Characters / Star Wars - Imperial Remnant

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Imperial Remnant

After the Empire's defeat at Endor and later Jakku, most of the Imperial military either surrendered or fled to the Unknown Regions to found the First Order. However, a number of die-hard fanatics remained in the known regions of the galaxy and held out on various worlds, determined to see the Empire rise again. Many of them answered to the enigmatic and ruthless former Imperial Security Bureau officer turned warlord Moff Gideon, while others answered to scattered warlords in the Outer Rim. But some New Republic military officers worried that there was more to this collection of holdovers than first appeared...

In reality, the Imperial Remnant warlords were far from scattered. They had united under the Shadow Council and the leadership of Grand Admiral Thrawn. This united front of warlords plotted to destroy the New Republic and restore the Empire under their leadership.

Leadership

Thrawn

Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, "Thrawn"

"What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality for those who may oppose us."

^{Click here to see him in the Imperial era:}
"I study the art of war, and I work to perfect it."

Species: Chiss

Homeworld: Rentor

Portrayed by: Lars Mikkelsen

Appearances: Chaos Rising | Greater Good | Lesser Evil | Tales of the Empire | Thrawn | Thrawn: Alliances | Thrawn: Treason | Rebels | The Mandalorian^note Mentioned only | Ahsoka

"To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history, philosophy, art."

A Chiss military agent discreetly dispatched to the Empire under the guise of exile in an attempt to secure a military alliance against a warmongering race known as the Grisk. To this end, he joined the Imperial Navy, rapidly rising through the ranks and eventually becoming a Grand Admiral of the Empire. His good fortune would hit a snag, however, when he was tasked with apprehending a rebel cell known as Phoenix Squadron on the eve of the Galactic Civil War. Thrawn's battle against Phoenix Squadron ended with the Chimera trapped in another galaxy.

