing him at Bilbringi even with his entrapping them, thanks to some help from Talon Karrde's people which forced him to split his forces, and might have actually defeeated him even without Rukh's assassination of Thrawn.]]