10 Key Differences Between Star Wars’ Next Big Villain in Canon and Legends

Grand Admiral Throne Will apparently be the next big one Star Wars Wicked, and The modern canon has made several major changes To his backstory and personality. Thrawn debuted in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel heir to the empirewho was a great contributor to the Star Wars Expanded Universe’s renaissance in the 1990s. Back then, the Expanded Universe was the official one Star Wars Canon, with Lucasfilm ensuring that non-film materials not only maintain a neat continuity with each other, but also the saga films themselves. To clean the slate for the sequel trilogy, however, Lucasfilm partially rebooted the Star Wars Franchise.

In April 2014, the Expanded Universe was renamed Legends and became a bygone alternate timeline, although its lore, characters and storylines would have a massive influence on the modern canon. Grand Admiral Thrawn was one of many elements of the Legends continuity to receive a counterpart in the modern canon.With Thrawn’s newer iteration debuting in the Star Wars Rebels Animated series. Since his re-introduction to the Star Wars franchise, Thrawn was developed as a similar character to his original iteration, although there are some notable differences between his current incarnation and The original iteration of Legends.

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Canon Grand Admiral Throne is much more heavily involved in fighting the rebels

A more active role

Naturally, with Grand Admiral Throne reintroduced to the modern Star Wars Canon in RebelsThe new sequel has Thrawn playing a much more active role in battling the growing Rebel Alliance Like his original Legends counterpart. As shown in Rebels Seasons 3 and 4, Thrawn sought to destroy the rebel cell known as Phoenix Cell, putting him at odds with the show’s ensemble cast of protagonists.

Thrawn took command of the Imperial military forces on Lothal, proving to be a far more competent leader than the likes of Admiral Cassius Constantine and General Arihnda Pryce. The original Legends iteration of Thrawn was still involved in the Empire’s early conflicts With the growing rebellion, however.

Thrawn’s ingenuity as a military leader quickly earned him the favor of both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, with the former assigning him to work alongside Imperial Inquisitor Jerek – a dangerously ambitious dark side user who longed to take Vader’s place at the Emperor’s side – and keep him in line. Thrawn and Irik led the Empire to victory on Solon, suffering heavy casualties but nevertheless wiping out the moon’s rebel cell.

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Star Wars canon has a very different explanation for Thrawn’s absence

Thrawn was defeated in the series finale of Rebels

Despite being one of the Galactic Empire’s finest military leaders, Thrawn is, notably, absent from these Star Wars Original trilogy. Although this is due to his debut in 1991, in fact, the two Star Wars Continuities each present different reasons for his absence. In the modern Star Wars canon, Thrawn was defeated in the series finale of RebelsWith the hyperspace-traveling Purgil spaceship Whales took him, his flagship, and Ezra Bridger to the extragalactic world of Peridea. Throne would not return to the main Star Wars Galaxy until several years after Return of the Jedi.

In the continuation of the legends, Grand Admiral Thrawn secretly asked to be relegated to the unknown regions of the galaxy. As a Chis, Thrawn is often subject to bigotry by many of his colleagues, but Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader have no such prejudice, valuing. Throned as one of the empire’s greatest assets. Together, they used the Empire’s humane high culture as a cover to justify sending Thrawn to the Unknown Regions on a “Mapping expedition“And he would rise again years later Return of the Jedi.

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Canon Grand Admiral Thrawn worked with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars

Thrawn criticized the infamous reputation of the Dark Lord

In the legend’s continuation, Grand Admiral Thrawn worked with Darth Vader on several occasionsWith the Sith Lord respecting the naval leader’s competence and lack of ego. Thrawn did not think quite so highly of Vader, however, and criticized the Dark Lord’s infamous reputation for executing his subordinates and intimidating his underlings. Thrawn, in particular, never knew Darth Vader like the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

In the modern canon, however, Thrawn knew Anakin Skywalker, having met the Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars. In the modern canon’s equivalent to the Legends Continuity’s Cortosis battle droid campaign, Thrawn and Skywalker worked together during a mission to Mokivj, stopping the Separatist Alliance from producing the deadly lightsaber resistance super battle droids. Thrawn would later be saddened to hear that Skywalker “Died“In the Jedi Purge.

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Grand Admiral Thrawn knows Vader’s true identity in canon

Thrawn noticed similarities between Anakin and Darth Vader

Since Grand Admiral Thrawn never worked with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars in the Legends continuity, he only ever knew him in his Sith identity of Darth Vader. In the modern canon, however, Thrawn knew him as Anakin Skywalker and later as Darth Vader. Not surprisingly, Thrawn suspected—if not immediately knew—that the two were one and the same.

During a mission with Darth Vader, Thrawn noted similarities between the Sith Lord’s strategies and those of the “Late“Anakin Skywalker And soon realized that they are the same person. Thrawn kept this knowledge to himself, no doubt aware that he would be in mortal danger from Vader if he didn’t. Initially, however, Thrawn implied his knowledge of Darth Vader’s previous identity in conversations with the Dark Lord himself, though he eventually came to terms with Skywalker’s symbolic death.

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The Noghri are far less important to Throne in Star Wars canon

The story is much more developed in the continuity of the legends

Grand Admiral Thrawn is known for using the Noghri warrior Rukh as his bodyguard and assassinBut the Noghri as a species lacks their tragic history of the original legend continuation. At the moment, all that is known about Rukakh and the Nughri is that Theran hired Rukakh for his fighting skills and loyalty. The story of the Noghri is much more developed in the Legends continuity.