Discovering a coven of Nightsisters on the planet Peridea, Thrawn plotted his return to his galaxy with them, learning through them of the demise of the Emperor and fall of the Empire. Thrawn schemed to take command of the scattered Imperial Remnants and destroy the New Republic.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Much to his own detriment, no one in the Season 3 Imperial cast has any appreciation for his craft (except for maybe Yularen, and Pryce doesn't really care as long as the job is done), and they can do nothing but quietly complain about it to themselves. By the end of Season 3, everyone in his inner circle have either abandoned him, or have been killed, leaving him only Pryce. An example of a character suffering this trope despite being incredibly competent and, as Imperials go, entirely fairhanded.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Thanks to him being based on Lars Mikkelsen, he is a lot slimmer and more elegant than his Legends incarnation. That said, he's shown to have gained a bit more weight in Ahsoka.
• Adaptational Badass: Thrawn's physical prowess was never really looked at in his Legends counterpart, which focused almost entirely on his planning and leadership. In Rebels, Thrawn is shown to be an excellent hand to hand combatant, who spars with specialty droids and defeats Kallus in hand to hand combat. Even outside of hand-to-hand combat, he was able to defeat the Bendu — a powerful Force entity who can summon a lightning storm — without any assistance from a ysalamir (a creature which was notable for naturally being able to negate the Force around it in Legends, and Thrawn exploited these against Force users).
• Adaptational Curves: He's rail-thin but proves to be surprisingly muscular in Rebels. In Ahsoka he has a noticeable gut and is lacking in muscle.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In one specific area. He has a noted inability to handle political maneuvering, with his career suffering several speed bumps from his lack of political finesse and his alliance with Pryce existing because he needs a politician in his corner to bail him out of whatever new mess he finds himself in. In Legends, Thrawn was as knowledgeable about politics as he was about everything else, and regularly exploited his enemies' political situations to his advantage; while he did have some political troubles, these had explanations provided beyond him simply not knowing better. ^note Thrawn was aware of how his actions might lead to exile from the Chiss, he just didn't care. And he was rumored to have politically disgraced himself and was sent to the Unknown Regions as a result, but it was heavily implied that Palpatine really did that to put Thrawn where he could do the most good as well as keeping the alien genius out of sight and out of mind of a highly racist Imperial nobility.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The most famous Post-Endor Legends villain makes his first appearance in Canon several years before the Battle of Yavin.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Compared to several Legends stories — including his début trilogy — Thrawn is less of an Anti-Villain in Rebels, though he's still more respectful and polite than almost everyone else associated with the Empire. That said, according to Thrawn, he manages to remain a Noble Demon despite this — e.g., his genuine friendship with Vanto, and his Even Evil Has Standards against Pryce for causing the civilian casualties that Thrawn will inevitably be "credited" for.
  • The Mandalorian indicates that those under his command are prone to torturing and killing civilians for no real reason. He is also apparently trying to get rid of Ahsoka in case she finds a lead on his whereabouts.
• Adaptational Name Change: In Legends, Mitth'raw'nuruodo is the character's birth name. In the Disney canon, he was actually born Kivu'raw'nuru and later took on his familiar name after he was adopted by the Mitth family.
• Adaptational Villainy: In Legends, Thrawn spent most of his service to the Empire, including almost all of the Galactic Civil War, off campaigning in the Unknown Regions. The few glimpses of his actions there presented him as, at worst, the gray of a black and gray conflict. In the current canon, Thrawn directly fights against the Rebels on multiple occasions and otherwise aids the Emperor in subjugating the galaxy. In Rebels, he's also shown launching a bombardment on the civilian population of Lothal to get Ezra to surrender. Legends Thrawn, while certainly willing to use intimidation and manipulation, never attacked civilians that we know of. Except once — a species whose art he said did not give him any insight, and whose world he wound up ultimately destroying^note He did end eventually learn to understand them and their art... but it didn't matter, because he'd killed them all..
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In Legends, Tyber Zann and Thrawn were old friends back in their imperial beginnings, when the former was top student in the military academy on Carida and the latter hadn't risen to Admiral yet, and even after Zann was kicked out and became a galaxy-level criminal, Thrawn still felt friendly enough to warn Zann not to challenge the Empire a second time. In the Disney canon, the Zann Consortium has been shown to exist too, but no word is given about its founder or leadership, omitting any relation to Thrawn or the Empire.
• Affably Evil: Respectful of his enemies to a fault, though nonetheless a dangerous threat. Thrawn is also quite polite to fellow Imperials who have earned his validation.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Like all Chiss, he is blue-skinned.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Becomes one for Hera. She's the member of the Ghost crew that he interacts with the most (if at all), he has a fair amount of Villain Respect for her, and during his assault on Atollon, shots of them are juxtaposed to show him wearing down her defences and halting the attack to move in for the kill, precisely at the moment when she closes her eyes in defeat.
  • He spends most of Thrawn, and therefore his career, playing cat-and-mouse with Nightswan, with other Imperials describing it as an obsession.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Gives one to Padmé in Thrawn: Alliances: "The Separatists wished to leave the Republic. Why didn’t you simply allow them to go?" She responds that the Separatists started the war by attacking the Republic first, but the question continues to gnaw at her, especially after witnessing the collateral damage caused by destroying the Separatist operation.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Summed up in his introduction quote, as quoted above.
  • Demonstrated thrice during his debut: first when quickly deducing a distance-and-timing-based connection between Hondo's escape and Ezra and co.'s skirmish with the Mining Guild ships, then when allowing Phoenix Squadron to escape with several stolen Y-Wings so Thrawn can track them all the way to the bigger fish. Thirdly when determining a seemingly random Twi'lek was actually Hera Syndulla simply because she tried to reclaim her Kalikori.
  • His novel reveals that he met Anakin Skywalker sometime during the Clone Wars in the Thrugii Asteroid Belt, and was able to deduce from a brief conversation that the Chancellor was making him into some kind of servant, something that Anakin himself was unaware of at the time. He also implies that he knows that Vader and Anakin are in fact one and the same, and deduces the existence of the Death Star project by working out that the Empire is buying up far more strategic materials than are needed for the official fleet shipbuilding projects.
• Badass Boast:
  • Regardless of other people screwing up his plans, these boasts are not unjustified.
    Thrawn: We will show the Galaxy what happens to those that dare speak against the Emperor.
  • When he meets with Morgan Elsbeth and her party who are finally here to deliver him back to the main galaxy, Thrawn spells out that the time has finally come for his grand return.
    Thrawn: What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality for those who may oppose us.
• Badass Bookworm: In addition to being The Chessmaster, he's also a skilled hand-to-hand fighter. He trains daily with assassin droids that have orders to kill him.
• Badass Normal: Extraordinary intellect aside, being non-Force-sensitive doesn't stop Thrawn from defending himself, should the need arise. He's shown to partake in intense exercises with training droids and is well-trained in hand-to-hand combat. He survives an assassination attempt by Kallus sabotaging his droids, and later defeats Kallus himself in a short brawl after revealing his treachery.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • In Season 3 of Rebels, he utterly destroys most of Phoenix Squadron, as well as any hope of striking at Lothal, thus earning a tactical victory from it. The only thing preventing his plan from being completely successful was that his boss Tarkin gave him the order to take any Rebel leaders alive, some of his subordinates disobeyed his orders, and the last-minute intervention of the Bendu kept him from killing the survivors on Chopper Base himself.
  • In the Season 1 finale of Ahsoka, he successfully returns back to the main galaxy along with 3 powerful Nightsister witches, leaving Sabine, Ahsoka and Huyang stranded on the unknown galaxy.
• Batman Gambit: Masterfully anticipates when and where the Rebels are going to attack on several occasions; they only manage to pull it off or escape because he lets them do so as part of his grander plans. He is unable to anticipate exactly how they are going to pull off these attacks, but he seems to enjoy watching and learning. He makes this aspect of his strategic mindset clear from his introduction alone.
  Thrawn: I will start my operations here, and pull the rebels apart piece by piece. They will be the architects of their own destruction.
• Benevolent Boss: While he is a Bad Boss in many respects, in the same vein, he is also quick to acknowledge and respect personnel with considerable skill even when they betray him, at least if it's not openly. This attribute has only grown during his long exile, with him being much more hesitant to throw away the lives of his troops and making sure that they give informed consent before sending them on potential suicide missions.
• Berserk Button:
  • Threatening to destroy beautiful art, as seen when a xenophobic Imperial captain does so with a Twi'lek family heirloom, and Thrawn very nearly physically beats him before regaining his composure. This is one of the few if only times we have ever seen Thrawn lose his cool, including Legends continuity.
  • He is furious with Governor Pryce when her actions, in a desperate attempt to claim a victory, end up compromising the entirety of the TIE Defender Project. His wrath in that scene is utterly terrifying.
  • Anything that comes out of left field that could be universally seen as a Didn't See That Coming moment which also happens to disrupt his plans or being in a situation he has absolutely no control over or contingencies for. Thrawn may plan and think several steps ahead with lots of backup plans but anything that renders all of his plans or contingencies moot is a sore spot for him, given his Control Freak tendencies.
• Big Bad:
  • He's the primary antagonist in Rebels from Season 3 onward, having been brought in by Grand Moff Tarkin and Governor Pryce to deal with the growing Rebellion. Even with the Emperor himself taking an active role in Season 4, Thrawn still comfortably occupies the Big Bad role, as defeating him ends the Empire's occupation of the Lothal sector.
  • He makes his grand return as the villain of Ahsoka, with all the other major villains in the series being his subordinates. As established in The Mandalorian, he's the true leader of the Imperial Remant who's plotting to escape his exile and destroy the New Republic, before bringing the known Galaxy under his rule.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Maul throughout Season 3 of Rebels. Thrawn is the more prominent of the two as the main Imperial antagonist, but Maul is a more personal enemy for the Ghost crew, specifically Ezra, and completely independent of the Empire. Maul's death in the season's penultimate episode "Twin Suns" leaves Thrawn as the sole villain for the finale "Zero Hour" and all of Season 4.
• Blood Knight: Although for strategy rather than fighting, Thrawn fits this to a T. He sees war as an art and is driven to perfect it, finding the best and most thorough ways to utterly destroy the enemy not out of a political agenda, but because he loves doing it.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Even Thrawn was subject to this. It was a huge mistake to let Kallus live and leave him with less competent Imperials as opposed to executing him once the rebel base was discovered. When that happened, once he was out of Thrawn's watch, it was easy for him to goad his way out. Even Kallus himself wouldn't have made the mistake to leave traitors alive, as Minister Tua found out. Then again, at that point the rebels knew that Kallus had been captured, so it really wouldn't have mattered if he escaped or not. However Tarkin ordered Thrawn to capture the Rebel leadership as prisoners, and the traitor might have had some useful information. Even so, this was his Fatal Flaw in Legends, so it makes sense from a meta perspective.
• Boring, but Practical: His TIE Defender program, mass producing elite starfighters that would give them an overwhelming advantage over the Rebel Alliance, beating them at their own game, as opposed to focusing the majority of their resources on one superweapon. Had it been allowed to continue it would almost certainly have wiped out the nascent Rebellion, but his superiors preferred the fear and sheer power of the Death Star. After the setbacks of season 4, they used that as an excuse to discontinue the Defender program in favor of the Project Stardust. This also extends to his strategies, as he tends to go for the more mundane but reliable methods—formations and tactics—rather than flashy but risky ones.
• Brought Down to Badass: When he was brought back into canon in Rebels, he was still a monstrously capable tacticician, but they made him less unstoppably perfect. He shows flashes of rage and is less the perfect officer Zahn invented. Even so, he is Awesomeness by Analysis personified and orders of magnitude more competent than most imps.
• Brutal Honesty: While he will happily lie to enemies, he's like this to his allies. After a particularly left-handed complement to Wullf Yularen (praising the former admiral's tactical ability in a very condescending way) the latter remarks that Thrawn really does lack even the most basic political instincts. The trait is much more prominent in the books than in the show.
• Canon Immigrant: Perhaps the biggest import from the Legends continuity, Thrawn hails from Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, one cornerstone of the EU, made non-canon after the EU reboot in 2014. His personal Star Destroyer Chimaera was also imported, now featuring a stylized hybrid creature painted on the underbelly.
• The Chessmaster: Textbook example. Even when Thrawn loses, he still wins. The best example probably happens in "Rebel Assault", where despite his best efforts, the Rebel forces manage to break through the blockade above Lothal... only to run straight into the second blockade which they had no idea Thrawn had hidden just below the atmosphere. The Rebel fighter squadron is annihilated, with Hera, Chopper, and Mart Mattin as the only survivors.invoked
• Cold Ham: Constantly calm and down-to-earth, yet dramatic and eloquent at the same time. Even during a Not So Stoic moment, he visibly tries to restrain himself as much as possible.
• Combat Aestheticist: To Thrawn, warfare is just another form of art for him to study, and perfect.
• Comically Missing the Point: A realistic one in that when he starts to learn Basic, he doesn't know slang, especially expletives. Eli curses in front of him and then has to explain to him that it's an obscenity.
• The Comically Serious: Again, a realistic one. When he meets with Pryce in a secret meeting at a Coruscant diner, his incognito disguise is a hooded cloak... and green shades. Pryce finds it a strange look on him, but he either has no idea of how ridiculous it looks or doesn't care.
• Commonality Connection: He takes Eli under his wing because the boy has not only heard things about the Chiss, but he also knows some of their language, which interests Thrawn.
• Connected All Along: It's revealed in Thrawn: Alliances that he met and worked with Padmé Amidala during the Clone Wars.
• Contemplative Boss: His private time tends to involve (1) a Reverse Arm-Fold and (2) studying art.
• Control Freak:
  • A Downplayed Trope in Thrawn's case as he doesn't feel slighted or personally insulted easily and is too practical and level-headed to be petty. But while Thrawn isn't interested in power for its own sake like the emperor or having a fragile ego like many of the other imperial officers, Thrawn takes his goals seriously and will do anything to achieve his ends with only a limit when it comes to the means he'll use. His meticulousness and hyper-attention to detail is a result of him wanting to succeed at least in some way as he hates waste or All for Nothing outcomes. As such, he can get really irritated by a Spanner in the Works or Didn't See That Coming moments that he couldn't have ever planned for.
  • He admits and justifies it to an extent, arguing that while the Empire may be needlessly cruel at times, a strong hand is needed to maintain order in the galaxy and keep chaos (and the threats he fears in the Unknown Regions) at bay. What his nemesis Nightswan tries to make him see is that his logic is ultimately self-defeating: by definition, his and the Empire's attempts to control the galaxy will breed dissent and rebellion, and therefore, only make it harder for them to achieve the order and unity they want.
• Cool Starship: His personal Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, stands out from its Legends counterpart by having a stylized hybrid monster painted on the underbelly.
• Crazy-Prepared: Thrawn is just skilled enough to prepare himself for any situation, even when a Jedi is involved.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In Thrawn: Alliances, while explaining to Vader about how the Force-sensitive Chiss children are used by the Ascendancy as astronavigators until their ability fades, after which they are cast aside, Vader notices that he looks troubled, as if he were remembering a past tragedy. The Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy reveals that Thrawn had an older sister who was taken away to become a navigator when he was only 3, and he never saw her again. While Thrawn's sister is still alive, she does not remember her brother due to her memories of her original family being suppressed by the Chiss Ascendancy, so she decides not to reunite with Thrawn.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has a very dry wit and likes to subtly (or not so subtly) insult people for their incompetence while not changing from his usual cool tone.
  Thrawn: [as the rebels fly away with the TIE Defender prototype] Was that part of the demonstration, commander?
• Defiant to the End: Though he's justifiably freaking out when he's grabbed by the Purrgil, he still has the presence of mind to shoot Ezra with his blaster and snarl as Ezra jumps them both into hyperspace.
• Didn't See That Coming: His downfall in the Rebels finale is that he did not expect Ezra's back-up plan to summon Space Whales to wreck his fleet and hyperspace-jump them to a completely different galaxy. His reputation is well earned, the only way to defeat him is to invoke a galactic, epic Didn't See That Coming, otherwise he will have Did See It Coming.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Near the end of "Zero Hour", he manages to shoot down the Bendu, a giant alien who has turned himself into a Force storm.
• Dissonant Serenity: Retains this trait from Legends, rarely ever sounding like he's having anything more than a polite conversation. And on top of that, Lars Mikkelsen's voice here makes him sound downright ASMR-worthy.
• Doomed by Canon: Non-lethal example. Since he's mentioned in the past tense in Aftermath: Empire's End, hasn't appeared in any of the canon material set during the Original Trilogy, the Bendu specifically warned about his defeat, and Season 4 introduced his bodyguard Rukh who killed him in Legends, most fans took it for granted that Thrawn would not survive past the end of Rebels. He doesn't die (although Rukh does), but Ezra uses the Purrgil to hyperspace jump the Chimaera into the Unknown Regions with both of them aboard, leaving Ezra and Thrawn MIA for the entire events of the original trilogy. Ironically, it seems the creators wanted him to end up in more or less the same situation he was in when he first appeared in Legends material, so he might be considered Saved by Non-Canon.
• The Dragon: In Season 3, he is acting at behest of Grand Moff Tarkin as his top officer, and the fact that he commands Death Troopers implies he's one of his officers in the Tarkin Initiative. However, it's shown Thrawn isn't always on the same page with Tarkin's orders regarding how to bring an end to the Rebellion; Tarkin wants to capture their leadership and Make an Example of Them, while Thrawn just wants to exterminate the Rebellion at its core, which contributes to the latter's reluctance to take the rebel leaders alive. By Season 4, it looks like Thrawn is losing face with his boss.
• Dragon Ascendant: Following the deaths of Palpatine, Vader, and Gallius Rax, Thrawn assumes command over what's left of the Empire, and has been directing various Imperial remnant cells from his exile in the Unknown Regions. He now intends to return to the known Galaxy to reinstate Imperial rule with himself at its head.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Technically, he's at Grand Moff Tarkin and Governor Pryce's beck and call, but Thrawn is far more intelligent, cunning, and dangerous than either of them. He directs Pryce more often than she does him, and she's shown to actually fear invoking his wrath. When she kills Kanan Jarrus at the cost of the Lothal garrison's entire fuel depot, thus compromising Thrawn's TIE Defender project, he's unequivocally livid while she can only dread what he intends for her, once he returns from Coruscant.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Essentially, it's that he picked the wrong side. He's a sane, intelligent, and highly competent military officer in a cruel, corrupt fascist regime that only has a limited appreciation for any of those traits, and the main advantage the heroes have against him is that he's constantly undermined by more typical Imperials. This is part of what makes him comparably easy to defeat; in The Thrawn Trilogy, Thrawn had assumed ultimate command of the bulk of the Empire's territory and resources, everyone in that splinter of the Empire answered to him. In Rebels, there are multiple layers of command above and below Thrawn, with certain officers more interested in impressing Thrawn's superiors than Thrawn himself, leading to occasionally catastrophic mistakes. Come Ahsoka, however, this handicap has been removed, as Thrawn has now assumed complete command of the Imperial Remnant—as he did in the original expanded universe—and can direct matters without being beholden to the whims of incompetent superiors. Because of this, he wins almost completely by the end, escaping his exile and stranding Ahsoka and Sabine on Peridea.
• The Dreaded: The mere possibility that Thrawn is still alive and planning his return to the known galaxy visibly scares the crap out of Hera and Mon Mothma, who knows exactly how dangerous he is to them all.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy reveals that his older sister was taken by the Chiss Ascendancy to become a navigator as a child. Later he becomes best friends and brothers in name with Thrass, who then dies. He misses them both.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He gets irritated by the arrogance and xenophobia of at least one Imperial officer under his command, but they agree to disagree.
  • He knows that Pryce was the one responsible for the mass casualties of the Battle of Batonn, the battle for which he was promoted to the rank of Grand Admiral, and he is not happy about this. However, he doesn't have any solid evidence to accuse her with.
  • He also seems to genuinely regret having to destroy Lothal and even its defenders—especially Sabine, whose artwork he admires. Ezra calls him on it, as he's still doing it and stealing their art just adds insult to injury. However, as noted below, he doesn't seem to understand why this is a problem.
  • In Thrawn: Alliances, he gets the Force-sensitive Chiss children back from the Grysks and back to their homes and families partly because he cares enough to do so. He also seems to have a personal issue with those children being cast aside by the military after their Force-sensitivity fades. As revealed in the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy, he has a soft spot for the Chiss navigators because his long-lost sister used to be one.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's more of a grey character, since he'll side with whoever is in power, but he says that while yes, you should definitely learn about your enemies (who are probably evil from your perspective), a warrior (as the Chiss have a heavy emphasis on military and fighting) attempting to understand their enemy would be pointless and may cause them to give into mercy if they try to compromise. From his point of view, the best method is to destroy your enemy.
• Evil Is Bigger: In Ahsoka in particular when he's portrayed by the 6'4'' Lars Mikkelsen in live action, he absolutely towers over most of the other characters.
• Evil Old Folks: By the events of Ahsoka he's pushing 70.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has a sharp, commanding baritone to match his imposing stature.
• The Exile: Like in Legends, he was exiled by his people, the Chiss, but was eventually found and rescued by Imperials and would soon join them. However, in the Disney continuity, the exile is actually a cover for Thrawn's undercover mission to assess the Empire to see if they could be useful allies or a threat to the Chiss Ascendancy later. Lesser Evil elaborates on this further by revealing that the exile was also Supreme General Ba'kif's idea to offer up Thrawn as a scapegoat to appease the Syndicure, who initially wanted to punish all the senior officers who were involved in the battle against the Grysks for violating Chiss protocols, while Thrawn offered to take the opportunity of leaving the Ascendancy to embark on an undercover mission to scout out the Galactic Empire.
• A Father to His Men: Zigzagged depending on how competent they are; he has no problem whatsoever with using incompetent ones (especially officers who should know better) as bait or scapegoats, but the Thrawn novels show that he makes a great effort to support and mentor those who show promise (even if it takes them a while to realise that's what he's doing) and is genuinely happy for them when they succeed. His original appearance in Legends distinguishes him from Vader in this respect. Where Vader murders almost anyone who fails even a little (though he did have a bit of a soft spot for Firmus Piett), Thrawn distinguishes incompetence (which he despises) and a situation beyond the imperial's ability to deal with. When, in Legends, Luke escapes a tractor beam using a method the officers couldn't anticipate, Thrawn merely asks them to look over the data and try to find a way to deal with it in the future. Captain Pellaeon notes that he and every man on the bridge would now be willing to die for Thrawn, comparing him to Vader in the text.
• Faux Affably Evil: While normally Affably Evil, he sometimes crosses the line into outright cruelty with a polite veneer, especially around Hera. He mockingly refers to her as "our host" when he captures her home, rubs her brother's death in her face while pretending to study the kalikori before reminding her that she'll soon be the last of her family, and takes satisfaction in demanding her unconditional surrender when Atollon is all but destroyed.
• Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Despite being overwhelmingly stoic and cool-headed, his composure breaks and he shows genuine terror for the first time in the Rebels finale when he realizes he's about to suffer a Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of either the purrgil or hyperspace. He ultimately survives, but it's hard to blame him for that reaction. Still downplayed, in that he handles it a lot better than, say, how Pryce handled the Loth-wolves.
• First-Name Basis: Virtually everyone refers to him by his core name of Thrawn, which is being highly familiar by Chiss etiquette. However, most non-Chiss are biologically incapable of correctly pronouncing his full name, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, and he prefers the overfamiliarity over hearing people continually mispronounce it.
• Four-Star Badass: As an Imperial Grand Admiral, one of the originals of Star Wars.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Thrawn might bristle at the suggestion of destroying art, but he doesn't see any problem with him hoarding artifacts of the Empire's victims for his personal pleasure. He's genuinely surprised that Hera would rather see it smashed than in his hands.
  Hera: My family's legacy belongs to us alone. It is not for some collector's curiosity.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • The Bendu tells Thrawn that he can see his defeat, "like many arms surrounding you in a cold embrace". Since visions from Force-wielders are always guaranteed to happen in some shape or form, Thrawn will experience a rather crushing defeat in the future. "Farewell", the series finale to Rebels, has Thrawn defeated by being "embraced" in the tentacles of Purrgil, and then shot into hyperspace to parts unknown.
  • It's also already been established that the TIE Defenders were never mass-produced, making his pet project a failure. However, that didn't stop the First Order from developing more practical TIEs that utilize the same features like a hyperdrive and shielding.
• Formerly Fit: Downplayed. In Rebels, Thrawn was shown to be quite slim and physically active both while training and on the battlefield. By contrast, Ahsoka shows that he's gained a little bit of weight during his exile in another galaxy, though he isn't completely out-of-shape.
• Friendship Moment: At the end of Thrawn, Thrawn leaves his private journal entries with his long time translator and guide Eli Vanto, revealing that despite his neutral demeanor he did value Eli's friendship. He's so confident in Eli's abilities that he even leaves him coordinates for him to meet up with and join the Chiss Ascendancy as the Human Ambassador.
• Friend to All Children: A very specific one. Thrawn is consistently kind to the Chiss children navigators, known as sky-walkers, and indulgent to their needs because his long-lost sister was one.
• Genius Bruiser: Thrawn is one of the smartest strategists in the history of the Empire, but he also keeps his body as sharp as his mind, sparring with Imperial Security Droids in his spare time and being a skilled enough fighter to defeat Agent Kallus in hand-to-hand combat.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian confirms that he is still alive and that the Magistrate of Calodan is working for him. Chapter 23 takes it further by confirming him as the unseen leader of the Imperial Remnant.
• The Heavy: Though Palpatine still leads the Empire, and Tarkin is back giving orders, Thrawn is the main Imperial commander in Season 3 of Rebels and the one specifically going after the Ghost and her crew. He survives the Season 3 finale of Rebels so his role continues into the next season.
• Hellish Pupils: Inverted — he has normal, human-like pupils, which is notable since they were either absent or muted with art portraying the Legends version of the character.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: The flashbacks throughout Lesser Evil show that Thrawn and Thrass became very close friends after they met in Thrawn's rematching ceremony to the Mitth family. While they are not biologically related, they eventually become brothers in name. Thrawn even decides to spend his last day in the Chiss Ascendancy before leaving for the Galactic Empire to eat alone at the bistro he and Thrass used to frequent to remember his late brother. Thrawn would never again have such a relationship with anyone after Thrass's death.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Ultimately, Emperor Palpatine's involvement in the Force-based story arc of the finale episodes of Rebels Season 4 meant that Thrawn would be Demoted to Dragon, even as he served as The Heavy of the Battle of Lothal. After Ezra's last confrontation with the Emperor, Thrawn ends up being the Post-Final Boss to Ezra. Thrawn himself ends up hijacking many of the live action shows as it is revealed that he is the leader of the Imperial Remnant whom even the Shadow Council answers to - although Gideon is annoyed that Thrawn repeatedly never shows himself and resumes moving his plans forward for a change in leadership - i.e. himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Subjects others to this. He makes Imperial workers test their own creations, which may end up exploding — thus killing saboteurs and preventing more would-be saboteurs from so much as tampering with the equipment.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • A Discussed and Exploited Trope on Thrawn's part. When he finally meets face-to-face with Ezra, he mentions that while he has an appreciation of the Jedi, he thinks that their commitment to doing what they consider to be moral over what's practical was one of their greatest weaknesses — and that he was able to get the better of Ezra by bombing his city until he agreed to surrender.
    Thrawn: Predictable. You follow a long history written by the Jedi, where they choose what they believe to be morally correct, instead of what is strategically sound.
  • Although in a case of Dramatic Irony, Thrawn's downfall because of Ezra's Honor Before Reason attributes: first, because he earned the purrgil's respect when he saved them in "The Call" even though it made the mission a lot harder and they repaid him by sabotaging Thrawn's fleet, and second, because Ezra is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his people, so when he and Thrawn are on the same bridge he refuses to call off the plan.
• I Have Many Names: The first Memories chapter of Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising reveals his name was originally Kivu'raw'nuru, or Vurawn, a member of the obscure Kivu family. After being adopted into the Mitth family, his name changed to Mitth'raw'nuru, or as we know him, Thrawn. Lesser Evil reveals he later earns the "-odo" part which means "guardian" in Tybroic, the ancient language of the Stybla family, as an honor given by the Stybla family after Thrawn and Thrass help them recover an item pertaining to the Starflash, an ancient superweapon.
• Immigrant Patriotism: A rare villainous example. Thrawn is, thus far, the only visible nonhuman in the entire Imperial chain of command, and you'll never find a more dedicated and loyal Imperial officer. Especially because in this continuity, he is an actual immigrant, and his "exile" by the Chiss Ascendancy is just a cover-up.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His design seems to be at least partially based on his voice actor Lars Mikkelsen, which is slightly different to how he was portrayed in Legends. This was done to pave the way for Mikkelsen to more easily reprise the role in live-action as he does in Ahsoka.
• Irony:
  • At the end of the Legends book Outbound Flight, his brother, Thrass, and a Jedi Padawan, Lorana, went into space to save the innocent lives on the titular project and were prepared to meet whatever fate had in store for them, be it death or something else. The Outbound Flight would never be found until several decades later, and the remains of Thrass and Lorana, who have since been assumed MIA, are unidentifiable. At the end of Rebels, Ezra, a Jedi Padawan, forces himself and Thrawn into unknown space to save the innocent people of Lothal from the latter. Their whereabouts are unknown, though it is said they are still alive.
  • In Thrawn: Alliances, it is revealed that Force-sensitive Chiss children are used as astronavigators by the Chiss military due to their precognition. In Rebels, Ezra sends himself and Thrawn into unknown space that only purrgils routinely go to.
  • In Star Wars Legends a major plot point in Heir to the Empire , Thrawn was part of a plot to kidnap Leia's unborn twin children because of their Force sensitivity. Now he's actively preventing such abductions. Even rescuing Force-sensitive Chiss children; outraged it's a problem because Even Evil Has Standards.
  • Taking a leave of absence to personally advocate for the TIE Defender project's continued funding is what ironically causes the project's downfall. Without Thrawn's presence/cautiousness to keep her in check, an overly aggressive Governor Pryce ends up destroying Lothal's Imperial fuel depot just to kill Kanan (therefore ruining the factories/plans to mass-produce TIE Defenders).
  • The Star Wars Legends video game TIE Fighter was the first-ever appearance of the TIE Defender project. Thrawn featured prominently in that game, as a sympathetic commanding officer tasked with defeating the breakaway Imperial leader who developed the TIE Defender project. Thrawn in Legends EU was responsible for containing the TIE Defender threat, destroying its production facilities, and killing the officer in charge; in contrast, Thrawn in Canon EU is responsible for supporting the TIE Defender line of advanced fighter technology and opposing the flashier, more expensive "superweapon" style projects such as Tarkin's Death Star initiative.
• It's Personal: By the time of Ahsoka, he resents Ezra, Sabine, and the Jedi for dealing him his defeat that led to his nearly decade-long exile on Peridea. He's dismayed to learn of Ahsoka's approach and has also allied with the Nightsisters to have the Force on his side.
• Kick the Dog: Near the end of Rebels, he breaks his usual Affably Evil demeanor and slips into Faux Affably Evil territory when confronting Hera, rubbing her family's tragedies in her face with insincere sympathies, while also being creepily possessive of her Kalikori as his newest trophy. This in contrast with the other scene where he and Hera talked about the Kalikori, where he was shown being more appreciative of it (if for misguided reasons) as a work of art as opposed to a reminder of an enemy he defeated.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: One of the things that makes Thrawn such a joy to watch is the way he almost constantly dresses down, diminishes, or otherwise humiliates the other Imperials under his command. In Rebels Season 3, he completely snaps and almost strangles Captain Slavin when the man suggests destroying a valuable piece of art, and spends most of his time kicking Admiral Konstantine around like a football. In Season 4, you might have to resist the urge to cheer when he tells Governor Pryce, while positively seething with rage, that he will "deal with her personally" when she blows up the Imperial fuel depot just to kill Kanan and then tries to cover up her mistake by throwing a parade. Though because of her being the one who killed the insurgents of Batonn to cover her murder of an ISB agent, this may be Thrawn finally taking revenge where he could not before thanks to her political power.
• Leave No Survivors: Played with. During the Battle of Atollon in Rebels, once Thrawn finds the entire rebel fleet, he will not take prisoners — except for the higher-ups, but only because Tarkin said so.
• Leitmotif: "Thrawn's Web".
• Light Is Not Good: Wears a bright white uniform and is one of the Empire's best officers.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Like his Legends counterpart, he's too ruthless for the Rebels, yet more affable and open-minded than most Imperials.
• Magnetic Hero: Becomes one throughout the Thrawn Ascendency trilogy, and then again throughout the Thrawn books. By the end of both series, he has many people who exhibit undying loyalty towards him.
• Make an Example of Them: Thrawn may be cultured, but he can still be utterly ruthless if required. In the Rebels episode "An Inside Man", faced with a vehicle factory whose creations consistently malfunctioned in the field, Thrawn had Mr. Sumar personally test the last speeder bike he'd built and forced the test to continue until the bike exploded as a warning to the other workers that sabotage and/or incompetence would not be tolerated, as well as ordering them to personally test what they built to ensure any saboteurs would meet the same fate and discouraging them from trying to get away with anything.
• The Man Behind the Man: Episode 13 of The Mandalorian confirms that he is this to Morgan Elsbeth, and Ahsoka is hunting him down for that very reason. Episode 23 reveals that he is also the man behind the entire Shadow Council of the Imperial Remnant, although there are more than a few dissenters and Gideon is actively plotting to replace him. Gideon's ploy, along with himself, goes up in smoke before he can make any moves against Thrawn, though.
• Manipulative Bastard: He might be okay with losing a number of battles so he can win the final one, but it's a dangerous game to play in the Empire. As such, he leaves it up to his less competent and more arrogant subordinates to fail for him, often subtly sabotaging them to get the result he wants, which allows him to gain the information he needs without accumulating a string of failures that would put him at risk. Some of his other schemes rely a great deal on secrecy from his higher-ups, such as letting a traitorous officer walk free. This plan would be good for baiting the rebels, but more than enough to get him in trouble with Tarkin for failing to apply the mandatory death sentence for officers who commit treason. If worse comes to worse, he has Ezra as leverage.
• Meaningful Rename: The flashbacks in the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy show how he got the name Mitth'raw'nuruodo. He was originally born into the obscure Kivu family as Kivu'raw'nuru, core name Vurawn. After he got adopted and rematched into the powerful Mitth family, his name changed to Mitth'raw'nuru, core name Thrawn. Later on, the suffix "-odo" is added to his name as an honor given by the Stybla family after Thrawn and Thrass help them recover an item pertaining to the Starflash, an ancient superweapon. "-odo" means "guardian" in Tybroic, the ancient language of the Stybla.
• Mentor Archetype: Throughout Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason, he has spent years in mentoring Eli Vanto and Karyn Faro, his aide and first officer respectively, as he recognizes them as capable officers in their own right, and wishes to hone their skills further and prepare them for higher command positions.
• Might Makes Right: After Ezra becomes outraged over Thrawn taking things he can't understand, hasn't earned, and doesn't deserve, Thrawn tells him all of those things are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that Thrawn had the power to seize them, so he did.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: His best weapon is his strategic mind, but he's also a supremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant who spars with Imperial sentry droids to hone his skills.
• Mis-blamed: In-Universe, he's believed to be responsible for the massive civilian casualties at the Battle of Batonn. In reality, Governor Pryce was directly responsible, and Thrawn, Eli Vanto and possibly Colonel Yularen are the only ones who even suspect this to be the case, but can't prove it. Though, given it's The Empire, he still got a promotion out of it. That said, he is not above bombarding civilians to draw out Ezra Bridger in Season 4 of Rebels, so perhaps it is simply the pointless slaughter of civilians rather than doing so for a larger aim.
• The Mole: Thrawn is not actually exiled, just made to look like he is. He is actually still a loyal officer of the Chiss military who happens to have been assigned the task of infiltrating the Galactic Empire so that he can see if the Empire can become a useful ally to the Ascendancy in due time. That being said, he is still a Consummate Professional who takes his responsibilities with the Empire very seriously.
• Mythology Gag: To end his training with his Imperial sentry droids, he recites "Override code: Rukh", which shuts them down. Rukh is the name of his bodyguard — who, in the Legends canon, turned against him and killed him. Subverted in season 4 where Rukh himself makes an appearance as Thrawn's personal agent.
• Nerves of Steel: Thrawn flinches from nothing, even when someone's bearing down on him in a TIE Fighter and Thrawn has only a pistol. The only times he ever visibly shows fear or confusion are in the Season 3 and 4 finales of Rebels, where he's being attacked by, respectively, a sentient thunderstorm or being strangled in the tentacles of a pod of Star Destroyer-sized Space Whales.
• Necessarily Evil: He has Villainous Virtues, but his main long-term goal is to secure the safety of his people. Currently, the short-term way to do that is to serve the Empire and maintain it so that the Ascendancy has a reliable ally to fall back on when things come to a head, so therefore, he will serve his role as Grand Admiral as necessary. He won't harm innocents if he can avoid it (also note that he has a strict definition of what is an "innocent bystander"), for example. But if it's the best option there is, well...
• No Social Skills: Not so profound as most examples, but outside a military context he comes off as stiff and socially awkward.
• Noble Demon: Is more Villain Respect-inclined than most Imperials. Also, a big chunk of his motivation for joining the Empire was to gain protection for his fellow Chiss — despite them abandoning him. His exile was a ruse, and he is actually infiltrating the Empire to see if it can be a useful ally in dealing with threats from the Unknown Regions... threats that he is absolutely convinced are far worse than the Empire, for all its oppression and brutality.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Downplayed. Although he is capable in hand-to-hand combat and can operate a blaster with efficiency, he's rarely shown actually doing so.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He may be an Affably Evil and Wicked Cultured wordsmith who favors the long term over the short term... but when it's crunch time, he's ultimately this. For example, the moment Ezra draws his lightsaber during their first encounter, Thrawn immediately stuns him without a word. And in the Season 3 finale of Rebels, Thrawn would rather just go with the safe and sure route of full-scale Orbital Bombardment on the Rebel base...but Tarkin's I Want Them Alive! order regarding the Rebel leaders forces Thrawn to take the Complexity Addiction route instead.
• No-Sell: In short, any attempt to deceive or sabotage Thrawn ends in this, because he always has a backup plan. If it was a good attempt, he'll consider that person a Worthy Opponent.
• Noodle Incident: During the Clone Wars, he crossed paths with Anakin at the Thrugii Asteroid Belt and befriended him. He describes the event as "interesting" to Eli, though doesn't explain further despite the young man's curiosity for further details on the matter. Said tale would eventually come to light in Thrawn: Alliances.invoked
• Nothing Is Scarier: What could possibly be in the Unknown Regions that's bad enough that the Chiss would want to cultivate the Empire to keep it in check?
• Not His Sled:
  • The Thrawn novel revealed that actually, no, Thrawn wasn't exiled for real. That's his cover to the Chiss public and his cover backstory to the Empire. His superiors actually sent him to see if the Empire would be useful allies against an unidentified threat in the Unknown Regions, which is relevant to Palpatine's plans that somehow tie into the events of the Sequel Trilogy. ^note It should be noted that Zahn wrote this novel to be in-line with his previous depiction of Thrawn, so it is possible to see Legends Thrawn as also being undercover and the two having totally identical backstories, should one desire.
  • In the series finale of Rebels, Rukh doesn't stab Thrawn In the Back, and in fact Thrawn outlives Rukh by quite a bit when his bodyguard gets vaporized by a shield generator turning on. As a matter of fact, according to Dave Filoni, Thrawn is still alive somewhere, along with Ezra, after he grapples the purrgil to the Chimaera and jumps them both into hyperspace.
• Not Quite Dead: Thrawn is revealed to be still alive after the Battle of Lothal, being stranded in the distant galaxy of Peridea along with Ezra. His survival is what kickstarts the plot of Ahsoka.
• Not So Similar: To Ahsoka and Maul, who have that "to defeat your enemy, you have to understand/know them". In the case of Maul, he even says to practice your enemy's beliefs while you're at it. Thrawn agrees that you must know your enemy, but his titular book expands on it: do not attempt to understand them or even compromise with them; only destroy them. However, given his ultimate loyalties to the Chiss Ascendancy, this has led to him more than once offering an enemy a position with the Ascendancy, such as Nightswan, demonstrating that his true enemy is not any foe to the Empire, but rather, whatever it is in the Unknown Regions that the Chiss are terrified of.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Grabs an Imperial officer by his shirt collar and hisses at him for his Fantastic Racism towards Twi'lek culture.
  • He's visibly disturbed by the Bendu foretelling his defeat.
• Oh, Crap!: Even he has his moments.
  • He has one when his sentry droids reject his override code after suddenly walking into his office and killing his guards.
  • He has another one when the Bendu becomes a Genius Loci storm to help the Rebels.
  • And in the Rebels finale, he completely loses it when he realizes that the purrgil are about to jump to hyperspace, and there's nothing protecting him from it.
  • In Ahsoka, he has one when he discovers that Ahsoka was the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, knowing that she'll likely have inherited the same unpredictable streak as her master. It's further justified by the fact that he's one of the few people that's aware that Anakin and Darth Vader are the same person, making Ahsoka an uncommonly dangerous Jedi by any measure.
• Only Sane Man: In an environment plagued by Bond Villain Stupidity, Fantastic Racism and We Have Reserves tendencies, Thrawn does none of those things, and brings in top-line results. This being said, while he does have his negative tendencies, Thrawn is one of the few even remotely reasonable people in the entirety of the Galactic Empire, and one of the even fewer who never defects.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • It turns out there is at least one thing that will cause Thrawn to snap out of his Dissonant Serenity, and that is destroying artwork. He nearly physically attacks an Imperial officer for suggesting they destroy Hera's family heirloom.
  • When Governor Pryce destroys his plan of mass-producing TIE defenders (by blowing up the Lothal garrison's fuel supply in the process of killing Kanan) Thrawn fairly hisses with rage when he tells Pryce that he'll 'deal with her'.
  • Early in his career, Eli notes Thrawn actually seems confused when he's getting chewed out by his superior for saving the crew of a hijacked freighter while letting the highly valuable cargo get stolen.
  • In Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn seems upset about something in his past when he talks about the Chiss children navigators to Vader. Chaos Rising reveals that it is because he had an older sister who was taken by the Chiss Ascendancy to become a navigator when she was only 5.
• Out-Gambitted: In "Family Reunion – and Farewell", the series finale to Rebels, Ezra anticipates Thrawn arriving to Lothal early and disrupting their plan, so he sets up a contingency to use Purrgil as The Cavalry, thwarting Thrawn's victory and leading to his ultimate defeat through a means Thrawn had no way of knowing.
• Perma-Shave: Despite being in the wild for months and his hair growing long, the Thrawn comic shows that he doesn't even have stubble. Possibly justified, as Chiss might not be able to grow facial hair.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Zigzagged. He chooses to preserve Hera's Kalikori in part due to Villain Respect for her, along with his trademark love of art and reacts quite poorly to his subordinate suggesting that it be destroyed. Hera herself, however, would rather he destroy it than treat a part of her heritage as a trophy. In that same episode, he realizes he can't blame Slavin for not sharing his same passion for art and culture.
  • On the other hand, even though his people abandoned him, in his deal with Palpatine, he requests that the Empire helps his people against invaders, simply because they are his people. And even if they still reject him and refuse his protection, Thrawn will still continue to protect them. Turns out that the Chiss haven't actually turned against Thrawn and Thrawn is in fact acting on their orders to assess the Empire as a possible ally, rather than out of emotional ties.
  • His entire relationship with his aide-de-camp Eli Vanto can be considered a Licked by the Dog moment as his aide is a Token Good Teammate whom Thrawn values as a friend that Thrawn seems to keep clear of his own worst, more underhanded moments. Sending him to Chiss space likely to protect him is possibly the most genuine action Thrawn has ever taken. The alliance between the Ascendancy and Empire is more of an added bonus at that point.
  • He was genuinely adamant that the rescued Chiss girls be treated well. He quartered them near his own suite and spoke to them in private. Enough that Vader felt the calming effect Thrawn had on them. That he convinced Vader to let these rare girls go home is nothing short of miraculous.
  • On learning that Sabine Wren came with Baylan, Shin, and Morgan in order to find Ezra, thus allowing for him to return to the galaxy, he gives her Ezra's last known location and allows her to take a mount and her weapons to try and find him rather than simply killing her, even noting that it's an exchange of good deeds, she helped him return so now he helps her find Ezra. Ultimately subverted because he then sends Shin and Baylan after her with orders to kill them both, and because he benefits from allowing Sabine to go after Bridger regardless of whether or not she finds him.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Admiral Ar'alani. Thrawn first met her when she was Irizi'ar'alani and they were both students together at the Taharim Academy on Naporar. She gets him out of an erroneous charge of cheating in Chaos Rising, he takes her to an art museum in return and they remained friends ever since. She is one of the few people he ever fully trusts, and she continues to trust him even when he joins the Empire for 20 years. They're still able to predict one another's movements and tag-team the enemy together throughout Thrawn: Treason, and Eli notes in the novel that Thrawn didn't want to leave Ar'alani alone to fight the Grysks, even when his duty to the Empire compelled him to. Ar'alani herself is justifiably angry at Thrawn throughout Thrawn: Treason, for staying away so long, calling him by his full name Mitth'raw'nuruodo the entire time like a sister telling her little brother that he's in big trouble. She also sadly asks Commodore Faro if Thrawn's life with the Empire was really so much better that he never wanted to return to his own people.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: His meeting with Hera. He maintains his air of manners the entire time, she's as hostile to him as she is to the rest of the Imperials.
• Post-Final Boss: In the Grand Finale of Rebels, Emperor Palpatine serves as the Final Boss to conclude Ezra's character arc, and after Ezra finishes his confrontation with the Emperor, Thrawn is barely a challenge to him.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of him is that he is a villain that is not on a power trip like most others in the Imperial leadership. For example, one of Thrawn's objections to the Death Star is that it concentrates too much of the Empire's resources into a single weapon that, obviously, can only be in one place at a time. He would prefer a large fleet of many ships that can be spread or concentrated as necessary.
• The Promise: Thrawn rose through the ranks swiftly not only because of his merits as a tactical genius, but because Eli asked him to. The latter snidely demanding it, and Thrawn promising to do so on the spot.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Thrawn is a Chiss; his people manage to combine being this with militant neutrality. The upshot is that every other power in the galaxy makes a pretty wide berth around Chiss space, turning it into Switzerland IN SPACE!! The Chiss consider it the height of honour to serve their society and the pinnacle of dishonour to ever strike first, but are undisputed masters of striking second. And they have no qualms whatsoever about manipulating a soon-to-be enemy into making their first strike prematurely. This policy – which by Thrawn’s era has turned into a quasi-religious doctrine – is the reason he got himself exiled both in Legends and Canon (well, it was the excuse), since he has a thing for pre-emptive strikes.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Double subverted. All Chiss have red eyes, so they can't really help it. However, Thrawn is as dangerous as his appearance would suggest.
• Reverse Arm-Fold: Even when away from his Contemplative Boss time, he just can't seem to resist standing like this as much as possible.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Thrawn comes from a humanoid alien race with blue skin, red eyes, and ridges on their forehead.
• Skilled, but Naive: An inversion. Thrawn isn't a young man but it's made clear several times that for all his tactical genius he gets blindsided by Imperial politicking. Nightswan even calls him out on this when Thrawn just can't grasp why his plans won't pan out when the Empire is already a failed state.
• So Proud of You: By the end of Thrawn: Treason his recommendation that Commodore Faro, his right hand aboard the Chimaera be promoted and given control of the Eleventh Fleet has been approved. He sends her off with heartfelt praise for her abilities and a proud smile.
• Spared By Adaptation: His fate is left ambiguous after the Rebels series finale (though Dave Filoni stated that he and Ezra did survive), whereas he is dead as dead can be in the original Legends continuity. Then The Mandalorian established that he's alive past 9 ABY, meaning that he has outlived his Legends counterpart and the canon counterpart of the character that killed him.
• The Strategist: He's a highly skilled tactician whose strategies are spoken in awe of by even the likes of Cham Syndulla. Every onscreen battle Thrawn has personally been involved in led to the rebels fully retreating.
• Strategy Versus Tactics: Unlike most Imperials, he's willing to sacrifice individual battles in favor of a major endgame (Strategy) — though he's also quite capable of Xanatos Speed Chess decision-making when necessary (Tactics). This is exemplified in Ahsoka. Despite his limited supplies and soldiers after years spent scraping by, he sends soldiers, as well as Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, to kill Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren, as well as Ahsoka Tano if they are able. In reality, it does not matter if they succeed, what matters is that they are delayed enough to allow Thrawn and his troops to load up and make their escape, leaving the three of them stranded on Peridea and unable to interfere with his return.
• Surrounded by Idiots:
  • While he never outright says this, it is the source of much frustration (and what ultimately undermines otherwise decisive victories) that most of the officers he has to work with are not only far less competent than he is, but too dumb and egotistical to even try to improve. Both Slavin and Konstantine fail to understand his strategies or to show any respect for their enemies and otherwise make stupid mistakes, leading to repeated and sometimes fatal errors; Governor Pryce is a bit better and is the one who asked for his help, but she still isn't nearly as good as he is and keeps trying to prove herself to the point where she loses sight of the actual goal. Had either Pryce or especially Konstantine been doing their job properly at the Battle of Atollon, Phoenix Squadron would have been defeated decisively rather than allowed to ultimately get away, and the entire Rebellion may have been killed in its infancy. And of course, even his own boss Tarkin is as arrogant as he is cold and ruthless. The only people he's worked with in Rebels who do a stellar job are Colonel Wullf Yularen and Agent Kallus. That is, if the latter didn't undergo a Heel–Face Turn. Though the Thrawn novels also add Eli Vanto and Karyn Faro (after significant long-term mentorship from him). But, the other officers' perceived idiocy may be more because they don't like him. Thrawn sometimes turns this to his advantage; some of his plans hinge on other officers being idiots.
  • Equipped with the understanding that Pryce is a "weak link" in Thrawn's group, Ezra is able to exploit this trope to devastating effect in Rebels Season 4 as the first phase of his final plan to liberate Lothal from the Empire, taking advantage of Thrawn's temporary absence to play the (desperate to prove herself) Pryce like a fiddle, by luring her into getting captured by having Ryder pull off a Fake Defector stunt.
    Ezra: [lampshading the trope while an overconfident Pryce thinks she's in control of the situation] I knew you'd think so. We wouldn't have been able to fool Thrawn, but you?
    
    Thrawn: I expected Governor Pryce to fail, but not so completely.
  • In Ahsoka he sometimes expresses annoyance with his aide Morgan Elsbeth since she is still a massive Smug Snake who thinks the Jedi have no chance of stopping them (though some of this crowing is due to her fanaticism towards him). He has to remind her that many have underestimated the Jedi over the years, himself included, and takes no chances in trying to delay his enemies despite Morgan frequently questioning him.
• Taught by Experience: By the time of Ahsoka, after being consistently outfoxed by Force users he simply could not anticipate the actions of, which led to his eventual defeat and exile on Lothal, he has formed a mutually beneficial alliance with the Nightsisters of Peridea to advise and aid him in such matters.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Despite his past issue with Force-sensitive Chiss children being dismissed as astronavigators from the Chiss military after their ability fades, he doesn't let his emotions cloud his judgment and seems to accept that it is necessary.
• Token Nonhuman: Background information indicates that he is the only Chiss officer in the Imperial fleet, and aside from the Inquisitors, he's the only alien Imperial on Rebels.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • The number of times Thrawn has gotten angry thus far can be counted on one hand, but when he does, it's usually this. Most notably was Governor Pryce blowing up the Imperial fuel depot to kill Kanan Jarrus. Not only was this a monumental blunder on her part, she had the gall to try to cover it up by throwing a parade, thinking it would fool Thrawn. He sees right through it and spells out to her that her actions handed the Rebels a victory they wouldn't have otherwise achieved and that she's irrevocably compromised the TIE Defender program. Given Thrawn had just left Coruscant after meeting with the Emperor to convince him to back the TIE Defender over the Death Star, this development couldn't have happened at a worse time. Thrawn never raises his voice or lose his composure, but practically snarls that he'll deal her upon his return to Lothal, and Pryce—a Moff—is left cowering in her boots.
  Thrawn: Did you really believe that holding a parade would hide the fact that you destroyed our entire fuel supply? In defeating Kanan Jarrus, you have accomplished what the Rebels failed to and given a victory: the operation on Lothal, my TIE Defender project, has been compromised!
  Pryce: Grand Admiral, I—
  Thrawn: I will deal with you when I return, Governor.
  • In Ahsoka, he is notably irritated to learn that Elsbeth's party has brought a prisoner, something the Great Mothers did not foresee. He has allied with them due to wishing to gain an advantage in sorcery to be able to combat Force-users, who were the source of his greatest defeat and exile, so he's quite annoyed, though he remains polite, albeit a bit snippy. When he learns that Sabine is the captive, he smiles the whole time, but has a twitch in his face to show he's eager to have one of the Lothal rebels at his mercy. Finally, when Sabine snarks a bit too much during their conversation, joking that if he survived, Ezra should be fine, Thrawn recognizes the taunt and gets up in her personal space to intimidate her, lowering his voice to a much lower, graver tone to show he doesn't appreciate it.
• Troll: Visibly finds at-least-faint amusement in serving his more arrogant colleagues some humble pie. Slavin and Konstantine learn this the hard way.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • In the series finale of Rebels, Ezra uses Purrgil to forcibly send Thrawn's ship into hyperspace to parts unknown. However, since both Ezra and Thrawn were onboard, and Ezra is strongly implied to have survived even after the Empire's fall, it's not impossible for Thrawn to have survived as well.
  • Aftermath: Empire's End mentions him in past tense and notes that he was invaluable in helping the Empire gain a better understanding of the Unknown Regions (which would be crucial for Palpatine's plans, along with the plans of the First Order following his death). It's unclear if Thrawn is still alive around the time of the Battle of Jakku (and is possibly hiding in the Unknown Regions).
  • Then The Mandalorian reveals in its thirteenth episode that yes, he definitely is alive, as he's actively running his forces from somewhere behind the scenes. Ahsoka reveals that he's been working with the Nightsisters to make ready his return to the known galaxy and take active control of the Imperial remnants, though it still takes Morgan Elsbeth and her work to prepare a method for him to actually make his return.
• The Unpronounceable: His full name, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, is stated to be somewhat out of the range of human voices to be pronounced properly unless you're fluent in speaking Cheunh, the Chiss language (which is also out of the human vocal capabilities). In Thrawn: Alliances, Anakin tries several times to get it right, and can tell he's not, but can't figure out how to fix his pronunciation. To avoid the constant mangling, Thrawn is usually known by his "core name", the equivalent of a given name.
• Vague Age: Assuming Chiss age the same as humans do, he seems to be around the same age as Tarkin and Yularen. According to Star Wars Timelines, Thrawn would be around 59 years old by the Battle of Yavin. However, there is no precise canon information on his age.
• Vetinari Job Security: In an incredibly speciesist Empire, Thrawn manages to not only survive but thrive because he's just that good at his job. Additionally, considering his boss is Tarkin, he has a little more leeway in voicing his objections about Tarkin's orders.
• Villain in a White Suit: His Grand Admiral's uniform is mostly white in color, and he's a Manipulative Bastard antagonist.
• Villainous Cheekbones: He has very pronounced cheekbones.
• Villainous Friendship:
  • With Eli. It was a rocky start, with Eli not being completely thrilled that his career as an Imperial Navy officer was being sidelined so that he could be some guy's aide and translator, and Thrawn initially being convinced that the only reason why he wanted Eli to stick around with him is because he needed his help only, rather than because he wanted to use their Commonality Connection so he didn't get lonely. However, as the Thrawn book goes on, Eli starts to respect Thrawn and Thrawn likewise respects him as his own person. During a conversation with Nightswan, Thrawn reveals that he kept Eli around because he saw the qualities of an excellent leader within him, and thus took the time to subtly school Eli in his ways, until after the end, Eli was almost as adept as Thrawn himself.. And at the end, Thrawn even leaves his private journal entries behind for Eli to see, having written that he is grateful for Eli and their friendship, as well as leaving behind the coordinates to the Chiss Ascendancy for Eli to travel to, likely because he believes Eli is worthy to do so and it ensures him safety from what will happen soon in the main Galaxy.
  • Appears to get along quite well with Pryce, at least at first. He assists her in uncovering a conspiracy on Coruscant in exchange for getting Eli a long-deserved promotion and gets political advice from her. However, he's not exactly happy with her causing heavy civilian casualties at the Battle of Batonn for which he gets all the credit/blame, and afterwards they only see each other as tools to advance their own agendas.
  • He also gets along well with Yularen, who notes that he would be extremely happy to have Thrawn join the ISB if the navy ever kicks him out. Even during one incident where Yularen had a good reason to distrust Thrawn, Thrawn is very forthcoming and honest with his defense, something Yularen finds satisfactory enough to do nothing about. When Yularen expresses dismay that he never saw Kallus's betrayal coming, Thrawn lightly comforts him without any hint of condescension that he usually would give to another Imperial who isn't up to his speed.
• Villainous Valour: Give him credit, he's definitely not a coward. Demonstrated particularly well in "Zero Hour", when facing a sentient thunderstorm (the Bendu), he actually stays fairly calm and figures out a way to shoot the Bendu down.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: He also has a prominent widow's peak.
• We Have Reserves: Even before his debut, Kallus noted that in the last sector he was deployed in, civilian casualties outnumbered those of rebels.^note Ultimately revealed to be Pryce's fault, not Thrawn's (who invoked Even Evil Has Standards against it), thus technically subverting this case. He's apathetic to any deaths that might happen to ensure victory in the end, setting up others to fail to gain more information and dismissing the loss of a Star Destroyer and its crew as necessary to narrow down the search for the Rebel base. However, he will not find careless losses acceptable, as with Konstantine and one of his Interdictors.
• We Wait: More or less the bulk of his strategy in the first half of Rebels Season 3, as he spends his time planning a decisive victory against the rebellion instead of winning small skirmishes. It turns out that he ultimately wants to wait for two things—the first being to find where the Rebels are stationed, and the second being to intercept their fleet so he can destroy them all at once. The plan does pay off in the sense that Thrawn is able to keep the Rebel fleet from becoming a significant threat until the Battle of Scarif, but thanks to Konstantine's disobedience of his orders, there are still more than enough survivors.
• Wicked Cultured: Thrawn's love of art makes the jump from Legends to the Disney canon. His knowledge of different cultures and corresponding tactics make him a greater threat than any other the rebels have faced.
• The Worf Effect: Makes mincemeat out of Cham's forces to show how good he is at tactics. Thrawn is also giving this to the rebels whenever they meet.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Regards Captain Hera of the Ghost as one. While he played her like a fiddle and could have stopped her at any time, he still appreciates the ingenuity and passion of herself and her team. He even comments that he knows a stolen ship isn't being piloted by her, since she would be skillful enough to shoot down all the ships pursuing her.
  • As of Through Imperial Eyes, Kallus is this as well. Given his Xanatos Speed Chess involving Lyste, Ezra's Jedi Mind Trick, and Thrawn's Elite Mook droids in what Thrawn thinks was an assassination attempt, it's not unwarranted at all.
  • Thrawn adds Nightswan/Cygni to the list. Thrawn spends most of his careers foiling his plans and chasing him while Nightswan sends him subtle "invitations" whenever he feels up for a rematch. Any victory they have over the other is a narrow one and they develop tremendous respect for one another culminating in Thrawn offering Cygni a way out of the doomed Batonn insurgency by joining the Chiss Ascendancy as his counterpart. Cygni declines.
  • Flat out calls Ahsoka this at the end of Season 1 of Ahsoka, and this is after he's effectively beaten her, if only by the skin of his teeth.
    Thrawn: Ahsoka Tano, allow me to commend you on your efforts today. You've been quite a worthy opponent. I regret we haven't met face to face, and perhaps now we never shall. Still, I know you because I knew your Master. I concluded your strategies would be similar. One wonders just how similar you might become. Perhaps this is where a ronin such as you belongs. Today, victory is mine. Long live the Empire.
• Would Hurt a Child: Just before the purrgil take him and Ezra away, the very last thing he does is try to kill Ezra while his back is turned.
• Xanatos Gambit: How he views each battle. He wins? Obviously good. He loses? He learns enough about his enemy to invoke It Only Works Once next time.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: His introductory quote in the novel makes clear that he values this as a skill, and while his main skill is in planning, he's very good at improvising when he needs to be. If opportunities for an easier approach come up, he will take them. Probably the best example of this is during the Battle of Atollon in Rebels. Most people being attacked by a sentient thunderstorm would be helpless to stop it, but he figures out that the one controlling the storm would have to be in the middle and orders his soldiers to aim there, shooting him out of the sky.