After a Separatist chemical weapon devastated the Noghri homeworld of Honoghr during the Clone Wars, Darth Vader offered aid to the species in exchange for their loyalty to him and the Emperor, leading to the formation of the Noghri Death Commando. In truth, Vader and the Empire secretly continued to defame Honoghr, prolonging their suffering and ensuring their continued loyalty to Vader. Rook was one such Noghri death commandoWhom Grand Admiral Thrawn chose to serve as his personal assassin and bodyguard.

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Rook’s death means that the story of ​​Tron has to end in a very different way

Thrawn can no longer be killed by slide

Even after the death of Darth Vader, the Empire continued to poison Honoghr in exchange for loyal Noghri Death Commandos. which proved instrumental to Thrawn’s final defeat in the Thrawn campaign was Princess Leia’s revelation to the Noghri that the Empire is deceiving them And continued to pollute their home world. The news eventually reached Rukh, who assassinated Tron in response (and was soon killed by Tron’s troops), giving the New Republic an edge in the Battle of Bilbringi.

In the modern canon, Rook never turned on the throneHaving died fighting for him on Lothal in the Rebels Series finale. This means that Thrawn cannot die the same way as his original iteration in the new continuity. Unless Rukh becomes the last modern canon character to return from the dead, a future story will have to give Thrawn a different – but equally fitting – death.

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Canon Thrawn may not be as focused on artwork

He’s still interested in it, though

One of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s most iconic traits is his obsession with artwork. By simply learning the arts of a specific species, Thrawn understands their cultural mindsets and weaknesses. Thrawn also takes this a step further in some cases, learning the specific artwork an enemy leader collects. According to Timothy Zahn, Sherlock Holmes was a major inspiration for ThrawnAnd the Grand Admiral also always makes accurate deductions by noticing small details, just like Holmes.

While this trait is very prominent in the original Legends version of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the modern canon downplays this trait for its newer iteration. Thrawn is certainly interested in artwork and studies it to gain advantages over his enemies (especially Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren in Rebels), but he is nowhere near as obsessed with artwork as his incarnation of Legends. In Thrawn’s live action debut in AhsokaHis strategy of learning artwork is completely absent.

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Grand Admiral Thrawn has one weakness in Legends he doesn’t seem to have in canon

The Kalesh

Along with giving Grand Admiral Thrawn a more prominent obsession with artwork (and weapons of his obsession), the Star Wars Legend’s continuity also gave him a critical weakness. Grand Admiral Thrawn struggles to understand the artwork of one species: the Kaleesh. During a conflict between the Galactic Empire and a contingent of Kaleesh, Thrawn attempted to study Kaleesh artwork and failed to gain any knowledge of their cultural mindset and strategies, thus resorting to bombing the Kaleesh on Oben (a Kaleesh colony world).

This would mean that Thrawn would most likely struggle against the dreaded Separatist leader General Grievous, perhaps being defeated by the Kaleesh Warlord. Thrawn is not known to share this weakness in modern Star Wars Canon, however, so he would most likely have little trouble with a Kaleesh strategist. Additionally, General Grievous is far less formidable in the modern canon than he was in his original Legends incarnation.

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Legends Thrawn is much more competent than the canon version

He is one of the most dangerous villains

When written by Timothy Zahn, there is little difference between the Grand Admiral Throne of the Legends continuity and the Throne of the modern canon continuity. The main differences, however, come into play when you take properties like Rebels And Ahsoka in account Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of these Star Wars Franchise’s finest strategists and one of the most dangerous villainsBut Thrawn had to have his competence dialed back to some degree so that the heroes of Rebels And Ahsoka Would survive their respective points.

While Thrawn has plenty of impressive feats in both of Zahn’s modern canon trilogies, the Legends continuity portrays him as a threat on a much grander scale. In his original iteration, Thrawn was not only a superlative strategist, but also a political manipulator orchestrating a scandal in the New Republic, which resulted in Admiral Gial Ackbar being removed from command. In the Legends continuity, Thrawn was shown developing new space while simultaneously fighting a battle with the New Republic, Making him a much bigger threat to the heroes than his newer iteration.

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Legends’ throne is more clearly a villain than canon… until now

He has no remorse in his actions

In addition to being a more competent villain in the Legends continuity, the original version of Grand Admiral Thrawn is also a more sinister character than his modern canon counterpart. While Both versions of Thrawn are arguably too complex to be written off as one-note villainsThey nevertheless become high-ranking members of the Empire – an oppressive, expansionist, totalitarian entity that is guilty of countless atrocities.

The Legends iteration of Thrawn is clearly a villain, while the modern canon version tries to dampen Thrawn’s more nefarious qualities. The Legends version of Thrawn is all but remorseless in his actionsKalte orders a pharmacist to execute an undercover person on the spot for trying to transfer the blame to a company.

Thrawn also continued Darth Vader’s scheme of poisoning Honoghr to keep the Noghri loyal to the Empire under false pretenses. Thrones lack of genuine loyalty to the Empire is only implied in his original Star Wars Legends incarnation, but the modern canon makes it clear that he only sees the regime as a means to protect the Chis ascendancy.