Shadow Council

General

• Became Their Own Antithesis: The Galactic Empire has been reduced to something very much like the Rebel Alliance in its early days: a small, fractious group that, while they have a common cause, disagree on how best to go about it and have little immediate hope of overcoming the reigning galactic superpower.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Several of their members show that they still just don't get why the Empire fell. One older female member insists that there are still Imperial sympathizers on every planet in the galaxy, and another male member declares that if the Remnant mounts a major attack, the galaxy will rally behind them to restart the Empire. The galaxy largely began to turn on their Empire when Tarkin destroyed Alderaan, proving that the Empire's way of showing strength would not earn their loyalty, only their hatred. The deaths of Palpatine and Vader were celebrated by billions from Coruscant (the capital of the Empire, no less) to a backwater planet like Tatooine. This will ultimately prove the final undoing of the Shadow Council's descendants during The Rise of Skywalker, when Palpatine announces his return and demands the galaxy resubmit to him, and the galaxy responds by rallying, civilian and military alike, to stop him and his minions once and for all.
• Shadow Government: As their name implies, the Shadow Council are controlling seemingly disparate Imperial factions, undermining the New Republic and building up resources with the eventual goal of resurrecting the Empire.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Although united in their loyalty to the Empire, the Council members maintain the same bickering and personal agendas that characterized the old Empire; Moff Gideon expresses doubts about Thrawn's leadership (which are echoed by some other Council members), while Pellaeon insists that the Grand Admiral is the Remnant's greatest asset, and Gideon and Brendol Hux takes a moment to disagree on the allocation of resources, with it being implied that Gideon had Dr. Pershing incapacitated to deny the doctor's research to Hux.
• Undying Loyalty: While their collective loyalty to one another or (with the exception of Pellaeon) Grand Admiral Thrawn is questionable, their continued fealty to the late Galactic Empire is certainly not; one of only two things the Council is shown to unanimously agree on (the other being the threat posed by a reunited Mandalore) is a collective "long live the Empire!".
• Walking Spoiler: Discussing them at all reveals that the seemingly disparate Imperial warlords are actually a united front under the leadership of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The backstabbing and ambition that was commonplace when the Empire was powerful remains in effect with the Remnant; although Grand Admiral Thrawn, through Pellaeon, tries to keep everyone on the same page, doubts are voiced about Thrawn's leadership, and at minimum, Gideon and Commandant Brendol Hux are directly competing with one another: Hux wants Dr. Pershing for "Project Necromancer" (implied to be Emperor Palpatine's resurrection), whereas Gideon uses the doctor's knowledge for his own narcissistic cloning project, even having Pershing incapacitated (if not killed) to keep his expertise out of Hux's hands.

Gilad Pellaeon

Captain Gilad Pellaeon

"If we are perceived as anything other than a group of unorganized remnant warlords, the New Republic will increase their efforts to hunt us down."

Portrayed By: Xander Berkeley (The Mandalorian)

Voiced by: Jim Cummings (Rebels)

Appearances: Thrawn: Treason | Rebels ^note Voice only | The Mandalorian

"Sir, they came out of hyperspace! I've never seen—"

The captain of the Harbinger, Pellaeon previously served under Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit of the Third Fleet. When Savit was exposed as a traitor, Pellaeon turned against Savit and was reassigned to Grand Admiral Thrawn's Seventh Fleet, serving in the blockade over Lothal in the eve of the Galactic Civil War. After surviving the Liberation of Lothal, and the fall of the Empire, he became one of the leaders of the Shadow Council of the Imperial Remnant.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the Legends continuity, he was Thrawn's protégé and second-in-command on his flagship, the Chimaera. In the Disney continuity, while Pellaeon still works for Thrawn, he is in command of a different Imperial Star Destroyer, the Harbinger, and his role as Thrawn's protégé has been given to Eli Vanto and Karyn Faro, with the latter also taking Pellaeon's role as the captain of the Chimaera.
• Adaptational Wimp: He's Thrawn's Number Two in the original canon, but here he barely seems to be in his inner circle. Furthermore, the existence of the First Order makes it unlikely that he'll end up the true heir to the Empire.
• Affably Evil: He's pretty patient and respectful with his cohorts in the Shadow Council, even though most of them are swaggering bullies eager for carnage and personal gains. He does harden a bit when he grows weary of Gideon needling for resources, as well as transparently sowing seeds of discord intended to displace Thrawn from his position of leadership.
• Ambiguous Situation: Though Dave Filoni states that he probably survived the end of Rebels, he's still lost somewhere in space with Ezra, Thrawn, and the rest of the Seventh Fleet. Though Pellaeon later appears in The Mandalorian, what happened to him between the Purrgil attack and this appearance remains unclear until Ahsoka, which doesn't have Pellaeon among Thrawn's forces in exile meaning he escaped the pod.
• Anti-Villain: Unlike most of the higher-ranking Imperials, and later Imperial Remnants, Pellaon isn't a particularly unpleasant man. He's not an abusive coward like Brendol Hux or an egotistical maniac like Moff Gideon, but he is unshakingly loyal to the Empire, and has no problem helping to restore it, or dealing with those deemed a threat to the resurgent Empire's plans.
• Canon Immigrant: Captain Gilad Pellaeon was Thrawn's right-hand man in the Legends continuity, then gets re-canonized in the finale of Star Wars Rebels.
• Co-Dragons: On the Shadow Council, he and Brendol Hux appear to be the main leaders who are coordinating the Remnant in Thrawn's stead.
• Last Episode, New Character: He gets re-canonized in the very last episode of Rebels by a mere namedrop.
• Mouth of Sauron: As part of the Shadow Council, Pellaeon represents Thrawn's interests and repeatedly insists that the Grand Admiral is the Imperial Remnant's greatest hope. Thrawn may already be back, as Pellaeon's wording implies he will not partake in the Shadow Council for the indefinite future simply out of secrecy as opposed to not being back.
  Moff Gideon: Captain Pellaeon, you always speak with much authority, and yet, I see, once again, that Grand Admiral Thrawn is missing from your delegation. Any word on when he will be able to participate in the Shadow Council?
  Capt. Pellaeon: With respect, our one hope for success relies upon the secrecy of his return.
  • This is revealed to be much more complicated than it first seems. Pellaeon is bluffing; Thrawn is not in the galaxy during his meeting with the Shadow Council, so Gideon is correct to doubt Pellaeon's assurances to the contrary. Whether or not he is in on Morgan's plot remains to be seen, but ultimately Pellaeon does not actually know what Thrawn is planning, so he can only counsel caution until he does actually come back.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: In Treason, it's noted that Pellaeon is loyal to the empire, though not out of blind fanatacism.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He takes after his Grand Admiral well, stressing the need to wait for the big game plan to take shape as opposed to plundering out of greed or attacking just to stick it to the New Republic.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When Gideon warns the Shadow Council that the Mandalorians are preparing to retake their home, he agrees they need to be dealt with and grants his request for reinforcements.
• Schrödinger's Canon:
  • He is an Anti-Villain and a Token Good Teammate.
  • He is a Corellian-born Coruscanti.
  • He was friends with Captain Rex (and also met Ahsoka and Anakin) during the Clone Wars, as seen in The Clone Wars: No Prisoners.
• Shout-Out: He is named after Pelleas, a Knight of the Round Table.
• Sequel Hook: Dave Filoni states that his namedrop in the Rebels finale was to make way for possible appearances from Pellaeon in future Star Wars works.
• Undying Loyalty: Years after the events of Rebels and the downfall of the Empire, Pellaeon is Thrawn's most ardent supporter, insisting to the skeptical members of the Shadow Council, including Moff Gideon, that Thrawn will return and is the Imperial Remnant's greatest asset.
• Wham Line: As the Purrgil begin their attack against the Seventh Fleet in the climax of the Rebels finale, Thrawn orders his men to get a certain someone on the line to report what exactly is going on...
  Thrawn: Get Captain Pellaeon!

Brendol Hux

Commandant Brendol Hux

See his entry on the First Order page.

Gideon

Moff Gideon

"Long live the Empire."

Species: Human

Portrayed by: Giancarlo Esposito

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"The assurance I give is this: I will act in my own self-interest. Which at this time, involves your own cooperation and benefit."

Once an ISB agent tasked with putting down the rebellion on Mandalore, later an Imperial governor, and now a warlord on the outer rim. Gideon has a vested interest in acquiring a certain alien child, putting him at odds with the Mandalorian bounty hunter who rescued it.

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• Always a Bigger Fish: He so desperately wants to be the new Darth Vader and/or Grand Moff Tarkin, but for all his combat prowess, cunning and resources, he's never quite a direct match for Din. In the second season finale he is outmatched by Din in a straight-up fight, even with the Darksaber and the element of surprise, and his Dark Troopers are gradually hacked to pieces by Luke Skywalker. In the third season, he finally outmatched Din thanks to his power armor, but even that was a very temporary victory. Even when compared to his fellow Imperials, for all of the time he spent trying to win their favor and usurp Thrawn as the "heir", for all of his trouble, all he really managed to achieve was reunite the scattered Mandalorian clans against him, and only against him. His reward? Axe Woves smashing his own Imperial Arquitens-class command cruiser into his face.
• The Anticipator: When Djarin shows up on the cruiser to rescue Grogu, Gideon reveals that he not only knew that Djarin was coming, but also that he was with Bo-Katan and that she was after the Darksaber. He also correctly inferred that Din already expended his one volley of Whistling Birds from his utility gauntlets. The one thing he didn't see coming was Luke Skywalker, who made short work of the Dark Troopers. He did, however, correctly anticipate that his Dark Troopers were about to be wrecked once Bo-Katan identified him as a Jedi through the camera feeds.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Din Djarin. Gideon is the one who's after Grogu, and was a known participant in the subjugation of Mandalore, which forced him and his fellow Mandalorians to go into hiding.
  • To Bo-Katan Kryze. Gideon's actions during the Great Purge forced her and the Nite Owls to go into hiding like the rest of her kind. But to add salt to the wound, Gideon was also able to claim ownership of the Darksaber, which Bo-Katan is bent on reacquiring.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. His suit of Beskar Power Armor is strong enough to deflect blows from the Darksaber, putting him on equal footing with the better-trained Bo-Katan and Din Djarin.
• As the Good Book Says...: Gideon's name is an allusion to the Israelite military leader from the Book of Judges whom God commanded to reduce his army to 300 men. Moff Gideon likewise has a much smaller force at his command since the Imperial days, but he's still able to pull off some significant achievements.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The highest-ranking Imperial on the show, who calmly walks into a firefight that already killed dozens of his men and takes out the Mandalorian who was armed with an E-Web with just two shots. He also displays decent skills as a fighter pilot during his midair scuffle with Din Djarin. In the Season 2 finale, he proves quite adept with the Darksaber in his one-on-one duel with Din.
• Bad Boss:
  • He kills the Client and a fireteam of Stormtroopers just because he realized that the Client had been tricked and it was a useful way to kill the Mandalorian in the same stroke. Lampshaded in the following episode, where two Scout Troopers, AP-1982 and JS-1975, who left to retrieve Grogu are freaked out about that (and that he apparently killed an officer for interrupting him just then too) and don't want to get in trouble with him.
    AP-1982: Did he just say that Gideon killed his own men?
    JS-1975: Oh, who knows? These guys like to lay down the law when they first arrive into town.
  • When a squad of Mandalorians infiltrate a ship under his command and take everything but the bridge, the captain calls Gideon for reinforcements. Gideon, recognizing that the Mandalorians will seize the ship before help ever arrives, orders the captain to scuttle the ship and himself along with it to kill the Mandalorians. The captain is so terrified of Gideon's wrath that he does as ordered and triggers a Suicide Pill after being stopped.
  • After kidnapping Grogu, Gideon lets Grogu have at it on the Stormtroopers guarding him, all so Gideon can admire Grogu's abilities in the Force, and to tire him out so he can be approached safely.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In a kill two birds with one stone move, he orders his Death Troopers to shoot up the bar Din and the Client are using for negotiations, killing the latter.
• Badass Cape: He has nice intimidating black one, similar to the one Vader wore, draped over his armor.
• Battle Trophy: Like Kallus he is a veteran of one of the Empire's genocidal military campaigns and he kept a unique weapon as a souvenir of the campaign, the Darksaber. Unlike Kallus, who earned the weapon as per Lassat customs, Gideon got the Darksaber by forcing Bo-Katan to surrender in an effort to appease him and the Empire, then went back on his word to continue the purge of Mandalore.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to be like the other big shot Imperials (Palpatine, Vader, Tarkin, Krennic, etc.) so badly, he ends up dying in a similar way to them: barbecued to death.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Once his defeat is assured, Gideon opts to take his own life than let himself be captured by the New Republic, as he will likely be tried and executed as a war criminal, but Cara quickly thwarts this attempt and knocks him out.
• Big Bad: For the first three seasons of The Mandalorian. He's the one after Grogu, with the Client merely acting on his behalf. When Din absconds with his quarry, all of the bounty hunters that go after him can be traced back to Gideon's initial bounty. When Din returns to Nevarro, Gideon takes direct action in the final two episodes of the first season and claims the Big Bad mantle fulltime in the second, until his capture in the finale. He escapes imprisonment in the third season and begins building an army of Imperial forces equipped with beskar on Mandalore, with the intent to continue his Force-sensitive cloning experiments in order to gain full control over the galaxy.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Played with as he is a threat — if on a comparatively smaller scale — and the definitely main opponent for Din Djarin in his adventures, but on the larger galactic scale, Gideon is very much a small-fry pretending to be much more important than he really is compared to Thrawn, the man he wants to usurp, and his schemes ultimately revolve around acquiring the resources, assets, and political power he needs to be a serious player amidst the Space Cold War between the Republic and Imperial Remnant instead of a glorified lackey. When the third season of The Mandalorian ends, Gideon, for all his ambitions, is dead before his schemes could ever take off, while Thrawn and the rest of the Imperial Remnant, whom he scoffed at and hoarded resources from, stand ready to pose a serious threat and will, through the First Order, remain a problem for decades to come.
• Black Knight: He's fashioned himself a suit of jet-black beskar in Season 3, definitely giving him this vibe to underscore his return.
• Break Them by Talking: He demoralized Cara, Greef, and Din by talking about the destructive power of the BFG his troops were in the process of setting up outside the bar the heroes are held up in, and also by revealing that he did his intel work on the three.
  Gideon: Members of my escort have completed assembly of an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. If you are unfamiliar with this weapon, I am sure that Republican Shock Trooper Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan will advise you that she has witnessed many of her ranks vaporize mid-descent facing the predecessor of this particular model. Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter, Din Djarin, has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recruits in the Night of a Thousand Tears.
• Cold Ham: Rarely raises his voice, but he still has a flair for the dramatic.
• Combat Pragmatist: In the shootout with the Mandalorian and his allies, he just shoots the fuel tank of the E-Webb that the Mandalorian was turning on his troops. Doing this brings the Mandalorian closer to death than small armies have managed.
• Composite Character: Gideon was intentionally designed as a combination of Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, having the rank, command of stormtroopers, and general personality of the latter as well as the outfit (minus the helmet^note though he does add a battle helmet as part of an upgrade), combat skills, personal TIE fighter and lightsaber of the former.
• Cool Starship: His flagship is a pretty sweet-looking Arquitens-class Command Cruiser.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, especially when he goes to talk to Grogu in his cruiser's brig.
• Didn't See That Coming: Gideon's greatest strength comes from his knowledge on others and preparing accordingly. Naturally, his greatest weakness is when something completely unexpected throws a wrench into his plans.
  • In "Redemption", he has Din and crew surrounded, trapped, and effectively dead to rights, but even he didn't expect IG-11 to come zooming to the rescue on a speeder bike, which breaks his troops' formation enough for the Mandalorian to mount a counterattack and ultimately escape with Grogu in the end.
  • Twice in "The Rescue". The first is when Din doesn't kill him after winning their duel and he expresses intrigued surprise. The second time is when Luke Skywalker arrives on his ship and starts making scrap of his Dark Troopers, kicking off his Villainous Breakdown.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Although he, like the rest of the Shadow Council, ostensibly answers to the unseen Grand Admiral Thrawn (whose leadership Gideon questions in open council), Gideon is strongly implied to be following his own agenda to create cloned, Force-sensitive soldiers and clearly chafes under Thrawn's leadership.
• The Dreaded:
  • His underlings fear him, and the moment the heroes realize who he is, they realize that they're screwed even more than they thought they were.
  • On the flipside, the one he considers The Dreaded is Luke Skywalker.
• Establishing Character Moment: When the Client contacts him via hologram, he already deduces that Grogu isn't with him, sends a pair of Scout Troopers towards the Razor Crest's location to retrieve him, has his Death Troopers blast the bar where the Client was to pick up Grogu (Din, Cara, and Greef just barely manage to survive because of their quick reflexes), and then has a legion of Stormtroopers surround the location. This firmly establishes Gideon as an intelligent and ruthless enemy who is not to be trifled with.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • During a meeting of the Shadow Council, Gideon publicly voices doubt in the leadership of Grand Admiral Thrawn (a certified genius and one of the Empire's greatest military minds who has fought Force-wielding opponents to a standstill) and strongly implies that they should instead look to Gideon himself (whose greatest accomplishments amount to an ultimately failed genocide and the Dark Trooper project, which was quickly and literally dismantled the moment they encountered a Jedi).
  • Despite having razed Mandalore to the ground and slaughtered its people, Gideon considers himself more the rightful owner of the planet's treasures than the Mandalorians he massacred, repeatedly demanding the Darksaber from Bo-Katan (ultimately crushing it when she refuses) and looting beskar to outfit himself and his troops.
• Evil Gloating:
  • Of the Faux Affably Evil variety, once he has Grogu in his clutches. Even after Din defeats and captures him, he gleefully boasts how his Dark Troopers will storm the bridge and cut down his captors.
  • In "The Spies", with Din subdued and the rest of the Mandalorians trapped behind a blast door, Gideon takes some time to brag about his new troops, his own new armor, and his plan to complete the genocide of the Mandalorian people.
• Evil Is Petty: Gideon in general seems to take perverse pleasure in getting on people's nerves.
  • He apparently killed one of his own officers for interrupting him.
  • In "The Tragedy" after capturing Grogu and exhausting him by using his Stormtroopers as canon fodder against Grogu's Force powers, Gideon actually takes the time to smugly gloat over the little guy as he passes out. He gloats... to a baby.
  • In "The Spies", Gideon is confirmed to have been responsible for the pirate attack on Nevarro, seemingly just out of spite because of his defeat on the planet. He's also implied to have behind the attack on Bo-Katan's castle on Kalevala.
  • On top of all that, he's a petty, passive-aggressive jerk towards his fellows on the Shadow Council, deliberately stirring the pot to troll Pellaeon and undermine Grand Admiral Thrawn's authority in a way that would probably get somebody less important punished severely.
  • In "The Return", when Bo-Katan fights instead of surrendering the Darksaber as Gideon demands, Gideon ultimately crushes the weapon (and Bo's hand) to both disarm and spite her for refusing to hand over an important relic of her culture to the man who has more than once burned her home to the ground.
  • Retroactive example in Ahsoka, when Huyang mentions the Night of a Thousand Tears was carried out at the end of the war against the Empire. Gideon reduced an entire planet to glass and committed genocide as a last breath of defiance before the Empire fell.
• Expy: Of General Rom Mohc from Dark Forces, he possess a full platoon of Dark Troopers battle droids in his ship. To fully complete this, Gideon equips himself with the latest generation of Dark Trooper armor in his final stand against Din and Bo-Katan, just like Mohc did against Kyle Katarn.
• Fantastic Racism: Although he admires their warrior spirit and especially their beskar armor, Gideon looks down on Mandalorians and their culture, snidely mocking them and considering himself more worthy of their planet's bounty despite having led the Empire's genocide of their people.
• Faux Affably Evil: As per Imperial tradition, Gideon is well spoken and polite, and acts downright grandfatherly towards Grogu when he takes him hostage. But under all his charisma and gentlemanly demeanor is a sense of smug superiority and sociopathic disdain for everyone he deems beneath him.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: He may have exterminated the Mandalorians but he has his own twisted respect and odd preoccupations for their culture and even makes himself a beskar Dark Trooper suit based on Mandalorian armor. It's played in a very appropriative manner though; Gideon only cares for the most shallow, materially practical aspects of Mandalorian culture and is snidely dismissive of their religion and social norms.
• Frontline General: Though he may be a Bad Boss, he is right there in the battle on Navarro. His marksmanship on the power pack for the E-web heavy blaster that Din commandeers effectively ends the heroes' onslaught, and his air power in the form of his personal TIE fighter is the last threat that the heroes have to overcome to win the day. Before blowing up the ammo pack he actually shoots Din to get his attention, and doesn't even flinch when the latter trains the E-Web on him. He might be a monster, but his balls are beskar-grade.
• The Heavy: "The Spies" reveals that Gideon is a member of a council of other Imperial warlords who collectively answer to Grand Admiral Thrawn, though Gideon voices doubts about Thrawn's leadership, and is heavily implied to be pursuing his own objectives independent of the council. Nevertheless, it's Gideon who has the greatest bearing on the plot of The Mandalorian.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He wears black armor almost identical to that of the Death Troopers, only that he doesn't wear a helmet to go with it. Then he arrives with style in "The Spies" wearing a black horned helmet akin to that of the Death Watch.
• Hero Killer: Ursa Wren and Tristan Wren died during his purge of Mandalore.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: He's willing to go through heaps of trouble to get Grogu, even offering "a king's ransom" for his capture. He tells Din that Grogu "means more to [him] than [Din] will ever know" and says he doesn't "truly know what he's in possession of". It is initially left a mystery as to why he wants Grogu so much. The episode "The Siege" eventually partially answers that question as he wants Grogu's genetic material for his Super-Soldier project... though how it relates to the Dark Troopers or any others remains unclear. "The Return" finally reveals Gideon's master plan: to create Force-sensitive clones of himself, outfitted in beskar armor, to serve as an invincible fighting force.
• Hijacked by Ganon: He is the true Big Bad of Season 3, not Gorian Shard, who was merely a Disc-One Final Boss whose grandiose attack on Nevarro was actually due to Gideon's machinations. He himself is also subjected to this, as he's really nothing more than an ambitious lackey to Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• Hypocrite:
  • For all his proclaimed loyalty to the Empire, Gideon has zero qualms about sabotaging the work of a fellow Imperial, Brendol Hux, for his own gain. He also shows no loyalty to the Shadow Council's leader, Grand Admiral Thrawn, criticising him in open council and implying that he himself would make a better leader.
  • When he explains Dr. Pershing's fate to the rest of the Shadow Council, he chides Brendol Hux and claims that cloning is "[his] obsession, not mine." Gideon is far more obsessed with cloning than Hux ever was, and wants to create an army of Force-sensitive clones of himself.
  • In "The Return", Gideon mocks Bo-Katan after disarming her, saying that Mandalorians are nothing without their "trinkets". Gideon says this while wearing a suit of beskar Powered Armor, without which he'd be no match for Bo-Katan or Din in a fair fight.
• I Lied:
  • After Din insists he just wants to take Grogu and leave, Gideon seemingly allows it, saying he has everything he wants from Grogu. But as soon as Din moves to take Grogu, he reactivates the Darksaber and immediately tries to kill him. Were it not for Din's lightsaber-resistant beskar armor, that would have been the end of him.
  • Season 3 has Bo-Katan reveal that she actually did surrender the day of the purge of Mandalore; when she saw that her planet was overwhelmed and would soon fall, she was summoned by Gideon to negotiate a peace treaty so that her people may be spared and her home rebuilt, which he swore he would see to. Of course, once Gideon got what he wanted, he destroyed the planet anyway, and the carnage made any resistance from Bo-Katan and her followers impossible.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Implied. He has an absolutely massive ego but is also constantly and blatantly emulating other, more important Imperials like Darth Vader or Thrawn. Not to mention, paired with the cultural appropriation of Mandalorians, creating his own suit of Beskar power armor, and creating Force Sensitive clones of himself.
• Insufferable Genius: Gideon is definitely smarter then the average Imperial officer and typically plans for virtually every contingency, and he will never allow anyone to forget it. He even sarcastically tells Din to "Assume that I know everything" and constantly speaks in a smug, pompous tone that makes clear he has a deep-seated need to be the smartest person in the room.
• Interrupted Suicide: When Luke's arrival results in his well-laid plans being destroyed, Gideon tries to shoot himself in a panic. Unfortunately for him, Cara Dune knocks him out cold before he can go through with it.
• It's Personal: Din recognizes him as a well-known ISB officer that participated in Mandalore's subjugation.
• Karmic Death: He sought the Mandalorian genocide by stealing their technology and using it against them, believing the Mandalorians are weak without their weapons and armors. He's proven wrong when Din, Bo-Katan and Grogu fight together as a group despite the disadvantages, and they manage to survive thanks to Grogu's Force powers. Meanwhile, Gideon ends up getting burned alive when his own Imperial Arquitens-class command cruiser crashes into his secret base like a gigantic bomb, not unlike how he destroyed civilization on Mandalore during the "Night of a Thousand Tears".
• Killed Off for Real: After faking his death and escaping justice, Gideon finally meets his end when a flaming Imperial capital ship crashes into his secret base on Mandalore, engulfing him in a fiery explosion.
• Kill It with Fire: After the heroes really piss him off, he orders his men to bring in flamethrowers to burn them out of the bar they are hiding in.
• Knight of Cerebus: Not that the show wasn't serious, but his first appearance kicks off the Darkest Hour of the first season, and from that point on, every time he appears it's usually a sign that big things are going to happen.
• Large Ham: He manages to ham without even talking when he makes his entrance by dramatically landing his TIE Fighter. It only goes up when he starts talking.
• The Man Behind the Man: Gideon's intervention reveals that the Client was nothing more than his mouthpiece and puppet, with Gideon himself boasting far more manpower and influence than his subordinate. In The Spies, he was revealed to be the cause of the pirate attack on Nevarro out of spite. He himself, though, is just one of many Imperial warlords working for Thrawn.
• Manipulative Bastard: He sets up his own underling, the Client, to be killed and lures Din in with Grogu and very nearly succeeds in capturing the baby.
• Mr. Exposition: He provides an info dump in his first appearance while gloating to the heroes. Specifically, he informs the audience what the Mandalorian's real name is, what Cara Dune's full name is and the fact she is from Alderaan, identifies Greef as a disgraced magistrate, provides some background info on what the Empire did to the Mandalorians, gives them some technical info about the weapon his troops are setting up, etc. Even then, all his gloating tells the heroes almost no useful information that they don't already know anyway; it's just a way for Gideon to stroke his ego.
• Narcissist: Gideon is a smug and ambitious man who considers himself a genius, ruling his own fiefdom with an iron fist, casually discarding his own officers for failure or even just for interrupting him, as well as responding to his enemies resistance with excessive force. He also has a strong sense of entitlement, considering himself more worthy of Mandalore's treasures than the Mandalorians themselves, and implying he'd make a better leader for the Imperial Remnant than Grand Admiral Thrawn. Gideon also considers the best thing about his new Dark Trooper armor to be that he's wearing it, and his master plan is ultimately revealed to be engineering an army of Force-sensitive clones of himself, considering the Force to be the one thing stopping him from being the perfect warrior. As his persistent Evil Gloating demonstrates, Gideon is very much in awe of his own intelligence and loves hearing himself talk.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Gideon's demise can be traced to his want to spite the people of Nevarro by covertly siccing pirates at them. If not for that, Carson Teva would have no impulse to go seek out and enlist Din and his Covert's aid to liberate Nevarro, and there would have been no inspiration for them from that victory to retake Mandalore and destroy Gideon's Imperial Remnant cell operating from there in the process.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Subverted. He takes a backseat for most of the first season, but proves himself in the final episode to be competent with a blaster and an expert TIE Fighter pilot. Not only that, but he is also the wielder of the Darksaber for the first two seasons until Din claims it from him.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He's powerful enough to act as the main antagonist of three seasons of television, but in the context of the greater universe, Gideon is really a nobody. He's a former sector governor who managed to scrape together a handful of out-of-work Imperial troops (a tiny fraction of the resources he commanded in his prime, and there were dozens of people on par with or above him), and is mostly a threat because he terrorizes scantly-peopled Outer Rim worlds with little ability to resist him. He doesn't even have a single Star Destroyer to his name, his flagship instead being an Arquitens-class light cruiser. He quickly graduates to a much bigger threat than before in "The Spies", having untold amounts of beskar at his disposal and planning on taking all of Mandalore for himself as well as combining the powers of Force users with the resources of the Empire and the Mandalorians.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Gideon seems to have read the Evil Overlord List and taken to it much better than many of his contemporaries in the Empire, including Tarkin and the Emperor himself. Probably why he's still around long after the Empire itself fell at Jakku.
• No One Could Survive That!: His Outland TIE Fighter crashes in the first season finale, with Din and his allies immediately believing he has perished. Unbeknownst to them, Gideon survived the crash and cut his way out of his TIE fighter with the Darksaber as though nothing happened. It takes several months for the heroes to learn of his survival.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Just how he came into possession of the Darksaber has yet to be revealed. Season 3 elaborates that Bo-Katan surrendered it to him in a desperate attempt to appease the Empire and prevent them from nuking Mandalore. Gideon took the saber… and then attacked Mandalore anyways; rather than outfighting the skilled Bo-Katan, Gideon used a cowardly trick to rob her before butchering her people.
• Oh, Crap!: Gideon remains confident that his Dark Troopers will effortlessly rescue him from Din and Bo-Katan's custody. His tune changes really quick when Luke Skywalker turns up and starts cutting through the Dark Troopers with ease.
• Orbital Bombardment:
  • He does this in Chapter 14 when he has his Arquitens-class command cruiser destroy the Razor Crest.
  • The Book of Boba Fett reveals that Gideon led the razing of Mandalore, which started with blasting the planet from space before sending his troops and KX-series security droids to finish the job. Fittingly, Gideon himself dies when Mandalorian Axe Woves crashes his Arquitens-class command cruiser into Gideon's headquarters, ending the Moff's life with fire from above, just as Gideon himself had done to Mandalore.
• Outside-Context Villain: The Mandalorian and company were expecting to deal with the Client and a handful of Stormtroopers... then this guy shows up with Death Troopers and a company of Stormtroopers. Cara even lampshades how out of left field this was.
  Cara: Who the hell is this guy?!
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In addition to being a staunch loyalist of the fascist Galactic Empire, Gideon's comments in "The Spies" heavily imply that his attitude towards Mandalore (a planet he razed and whose people he slaughtered) is akin to cultural appropriation; he considers himself the Darksaber's "rightful owner", and even fashions Mandalorian beskar into armor for himself and his troops, as well as setting up shop on Mandalore itself, all while repeatedly dismissing the Mandalorians themselves as barbarians. He perceives himself as harvesting things of practical value from their culture and putting it to "better use".
• Power Armor: He wears a suit of it made from Beskar, and it's strong enough that he is able to crush the Darksaber in his hand.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Towards the Client before his men fill him full of laser holes.
  Gideon: Have they brought the child?
  The Client: Yes, they have. Currently, it is sleeping.
  Gideon: You may want to check again.
• Putting on the Reich: Sports a Hitler-stache. Probably doesn't have the same connotations in-universe as it does in the real world, but given how Nazi imagery has been laced into depictions of the Empire from the very beginning, it fits right in.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He wears black armor with red highlights, along with a black and red cape.
• Remember the New Guy?: Cara and Mando have both heard of him before the audience has, indicating he is an infamous war criminal.
• The Remnant: He is leading a fairly large group of Imperial soldiers in the Outer Rim several years after the Battle of Endor and Jakku; after the war is officially over and the Empire is supposed to be no more.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Cara Dune specifically mentions that he was supposed to have been captured by the New Republic and executed for war crimes at the end of the Galactic Civil War. In truth, he either escaped or was never actually captured and the rumor mill was just mistaken. After he's captured properly at the end of season two, he ends up escaping yet again and the Republic seemingly deliberately covers it up.
• Scary Black Man: If gunning down the Client and his men didn't tip you off that this guy is bad news, maybe the Death Troopers and company of Stormtroopers, along with being a Moff, will. And if that still did nothing for you, the fact that he's in possession of the Darksaber will remove any lingering doubt.
• Small Name, Big Ego: For as dangerous as he is, Gideon's ego is still greatly disproportionate to his importance on the larger galactic stage, a fact that he is implied to be aware of deep down, as all of his schemes ultimately boil down to giving himself an edge that will allow his forces to be a major Imperial Remnant faction, rather than lackeys for Thrawn's efforts to unify the Remnant.
• Smug Snake: Being a former ISB agent turned Moff, Gideon carries himself with unbridled pride and someone who knows how smart he is and will make sure you know it, too. As such, it's immensely cathartic to see this smugness evaporate into fear when he realizes that a Jedi (and not just any Jedi, but Luke Skywalker) is headed their way and that his Dark Troopers stand no chance against him.
• Spikes of Villainy: Gideon's personalized suit of Dark Trooper armor includes a spiked helmet reminiscent of the ones worn by Death Watch troops under Darth Maul's command.
• The Starscream: It's implied this is his relationship with Thrawn, aiming to backstab the Grand Admiral once he gets his Force clones. Too bad he dies before he can enact this.
• State Sec: Gideon was an ISB officer before being promoted to Moff.
• Super-Soldier: Gideon seems to be overly fond of this concept.
  • He introduces himself in Season 1 finale by bringing in a squad of Death Troopers to lay waste to the cantina Din and his crew were in.
  • Season 2 has him break out the Dark Troopers.
  • The episode "The Siege" not only shows that Gideon is trying to build a new breed of Force-sensitive Imperial soldiers and he wants Grogu's genetic material for the project but also ends with a Wham Shot of him in a cruiser's hold inspecting a battalion of Dark Troopers.
  • In season 3, not only has he made himself into a super soldier by wielding a new model of Dark Trooper, this time a power armor made out of beskar, he also made Force-sensitive clones of himself, which were thankfully killed by Din Djarin before they were complete.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He brings in a squad of Death Troopers along with a company of stormtroopers packing flamethrowers and heavy weapons along with armor and air support to take out three people. As is standard, it is not enough.
• Tin Tyrant: He's fashioned himself a wearable Dark Trooper suit after his return in Season 3, and it's modeled after Mandalorian armor to boot. Its helmet even has horns reminiscent of Shadow Collective Mandalorians.
• Unskilled, but Strong: While wielding the Darksaber, Gideon lacks any finesse or lightsaber forms, but considering his main opponents are Badass Normals like Din Djarin, he hardly needs skill to be a threat with a weapon that cuts through anything. Except beskar.
• Villainous Breakdown: Gideon, quite rightly, becomes terrified when Luke Skywalker starts making his way to the bridge and cutting through his Dark Troopers. He quickly tries to kill Bo-Katan, Grogu, and then himself.
• Villainous Friendship: A few of his cohorts on the Shadow Council are respectful to him and greet him cordially, and he does the same to them.
• Villain Has a Point: He points out the holes in Pellaeon's propping up Thrawn, suspecting that he's not actually back since he, as a former ISB agent, would've surely heard by now if that were the case. Ahsoka will reveal that he's correct and that Pellaeon is bluffing, though seemingly aware of Elsbeth's plans to retrieve the Grand Admiral.
• The Warlord: He is one of several Imperial warlords that emerged after the fall of the Empire. He has forces loyal to him on several worlds and was building up his power in the Outer Rim.
• Would Hurt a Child: He's after Grogu for some nasty Force-related science experiments. He also tried to shoot Grogu in "The Rescue".
• Xanatos Gambit: Gideon had a pretty solid one in place near the end of "The Rescue". Realizing Bo-Katan is coming for him and the Darksaber, Gideon opts to duel Din instead. If he wins, he escapes with Grogu before Bo-Katan ever realizes it. If Din wins, a rift is created between him and Bo-Katan over the right to the Darksaber, and all of Mandalore by extension as the Darksaber can only be earned through combat. And if that didn't work, the Dark Troopers would simply storm the bridge and kill everyone to rescue him. It likely would have worked, if not for the timely intervention of Luke Skywalker, who wasted no time turning the Dark Troopers into scrap metal.

Other Prominent Members

The Client

The Client

"It is good to restore the natural order of things after a period of such disarray."

Species: Human

Portrayed by: Werner Herzog

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric: safety, prosperity, trade, opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule... to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos."

The leader of an Imperial holdout in Nevarro who contracts the Mandalorian for an off the books bounty five years after the fall of the Empire.

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• All There in the Script: He is credited as the Client, but his name is otherwise unmentioned within the show itself.
• Cold Ham: He's stoic and reserved with a poker face for the ages, yet incredibly theatrical with every line he utters. He's essentially just Werner Herzog being himself with the intensity dialed way up.
• Crazy-Prepared: He hires the bounty hunting guild to go after his prize, which leads to all of them going after the Mandalorian when he absconds with it.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Hires the Mandalorian for the initial job and poses as the primary antagonist force after it goes off the rails, until Moff Gideon makes it clear that he's the true Big Bad of the story.
• The Dragon: For Moff Gideon. He's not the leader of the Remnant cell Din comes into conflict with, but is a high-ranking agent trusted with the delivery of Grogu and held enough authority to conduct the hunt for it on his own accord.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's abruptly gunned down by Gideon's Death Troopers at the end of Chapter 7.
• Establishing Character Moment: His negotiation with the Mandalorian gives him a strong authority vibe despite his age. Most notably, during the standoff between Mando and the stormtroopers, the Client does not immediately order his side to stand down, but defuses Mando first by playing on his Consummate Professionalism. The scene shows that the Client is very much in control, unflappable and somewhat manipulative.
• Faux Affably Evil: He speaks very calmly and somewhat pleasantly to the Mandalorian during their meeting, but is still a brutal Imperial officer who has in no way given up on the Empire's authoritarian ideology. What tips him over into this from being genuinely Affably Evil is The Reveal of whom he hired Mando to retrieve and his indifference about whether or not they die — an infant of Yoda's species, meaning he was perfectly fine with Mando killing a baby.
• I Want Them Alive!: Subverted. Although he and Pershing had agreed together earlier that the Mandalorian should bring their target in alive, he tells the Mandalorian that he will accept proof of termination if capturing the target alive isn't feasible, though at a reduced fee. He justifies this to Pershing as pragmatism, as they can't reasonably expect the Mandalorian to bring the target in alive no matter what. As the Mandalorian later discovers there are probably multiple bounties on the target's head, this appears to be a case of the client hedging his bets so that if he doesn't get the target, at least nobody else does either.
• Motive Rant: The page quote. Even with Mando shackled and at gunpoint, he tries to convince him to join forces, hoping that he'll understand the importance that Imperial order held in the Outer Rim.
• Mouth of Sauron: He's just the middle man acting on Moff Gideon's orders, hiring bounty hunters to acquire Grogu.
• No Name Given: His real name is never given in the story, and he is only credited as the Client.
• Order Versus Chaos: He has no idea why anyone wouldn't want to obey Imperial law, and believes that the only thing that has come from the collapse of the Galactic Empire has been suffering and chaos.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He makes his first payment with a Beskar ingot, a highly revered cultural artifact of Mandalore, saying it's right that it's with someone from that world. Then again, he may have just been taunting him.
  • His monologue in Episode 7 seems to indicate that his respect for our protagonist and Mandalorians in general is one hundred percent genuine. What his role, if he had any, during the Great Purge was is a mystery and will likely remain that way.
• Pragmatic Villainy: As he himself says, he's willing to accept proof of termination of Din's target in lieu of it being captured alive due to the nature of the bounty hunting profession.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He has a tendency for overly poetic turns of phrase. Perhaps best exemplified by his line: "Can I offer you a libation to celebrate the closing of our shared narrative?"^note "How about a drink, now that our business is finished?"
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Seems to thoroughly believe that the Empire was good for the galaxy at large.
  The Client: "The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric. Safety, prosperity, trade, opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos."
• Would Hurt a Child: In Chapter 1, he tells the Mandalorian that it'll be fine if he has to kill Grogu, although he'll pay him less for that. In Chapter 3, the Mandalorian overhears him telling Pershing to extract whatever he needs to extract from Grogu by any means necessary because their superior needs it soon. According to Pershing, the Client would have had Grogu dead by now if it weren't for him.
• You Have Failed Me: Moff Gideon has the Client and his Stormtroopers killed, since he had been tricked and it was a useful way to kill the Mandalorian in the same stroke.

Officers and Scientists

Penn Pershing

Dr. Penn Pershing

"He has explicitly ordered us to bring it back alive."

Species: Human

Portrayed by: Omid Abtahi

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"I believe that pursuit of knowledge is the most noble thing someone can do."

A medical researcher who joined the Empire in the hopes of developing new techniques for cloning artificial organ replacements, he soon found himself assigned to mysterious and unethical experiments on force-sensitive test subjects.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He begs to the Mandalorian not to hurt him or Grogu.
• Alliterative Name: Penn Pershing.
• Ambiguously Evil: Works for the Empire, or at least a remnant of it, so one would assume him to be amoral. However, when the Mando comes to rescue Grogu, Pershing begs for the infant's life, mistakenly under the impression the bounty hunter was there to kill him. He also insists that he was protecting Grogu, and that he would be dead without his help. When he returns in the second season finale, Pershing continues in his moral ambiguity, quickly and unhesitatingly cooperating with Din and his rescue crew after being captured, providing schematic details about Gideon’s Arquitens-class command cruiser, and briefing them on the Dark Troopers. Season 3 confirms that he's not evil, as he visibly regrets his role in the Empire and genuinely wanted to use his research to make the galaxy a better place.
• Aerith and Bob: "Pershing" is one of the few Earth-like names found in the Star Wars universe.
• A Day in the Limelight: "The Convert" devotes most of its' runtime to Pershing and his new life on Coruscant , with Din, Bo, and Grogu only appearing at the beginning and end of the episode.
• Ear Ache: He loses a chunk of his right ear during "The Rescue" when Cara shoots the Imperial pilot using him as a human shield. Throughout "The Convert", he repeatedly touches the scar when reminded of his service to Moff Gideon.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's Ambiguously Evil at best, but he would prefer Grogu to be kept alive for practical and moral reasons. Eventually subverted when Season 3 confirms he's not evil at all.
• For Science!: A rare positive example. While he is clearly thrilled by the scientific progress and potential applications of what is implied to be the replication of Grogu's force abilities, he also is equally motivated by his conscience. He wants Grogu alive for the sake of morality and ethics and would protect it with his life.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: He has the Kamino logo on part of his outfit, the cloning organization that made the clone army. It is later confirmed that he indeed specializes in cloning and genetic engineering.
• I Want Them Alive!: He insists to the Mandalorian that his target must be brought in alive, but his employer overrules him out of pragmatism, offering a lower fee if the Mandalorian brings proof of termination. Pershing is surprised by this and seems to be displeased by it, as that wasn't what they agreed to earlier and it'll be harder to do whatever they need to do with the target if it is dead. Episode 3 reveals that it's not because it's For Science! (primarily, at least), but because he has genuine moral objections to harming Grogu.
• Mind Rape: Suffers this fate when he is strapped into a repurposed Mind Flayer, which Kane turned up beyond its intended level. It's implied Gideon did this in order to deny Hux access to Pershing's skills.
• Momma's Boy: Seemingly of the positive variety; Pershing cared very deeply for his mother and her death of a heart attack — a death that a cloned organ transplant could have prevented — motivated him to become a geneticist in hopes of creating cloned organs to save lives. She was a doctor, and this inspired him to follow her into medicine even before she'd died of her condition.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Subverted. Episode 1 implies he's only concerned about getting Grogu back alive For Science!, and is exceedingly pleased when the Mandalorian returns with it alive. However, when the Mandalorian has a change of heart and rescues Grogu, Pershing misinterprets it as him coming to kill it. He begs the Mandalorian for its life, and is even prepared to shield it with his own body.
• Nerd Glasses: Though when was the last time you saw anyone in Star Wars wearing completely normal glasses?
• Punny Name: His full name, as revealed in "The Convert", sounds a lot like "pen-pushing", meaning a tedious job handling paperwork — which is exactly the kind of job the New Republic assigns him to in the same episode.
• Token Good Teammate: In comparison to Moff Gideon, the Client or their groups of stormtroopers, Pershing shows more than a basic degree of humanity in wanting Grogu to be brought back alive, arguing with the client that they shouldn't kill Grogu when they have him in their possession, and shielding him with his own body when the Mandalorian shows up, unaware that Din was there to retrieve Grogu and not to kill him. His refusal to harm Grogu saves him from Din's wrath, save from a brief angry questioning, which is better than what the stormtroopers got. In "The Rescue", he volunteers a significant amount of information in the briefing without being interrogated, or even asked. Without his guidance, the heroes wouldn't have even known about the Dark Troopers. It seems that his service to the Empire wasn't exactly willing and he was more than willing to sell them out.
• Uncertain Doom: In "The Convert", Pershing is last seen strapped into a mind flayer that Kane then increases the voltage on; it isn't revealed if Pershing survived the experience, or what the extent of the damage would be if he did.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: After he returns as part of an amnesty program in The Mandalorian's third season, this is likely the worst that can be said about him. He doesn't seem to have an evil bone in his body, but his scientific trade has many moral ambiguities, which he struggles with in regards to wanting to do the right thing for the New Republic.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He's not happy when the Client decides on a whim that Grogu can be brought in dead, and his objections were the only thing that kept the Remnant from vivisecting Grogu before the Mandalorian could rescue him.

Elia Kane

Elia Kane

Portrayed by: Katy O'Brian

Appearances: The Mandalorian

A communications officer aboard Moff Gideon's Arquitens-class command cruiser and his second-in-command. After Gideon's capture she joined the New Republic's Imperial amnesty program, although whether she has truly rehabilitated becomes suspect.

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• Ascended Extra: She was unnamed in Season 2 and had only a handful of lines, mostly incidental dialogue with more important characters. Season 3 gives her a name and a major role as a Fake Defector infiltrating the New Republic.
• Boyish Short Hair: She's a sturdily built, muscular and rather butch female officer in Gideon's Imperial remnant with a very short haircut.
• The Dragon: She was second-in-command to Moff Gideon, the main villain of the show's first and second seasons. Even in the third season, where she feigns reformation to infiltrate the New Republic, she's still working for Gideon, consulting him via Imperial probe droid in "The Spies".
• Fake Defector: Participates in the New Republic's amnesty program following Gideon's defeat, but it quickly becomes apparent that she is far from rehabilitated.
• False Friend: Towards Pershing. She presents herself as The Atoner and shares in his ideals about the benefits of cloning tech. She seems very friendly and trusting towards him (with a teensy trace of Ship Tease in there for good measure), but it's all an act to make Pershing trust her enough to break the rules so she can have him arrested.
• Faux Affably Evil: As a member of the amnesty program, she presents herself as a well-intentioned atoner frustrated by how little the New Republic trusts her and her fellow defectors. Then she sets Pershing up as a patsy for a conspiracy to steal former Imperial equipment and uses a Heel–Face Brainwashing machine to torture him.
• Hate Sink: Elia Kane is a detestable, slimy individual who served under Moff Gideon, and even after supposedly being rehabilitated, she is still a bitch who pretends she's sweet when really she is the complete opposite.
• Karma Houdini: As of the end of season three of The Mandalorian, Kane has yet to be discovered as an Imperial mole, nor has she been brought to justice for her actions, though her efforts to support Moff Gideon ultimately don't amount to much, as Gideon's plans have failed anyway and the Moff himself is killed.
• Manipulative Bitch: Kane spends the entirety of "The Convert" pretending to be Dr. Pershing's friend, eager to help him resume his research for the benefit of the New Republic and pushing him into taking risks that could endanger his pardon. By the end of the episode, it's made clear that it was all a deception to maneuver Pershing into a position where she could surreptitiously cause potentially fatal damage to the doctor.
• Name of Cain: It's likely no coincidence that when her name's revealed, her surname's based on that of the original Biblical Bad Guy Cain, since she turns out to be a sadistic Fake Defector from Gideon's Imperial Remnant who's still doing evil.
• Sadist: Exhibited when she tortures Pershing, casually chewing on an Imperial ration bar while watching him suffer.
• The Sociopath: In a heartbeat, she can go from acting like someone's best friend to sadistically torturing them For the Evulz.
• Villain with Good Publicity: She's managed to make New Republic officials believe that her defection to their side is the result of a genuine change in her values. However, she's actually still an evil person who deceives, manipulates, and torments others for her own wicked purposes, as seen by what she does to Pershing.

Valin Hess

General Valin Hess

Species: Human

Played by: Richard Brake

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order."

An Imperial officer who carried out Operation: Cinder on Burnin Konn, and Miggs Mayfeld's former superior officer.

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• Asshole Victim: Given how utterly detestable he acts, it's safe to say absolutely no one would shed tears over his sudden death at Mayfeld's hands. Even Din can't be mad at him, despite the act blowing their cover.
• Bad Boss: And boy is he ever! His most disgusting act is to sacrifice millions of his own troops to ensure Operation Cinder was carried through.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: His lack of recognition for Mayfeld and casual dismissal of soldiers dead on his watch just scream that atrocities like Burnin Konn really doesn't mean much to him.
• Colonel Kilgore: "Honoring" his fallen men by referring to them as heroes all, rather than truly reckon with sacrificing them for the sake of carnage while he still lives? Waxing philosophical, even nostalgic, about the chaos he's unleashed on the battlefield? Revealing plans for an even greater war crime with sheer rapturous delight in his voice? It's amazing he lasted as long as he did without getting fragged by someone else instead.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Rather than The Queen's Latin accent most Imperial characters have, Valin has a distinctive Southern drawl, which combined with his grey uniform and kepi makes him very evocative of a Confederate officer.
• Dramatic Irony: He believes an atrocity against the New Republic that makes Burnin Konn look like a distant memory would be achieved with Rhydonium and bring the galaxy back to Imperial prosperity, though it fails. Anyone who's watched The Force Awakens knows that would be achieved with a certain former Jedi planet turned into a Death Star-like weapon by the Empire's successor state...
• Fatal Flaw: Lack of Empathy and Evil Gloating leads to his death. He apparently sees no reason why Mayfeld who survived Operation Cinder would have any issue with it and gets so giddy and carried with his speech about wanting to continue it on a larger scale that he fails to notice Mayfeld's increasingly pissed-off face before getting shot by him.
• Faux Affably Evil: He conducts himself like a classy Southern gentleman, even when he gladly recalls the atrocities he committed during Operation Cinder.
• Hate Sink: Hess is everything that made the Empire so awful: a ruthless, fanatical man who takes pleasure in outliving the soldiers whose deaths he ordered, and who is planning to cause widespread death and destruction in order to make the galaxy come back to the Empire.
• It's All About Me: For all his Imperial talk, the only one Valin Hess truly cares about is, well, Valin Hess, and he will casually sacrifice his own men if it means getting the victory he wants.
• Knight Templar: He expresses a distaste for the concept of "freedom" and claims that what people really crave is order, which only the Empire can give them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Hess's arrogance and cruel indifference to ordering the deaths of thousands of citizens and Imperials, as well his intentions to do it again on a grander scale, earns him a blaster bolt to the chest by one of his own former subordinates who survived Operation: Cinder.
• Lack of Empathy: Even with one of the survivors of Operation: Cinder sitting right across from him and visibly upset over the deaths of his comrades, Hess still regards them with smug indifference. Then he admits his plans to commit an even worse atrocity that would make Cinder pale in comparison. He also seems completely unaware of Mayfeld's rising anger, as if Hess is interpreting it as fear. This flaw costs him his life.
• Nightmare Face: He may not be a freaky alien or heavily scarred, but his googly eyes and the constant fake, empty smile on his face are seriously unnerving.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He is giddy at the prospect of making Burnin Konn pale in comparison to whatever he has planned with the rhydonium he was stocking.
• Pet the Dog: Subverted. He does reward Mayfeld and Djarin for bringing the Rhydonium by sitting with them with a drink, but that's when he reveals his true callous nature towards his men.
• Smug Smiler: Bears an unsettling smirk throughout most of his scene.
• Smug Snake: He's so self-assured in his belief that his actions were glorious that he doesn't notice Mayfeld's obvious resentment and is caught off-guard when Mayfeld shoots him.
• The Sociopath: One of the biggest examples in the Imperial Army. Whether it's his seemingly charming attitude, the casual way he dismisses the deaths of his own men, or the sadistic glee he takes in wanting to crush the New Republic into dust, Hess hits every criteria and then some.
• Sociopathic Soldier: He's all too proud of the war crimes he's committed, and doesn't give a damn about anyone who died on his watch, loyal soldier and innocent civilian alike.
• Too Dumb to Live: He wasn't the spitting image of intelligence to begin with, but vocally dismissing the lives of his own soldiers to a clearly traumatized survivor's face was lethal apathy at its finest.
• We Have Reserves: Was willing to wipe out his own division in order to destroy a city as part of Operation: Cinder.

Captain

"Captain"

Species: Human

Played by: Titus Welliver

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"Long live the Empire."

The captain of an Imperial Gozanti-class cruiser transporting supplies for the Imperial remnant.

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• Better to Die than Be Killed: After being captured by Bo-Katan, he refuses to tell her where the Darksaber is, and promptly kills himself using an electric Suicide Pill rather than face Gideon's anger at failing.
• Evil Old Folks: Is clearly an older veteran with a craggy face and white hair.
• No Name Given: Neither the credits or dialogue give him a name.
• Surrounded by Idiots: He doesn't actually say it, but the look on his face clearly shows that he considers his officers to be less than competent.
• Team Killer: Kills his pilots by shooting them In the Back in the hopes of crashing the ship before the boarding party gets to the bridge.
• Villainous Valor: No matter how bad his situation gets, he remains unflinchingly calm and collected, contrasting with the Oh, Crap! faces his two pilots keep sharing.

Deck Officer

"Deck Officer"

Species: Human

Played by: Kevin Dorff

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"Close all of them! Close all the doors!"

An officer aboard the Gozanti-class cruiser that the Mandalorians board.

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• Disney Villain Death: He and all of his Stormtroopers get sucked out of the airlock while the ship is still in the planet's atmosphere and fall screaming to their deaths miles below.
• Dirty Coward: While Bo-Katan and her crew were shooting up the Stormtroopers, the deck officer instead cowers behind a control panel until the doors close.
• Evil Old Folks: Like the captain, he is an older man with white hair.
• Mook Lieutenant: Commands the Stormtroopers during the firefight against the Mandalorians.
• No Name Given: Like the captain and security officer, he isn't identified by name.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Dies when the Mandalorians open the ship's boarding ramp, and the depressurization of the interior blows him and all of his Stormtroopers out into the upper atmosphere of the planet.

Infantry and Crewmen

JS-1975 and AP-1982

JS-1975 and AP-1982

Species: Human

Portrayed by: Jason Sudeikis (JS-1975) and Adam Pally (AP-1982)

Appearances: The Mandalorian

Two Scout Troopers stationed in an Imperial holdout in Nevarro.

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• All There in the Manual: Their trooper designations are given in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. The episode credits for The Mandalorian, they're just "Bike Scout Trooper #1" and "Bike Scout Trooper #2."
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: At one point after failing to shoot something on the ground, one of them shakes his pistol as if that's the problem, then almost looks into the barrel. The other gives an exasperated shrug, then smacks his live weapon into his speeder.
• Asshole Victim: They are people who hit a baby because it annoys them, though it's made fairly obvious that they probably aren't aware that it's a child or even sentient. They get little audience sympathy when IG-11 brutally beats them.
• Bantering Baddie Buddies: They have this kind of vibe. One of them really wants to get a good look at Grogu, to the other's annoyance.
• The Cameo: "JS-1975" is played by Jason Sudeikis and "AP-1982" is played by Adam Pally.
• Chekhov's Gunman: They stand guard outside the town and turn out to be the ace up Moff Gideon's sleeve, as they are monitoring communications and overhear the Mandalorian's message to Kuiil, allowing them to intercept Kuiil and take Grogu.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Of Dexter Grif and Dick Simmons. They're both cynical, not particularly competent soldiers with a tendency to pointlessly bicker and engage in Seinfeldian Conversations, but while Grif and Simmons are at their core good men who have risked their lives countless times for the greater good, the Scout Troopers are just jackasses who abuse the child and have no redeeming qualities.
• Enemy Chatter: They shoot the shit (as well as idly attempting the Star Wars equivalent of shooting cans in the desert) while waiting for orders.
• Facepalm Of Doom: The second trooper gets grabbed by the helmet faceplate by IG-11 and then brutally smashed by the head into his own speeder.
• Hero Killer: They killed Kuiil and took Grogu from him in "The Reckoning".
• Hypocritical Humor: One of them keeps bopping Grogu over the head whenever it starts to act up, to the point where the other asks with concern if Grogu is even alive after being hit that hard, saying that it hasn't moved in a while. When he checks on it, and gets his finger bitten for poking it, he socks it in the face with a punch far harder than his partner ever delivered.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Zig-Zagged. When they kill time in "Redemption" by shooting at a small object a few feet away from their speeder bikes, neither of them hits it and all of their shots go wide. One of them even checks the sights on his pistol in disbelief before shrugging and putting it away. Yet somehow they managed to kill Kuiil and his Blurrg in the preceding episode "The Reckoning".
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The second trooper shapes up to be the nicer of the pair, taking issue with his partner hitting Grogu on the head. This is mostly out of Pragmatic Villainy (with a side of curiosity), since Gideon would probably kill them if they delivered Grogu to him dead. The rest of it goes out the window when Grogu bites his finger and he punches him in the face, though it's made fairly obvious that they probably aren't aware that it's a child or even sentient..
• Kick the Dog: They killed Kuiil and his Blurrg in "The Reckoning" and hit Grogu in "Redemption". Let's just say those don't endear them to the audience.
• Laser-Guided Karma: They killed Kuiil, kidnapped Grogu, then hit him for acting up before they are brutally beaten by IG-11 when he comes to rescue the baby.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On the receiving end of this. When they refuse to return Grogu to IG-11 he proceeds to disable them quite brutally, snapping the first one's wrist, then grabbing the second by his helmet and smashing him into his parked speeder bike with enough force to crush it.
  IG-11: [to Grogu] That was unpleasant. I'm sorry you had to see that.
• No Name Given: They are unnamed and only credited as "Bike Scout Trooper #1" and "Bike Scout Trooper #2". Galaxy of Heroes gave them their trooper designations as JS-1975 and AP-1982, an in-joke combining their actors' initials with their birthdates.
• Rebel Relaxation: They are slouching on their speeder bikes on the town entry when Greef and Cara with the Mandalorian in handcuffs are about to enter the town. It's the Imperials who are the rebels now.
• Seen It All: They are more exasperated than shocked when their dispatcher tells them that Gideon killed an officer for interrupting him.
  AP-1982: Did he just say that Gideon killed his own men?
  JS-1975: Oh, who knows. These guys like to lay down the law when they first arrive into town.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: They have one at the beginning of the season finale.
• Uncertain Doom: It's unknown whether they were actually killed outright or just badly injured when IG-11 beat the absolute shit out of them.
• Would Hurt a Child: They each hit Grogu, one because he was making noise, and the other because Grogu bit him. Both troopers are brutally beaten by IG-11 soon after.

Co-Pilot

"Co-Pilot"

Species: Human

Played by: Thomas E. Sullivan

Appearances: The Mandalorian

"Destroying your planet was a small price to pay to rid the galaxy of terrorism."

The co-pilot of the Imperial shuttle transporting Dr. Pershing.

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• Boom, Headshot!: Cara Dune shoots him through the head when he takes Dr. Pershing hostage and mocks her about Alderaan's destruction.
• Bullying a Dragon: Oh yeah, callously insulting and mocking an Alderaan survivor who also happens to be an elite Republican trooper couldn't possibly backfire or get you killed. Oh and feel free to try and spin them as the real villains for blowing up the planet-killing superweapon responsible for Alderaan's destruction. Sure.
• Hostage Situation: When the heroes board the shuttle, he grabs Pershing and holds a gun to his head, threatening to kill him unless the boarders relent.
• Hypocrite: Aside from his below mentioned Moral Myopia, there is also the fact that despite claiming to feel sorry for his allies who were killed on the Death Stars, acting as if they were innocent, he himself shamelessly kills his fellow pilot, explicitly a Punch-Clock Villain, when he tries to surrender.
• Insane Troll Logic: Claims that Alderaan was worth destroying to "rid the galaxy of terrorism" while saying that the destruction of both Death Stars was a tragedy, even though Alderaan was destroyed before the first Death Star (which was more of an act of terrorism than anything the Rebel Alliance had done at that point).
• Kick the Dog: Taunts Cara Dune about the destruction of Alderaan.
• Moral Myopia: He is outraged about the millions of Imperial lives lost when both Death Stars were destroyed in battle, but views the billions murdered on Alderaan ^note  Such as Bail Organa and his wife Brehna as justified.
• No Name Given: Just identified as "Co-Pilot" in the credits.
• Team Killer: Kills his fellow pilot when he tries to reason with the boarding party.
• Too Dumb to Live: Calling Alderaan's destruction justified to a bunch of Empire opposers armed with blasters is bad enough, but saying it to a survivor of the planet's destruction is downright idiotic.

Dark Troopers

Dark Troopers

Appearances: Commander | Darth Vader (2020) | The Mandalorian

A long-term Super-Soldier project aimed at augmenting or replacing standard Stormtrooper units, the Dark Trooper program went through numerous phases throughout the Empire's history. The first two phases were an experimental armor platform with mounted weapons systems and a suite of combat enhancements, while the third phase, only completed after the Empire's collapse, were fully-autonomous battle droids with blaster-resistant plating.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: They will stop at nothing to complete an objective, such as trying to kill Din by punching him repeatedly in the face. Unfortunately, they don't understand that Beskar is resilient enough to withstand repeated blows from their durasteel fists with no mark to show for it.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Pershing notes that the Phase III Dark Troopers use huge amounts of energy, and thus are kept completely powered down unless necessary. It takes a bit of time before they come online, but once they do they are nearly unstoppable.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. While they are just as dangerous to non-Force sensitives in Canon as they were in Legends, they aren't quite as nigh-indestructible. In Legends, the Dark Troopers were made of phrik, which was later established to be a lightsaber-resistant alloy years after their debut in Dark Forces, retroactively giving Dark Troopers lightsaber resistance. While phrik and its lightsaber-resistant properties have been re-canonized, nothing's been said of the Dark Troopers having phrik in their armor (going hand-in-hand with lightsaber-resistant alloys being a lot rarer than in Legends, possibly to avoid Kryptonite Is Everywhere), and Luke Skywalker cuts through a platoon of them like paper, confirming that whatever the case, they are not invulnerable to lightsabers.
• Adaptation Species Change: Almost completely inverted from Legends. In Legends, Phase I and II Dark Troopers were droids, while Phase III Dark Troopers were designed to be used as Power Armor, but could still function autonomously.
  • Legends also had the Phase Zero Dark Trooper, which was an experimental program to rebuild crippled and aging clones left over from the Clone Wars and press them back into Imperial service. Fortunately, nothing like that currently exists in Canon. Well, except for poor Echo.
• Always a Bigger Fish: They're subjected to this by Luke Skywalker, who cuts through them like paper.
• Attack Its Weak Point: To anyone not packing a lightsaber, their weak points are their neck and torso joints.
• Boom, Headshot!: In an aversion of Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, the vast majority of their shots seem to be dead-on headshots. However, this is ineffective against a Mandalorian wearing a beskar helmet, or a Jedi who can deflect or dodge their blaster fire.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Just one is enough to trash and all but kill Mando.
• Canon Immigrant: They're first introduced in Star Wars Legends game Dark Forces. They're re-canonized in Commander, albeit as human Stormtroopers rather than droids. Dark Troooper droids made a comeback in The Mandalorian as Phase III models.
• Composite Character: The Phase II Dark Troopers actually look far more like the purge trooper battle droids from The Force Unleashed despite getting their name from the model introduced in Dark Forces. Granted both are considered part of the Dark Trooper Project from Legends.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Justified. One of them almost kills Din, highlighting the threat Dark Troopers pose to non-Force wielders. But Luke Skywalker is a seasoned Jedi Master and One-Man Army who easily cuts through their ranks with his lightsaber, the one weapon that can effortlessly cleave through their armor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: It's heavily implied they would have inflicted this on Din and company, but they end up on the receiving end of one from none other than Luke Skywalker himself.
• Doom Troops: Everything about their design, from their red eyes, to their imposing frames and black armor, secretes intimidation.
• The Dreaded: They're widely feared among both the Empire and their enemies alike. When Din goes to rescue Grogu, he has to take the Dark Troopers out of commission first.
• Dumb Muscle: Phase III Dark Troopers are terrifyingly strong and resilient, but seemingly not that intelligent - the one that fights Din doesn't even attempt to open the door to free the other Dark Troopers, despite that being an Instant-Win Condition for it. The same one doesn't even think of trying to remove Din's helmet when the first few punches don't turn his head to mush.
• Elite Mooks: Moff Gideon's most advanced and deadly troops. When they finally see action in "The Rescue", they more than live up to that reputation as just one demonstrates how dangerous they are to the average person and it's only through the timely intervention of Luke Skywalker that Din and company survive.
• Expy: Deadly, persistent killer robots with red eyes that are incredibly hard to kill with conventional weapons? Sounds like the closest Star Wars ever got to Terminators (without the flesh cover).
• Faceless Goons: Phase II Dark Troopers have their faces concealed by intimidating black helmets with red headlights.
• Flight: The Phase III Dark Troopers have built-in thrusters that allow them to fly around in atmosphere or space.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Phase II Dark Troopers are equipped with heavy armor and assault cannons that enable them to storm enemy defenses.
• Immune to Bullets: The Phase III units are incredibly resistant to blaster rifle, taking multiple shots with hardly a scratch ( Luke is skilled enough to take out at least a couple of them by deflecting their blaster shots into their weak points). They're also unfazed by Din's flamethrower, and his beskar whistling birds just stagger them slightly.
• Implacable Man: Just one of them was enough to give Din a hard time, tanking through his arsenal with no visible damage. It takes Din plunging his Beskar spear into its vulnerable joints to finally put it down.
• Leitmotif: They're accompanied by a dubstep track.
• Mecha-Mooks: Unlike the previous of phases of Dark Trooper, Moff Gideon's Phase III Troopers are droids instead of armored humans.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The one Dark Trooper Din scuffles with spends much of the fight pummeling him with its bare fists.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The Dark Troopers are certainly a major threat to non-Force sensitives like Din, but they're little more than a nuisance to a seasoned Jedi Master like Luke Skywalker, whose lightsaber cleaves through them with no trouble.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their defining feature, through all phases, is jet-black armor with red highlights.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: They sport crimson optics to highlight their malevolent appearance.
• Shoulder Cannon: The Phase II Dark Trooper armor is equipped with an assault cannon on the shoulder.
• Stompy Mooks: The Phase III Dark Trooper battle droids walk in a synchronized laden-footed march.
• Super-Strength: The Phase III Dark Troopers are strong enough to stop blast doors from closing, and bash them down if they do close all the way.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Mando tries to get rid of them by blowing them into space, but because they're droids and don't need to breathe and also have jet thrusters in their legs, they quickly reboard the Arquitens-class command cruiser and resume their attack.
• The Worf Effect: Just one was dangerous enough to almost kill Din, so things look bad when the platoon makes their way to the bridge... until Luke Skywalker turns up and effortlessly shreds through their ranks, reaffirming no matter how advanced they may be, the Dark Troopers are no match for a Jedi Master.

Imperial Armored Commandos

Imperial Armored Commandos

Appearances: The Mandalorian

The garrison of Gideon’s hidden base on Mandalore, these soldiers wear near identical Beskar armor to the Imperial Super Commandos, but appear to also not be actual Mandalorians either.

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• Boring, but Practical: The Imperial Armored Commandos are normal Imperial soldiers but trained with Mandalorian weapons and tactics, and equipped with jetpacks and beskar armor. They're nowhere near as tough as Phase III Dark Troopers, but there is a lot more of them and they are capable enough that they can kill several Mandalorians by overwhelming them with numbers and targeting the gaps in their armor.
• Elite Mooks: Gideon's toughest minions wearing beskar armour that resemble the Imperial Supercommandos.
• Flight: They're equipped with Mandalorian-style armor and jetpacks.
• Immune to Bullets: Zig-zagged. Since they are wearing beskar, they can withstand hits to the torso or head from regular blasters. Hits to exposed points like their necks can still kill them, however, and Paz Vizla's heavy repeating blaster has enough firepower to punch straight through the armor.
• Playing with Fire: Just like Mandalorians, they can use flamethrowers in battle.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Their armor is nearly identical to the genuinely Mandalorian Imperial Super Commandos, even down to rank markings, but they seem to just be Imperials instead.
• Villainous Rescue: They rescued Gideon just as he was being transported to face trial for his crimes during "The Spies".

Mercenaries and Other Allies

Morgan Elsbeth

See her folder here.

Baylan Skoll

See his folder here.

Shin Hati

Shin Hati

"You have no power."

Species: Human

Played by: Ivanna Sakhno

Appearances: Ahsoka

"Morgan… congratulations. You almost got them. We'll take it from here."

A Force-Sensitive young woman who Baylan Skoll took as an apprentice and partner in mercenary work, allied with Morgan Elsbeth.

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• The Apprentice: The apprentice of former Jedi Baylan Skoll, who she learns in the ways of the Force from and who she follows the lead of in missions. Fitting the apprentice of an ex-Jedi, Shin even wears a Padawan braid in the style of the old Jedi Order.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Downplayed, as she isn't actively mouthing off (being quite taciturn). That said, she visibly looks down on Sabine in both times she has fought her—knowing that despite being trained in lightsaber combat, Sabine has zero aptitude in the Force. Ironically, Sabine managed to use this against her in a feint.
• Blood Knight: Downplayed, but Shin seems to be much more aggressive than Baylan, leaping into combat while he takes a moment to deliver a Pre-Mortem One-Liner to a single victim, as well as taking the time to engage Sabine in a duel despite the latter being no match for her.
• Cool Sword: She wields an orange-bladed lightsaber, which is quite rare in the new canon as it's even more uncommon than purple and yellow-bladed lightsabers. So far, the only individuals who consistently wield orange lightsabers in the canon are her, Baylan Skoll, and Drya Thornne^note Obi-Wan briefly used a special crystal to turn his lightsaber orange in Master & Apprentice, and Cal Kestis can wield an orange lightsaber in Fallen Order and Survivor; but both of them are most frequently associated with blue lightsabers.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Has been on both ends of the trope.
  • Near the end of "Master and Apprentice", Shin faces off with Sabine in a lightsaber duel, with Shin dominating the fight and ending it with brutal efficiency when she has to cut and run from Ahsoka.
  • In "Dreams and Madness", she gets quickly beaten by Ahsoka who easily defends against her strikes and Force Pushes her without even using any of her lightsabers.
• Dark Action Girl: A deadly, Force-Sensitive woman willing to ally with former Imperials in the name of money and power.
• Deadpan Snarker: While she's respectful towards her master, Shin has no qualms about letting a few zingers fly at Morgan.
  Shin: Congratulations, Morgan. You almost got them.
• Emotionless Girl: Shin's default expression is blank, with a flat and unsettling Kubrick Stare. At most, she occasionally shows anger or empathy briefly.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While their respective personalities don't lend themselves well to showing it, Shin is quite fond of Baylan, showing her Master more respect than she shows anyone else, and even showing some subdued empathy for the trauma he suffered during Order 66. She's visibly unhappy when he decides that they should part ways, but accepts his wishes.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As openly hostile and violent to Sabine as she is, even Shin is still put off by the idea of Thrawn's plans interfering with Baylan keeping his promise to her.
• Expy: If Baylan is partially based on Legends version of Darth Bane, then Shin is based on the Legends version of Darth Zannah: a young woman trained by an older human master who is pragmatic and ruthless, but will not indulge in petty sadism. For bonus points, she and Zannah are both blonde and have both blue eyes (before turning into the Sith's typical yellow eyes for Zannah).
• Fantastic Racism: Shin's distrust of Morgan Elsbeth seems to shoot right up when she learns that Elsbeth is a Nightsister. She's not happy to learn that her employer is a "witch", and is even less happy to meet the Great Mothers on Peridea.
• Foil: To Sabine; like her Mandalorian counterpart, Shin is a young woman apprenticed to a Clone Wars veteran and survivor of Order 66 who nevertheless isn't quite a Jedi (Ahsoka left the Order as a Padawan, Baylan forsook the Jedi code, but they both carry on at least some Jedi traditions). Unlike the much more animated and colorful Sabine, Shin barely ever speaks, and her appearance is almost entirely colorless. Her relationship with Baylan contrasts Sabine's with Ahsoka; Baylan and Shin get along swimmingly, with Shin obeying her Master's orders and accepting his guidance, while Sabine and Ahsoka's personalities clash, making their Master-Apprentice relationship a bit rocky. After the finale, both Shin and Sabine are stranded on Peridea and make common cause with the locals, but while Sabine has Ahsoka and Huyang with her among the Noti, Shin is alone and set to take over a local group of bandits.
• Hidden Depths: While a mostly sullen and volatile young woman, Shin shows a quieter and more thoughtful side when it's just her and Baylan in conversation.
• Icy Blue Eyes: She has blue-green eyes and is even more ruthless than her own master.
• Important Hair Accessory: Shin's Jedi Padawan braid, which serves to emphasize that her Master, Baylan, is training her in the Jedi tradition, albeit without concerns about adhering to the Light Side of the Force.
• Jerkass: Downplayed; Shin isn't openly rude or aggressive (in fact, she barely speaks at all), but she is cold, sullen, and withdrawn, especially compared to Baylan. She's also quite vicious towards Sabine when they battle, with Shin constantly mocking her inadequacy, and even attempting to Force choke her when she's at her master Baylan's mercy, only relenting when he sternly tells her to relent.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When she's alone, facing off with Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine, Shin opts to make a run for it rather than surrender or try to fight a losing battle.
• Kubrick Stare: Shin's default expression is a wide-eyed, unblinking stare, usually with her eyes looking slightly upward.
• Laser Blade: She wields an orange-bladed lightsaber like her mentor.
• Light Is Not Good: Contrasting her black clad master, Shin wears a much lighter, grey outfit topped with a dark brown cloak, which along with her Padawan braid ironically makes her look more like a Jedi than Baylan himself (who actually was one). She also has nearly white blonde hair and light blue eyes, but these, combined with her pale skin, make her look more creepy than benevolent.
• Lightning Bruiser: In contrast to her master's slow and methodical approach to lightsaber combat, Shin moves and fights with overwhelming speed and power.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: While willing to indulge her Blood Knight tendencies when she can, when she has to be, Shin is very direct and rarely ever stops to taunt her opponents. When she has Sabine and Ezra surrounded by Night Troopers, she simply orders them shot, and responds to Ezra's desperate attempt to buy some time by repeating the order.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Baylan describes Ezra as a "bokken Jedi, trained in the wild", Shin remarks that she is much the same, though Baylan disagrees, saying that he trained Shin to be "something more".
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: She's the younger villain to Ahsoka and Sabine's older heroes as she was born after the Great Jedi Purge while Ahsoka was a teenager during the Purge and survived it while Sabine was born a year or two before it happened.
• The Quiet One: She doesn't speak much compared to her master.
• Redemption Rejection: When Shin finds herself alone against Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra, Ahsoka offers to help Shin if she surrenders. While she seems to consider the offer for a moment, Shin opts to flee instead.
• The Rival: Downplayed with Sabine; they face off no fewer than three times over eight episodes of Ahsoka, but they don't seem to give each other much thought outside of battle.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Shin doesn't bother to hide her disdain for working with Morgan Elsbeth, and the feeling is mutual; the only reason they associate at all is because Morgan is employing Shin's master, Baylan.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Shin is a very powerful combatant, but her proficiency in lightsaber combat is more because of her strong connection to the Force rather than any true sword mastery. Her duels with Sabine Wren go from being initially lopsided to more even due to Sabine's connection to the Force slowly becoming stronger and legitimately skilled combatants like Ezra Bridger and Ahsoka Tano manage to easily defend against Shin's attacks and push her back without even having to draw their lightsabers.
• Villainous Valor: In "Dreams and Madness", Shin proves willing to try her luck against Ahsoka, an opponent more than 15 years her senior and vastly more experienced. Shin loses badly, but to her credit, she only backs off when she finds herself suddenly outnumbered.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Baylan has trained her well, but she lacks real-world experience with lightsaber duels. She is able to overpower non-Force-sensitive opponents and Sabine, but Ezra is able to fend her off unarmed because of his previous experience fighting Inquisitors, and Ahsoka, a veteran of two galactic wars who has fought multiple Sith, easily throws her around.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Shin has light blonde hair and skin, giving her an almost angelic appearance, but she's a ruthless mercenary and Dark Jedi who, along with her master, allies herself with the Imperial Remnant for money and power.

Marrok

See his folder here.

Scout Guards

Scout Guards

Appearances: Tales of the Empire | The Mandalorian | Ahsoka

Morgan Elsbeth's minions who aid her in her tyranny on Corvus and later, the scheme to rescue Grand Admiral Thrawn from exile.

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• Gas Mask Mooks: All of them wear face-concealing masks which feature prominent breathing apparatuses, and they are all thugs keeping a town enslaved for an Imperial Remnant.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: During Ahsoka's raid of Corvus, one of them is non-fatally dispatched with his weapon destroyed. When the fight is finished, Ahsoka simply glances at him for a moment before he wisely takes off running from the scene.
• Mooks: The rank and file of Magistrate Elsbeth's forces, wielding A350 blaster rifles in battle and even fly a starfighter model that resembles both the RP82 Fiend fighter and the Belbullab-22 heavy starfighter.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite Morgan's capture, most of them return to Elsbeth's employ the moment she is freed from prison to perform grunt work for her forces and crew the Eye of Sion.

HK-87s

HK-87 Assassin Droids

Appearances: Tales of the Empire | The Mandalorian | Ahsoka

A type of droid designed specifically for assassination work, used by Morgan Elsbeth on Corvus.

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• Implacable Man: According to Sabine, HKs are very persistent, shrugging off loss of limbs if they think they can get to their target.
• Killer Robot: Their specific model of droid were designed with assassination in mind, but they're also willing to attempt more upfront methods and several are instead employed as guards.
• Machine Monotone: When they speak, their voices are inhumanly deep and mechanical.
  HK-87: The Map. Give it to us.
• Made of Explodium: Each HK-87 packs an explosive charge set to self-destruct if they're defeated in battle. The yield is, roughly, equivalent to that of a Davy Crockett. Basically, if you destroy it without disabling the charge, run.
• Mecha-Mooks: A mid-way between the generally bumbling B1-series Battle Droids and the serious threat of the Dark Troopers. They're moderately capable against normal foes, but utterly helpless against a full-blown Force wielder. By the name, they're meant to be designed for assassinating people, but Morgan Elsbeth and Shin Hati use them for general minion purposes, which also suits them just fine.
• Mook Carryover: Technically, no. Even when a lot of Imperial resources were "repurposed" come the New Republic, the HKs were supposed to be kept off that list, but thanks to a few die-hard loyalists, a few slipped through the cracks here and there.
• Mythology Gag: Their name is based on HK-47, a Token Evil Teammate from the Legends videogame Knights of the Old Republic, along with other fellow HK models from said continuity; albeit lacking his Comedic Sociopathy as well as looking and sounding much different. HK-series droids similar to their Legends counterparts were already incorporated into the new canon via the Smuggler's Guide reference book. The HK-87s appear to simply be a very redesigned model.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The HKs Ahsoka defeats when they try to obtain the map from her do this in an effort to kill her, though she Outruns the Fireball via a 10 second headstart.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Outside the self-destruct mechanism, if an HK-87's processor overheats they tend to explode.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They're combat droids armed with doubled-bladed weapons, usually seen guarding important figures opposed to a Republic, and are capable of fighting Jedi. They're General Grievous's MagnaGuards in another era.

Extra-Galactic Exiles of the Chimaera

Captain Enoch

Captain Enoch

"Die well."

Species: Possibly Human

Played by: Wes Chatham

Appearances: Ahsoka

Thrawn's Captain of the Guard and one of his right hands aboard the long-exiled Chimaera.

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• Ambiguously Human: His mask, voice, and the subtitles cast doubt on his species, though his shape is humanoid.
• Bling of War: His armor bears some heavy gold ornamentation to it, set apart from his other troopers by a full-face golden humanoid mask.
• Co-Dragons: With Morgan for Thrawn; Enoch commands the Night Troopers and is consistently at Thrawn's side, while Morgan is The Heavy who does most of the grunt work in the plot. Enoch becomes Thrawn's sole Dragon, following Morgan's death in the finale.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: His uniform has more gold than that of the other Night Troopers.
• Number Two: The highest-ranked Imperial other than Thrawn, who directly commands the legion of Night Troopers and follows the Grand Admiral's direct command.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He essentially takes over the role of Rukh, following the latter's Death by Adaptation in Rebels. He's Thrawn's personal bodyguard, accompanying the Grand Admiral in almost every scene he appears in, and directly reports to him on developments in the plot.
• Uncanny Valley: The faceplate to his helmet is an unnervingly human one cast in gold compared to the classic stormtrooper helmet.

Night Troopers

Night Troopers

"THRAWN! THRAWN! THRAWN! THRAWN!"

Species Possibly Human/Undead Nightsister Creation

Appearances: Ahsoka

The stormtrooper contingent making up Thrawn's exiled forces.

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• Ambiguously Human: Like their captain, Enoch, the Night Troopers aren't clearly human in nature, thanks to their echoing voices and constantly masked faces. "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord" reveals that at least some of them are undead, but with their appearances concealed, it's unclear how many of them are actually still alive and how many have been reanimated by the Nightsisters.
• Bling of War: Some of them have had their armor replaced by golden pieces, adding to the contrast of their otherwise blemished equipment.
• Elite Mooks: The Night Trooper version of the Death Troopers are more stronger than the average Night Trooper, stalling Ezra and Sabine long enough for the Chimaera to almost be out of reach.
• Implacable Man: Once resurrected, the Night Troopers all but ignore off blaster bolts and lightsaber slashes and keep coming. The undead Death Troopers are even tougher, as their armor can deflect lightsabers. Just two of them very nearly kill Ezra and Sabine, and the need to be beheaded or impaled through the brain to finally die for good.
• Mook Carryover: At least one confirmed Stormtrooper from Thrawn's Night Trooper forces, LS-757, survived the events of Rebels.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Justified as a result of a lack of supplies to repair and replace; the Night Troopers have had to make do with pieces of other equipment and scavenged resources in their uniforms, resulting in a worn and haphazard look, looking like Roman Soldiers.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Deceased troopers can be resurrected with the aid of Nightsister magic, which enhances them with increased durability and pain resistance.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Shooting or slashing the undead troopers barely slows them down, but igniting a lightsaber through their brains or beheading them can put them down for good.
• Scarred Equipment: Nearly a decade in exile have resulted in cracked, rough-hewn and patched up equipment for them, sometimes mismatched pieces as well. This also applies to the TIE Fighter Pilots and the Death Troopers during the final episode.
• Undying Loyalty: Even nearly a decade of exile on Peridea, all of them willingly follow under the Grand Admiral's command. This complete loyalty seems to have even evolved into fanaticism, as they all chant Thrawn's name during his Big Entrance. They're so dedicated to Thrawn that three dozen of them volunteer to Hold the Line to ensure that the Grand Admiral can escape Peridea, even knowing that if they're killed, the Great Mothers will raise them as undead soldiers, making their loyalty literally undying.

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