Every evil side seems to have its Rommels here and there... Patriotic military men who do their utmost for their country, and are in some cases tactical geniuses, but who either distance themselves from atrocities or take a rose-tinted view and tell themselves it ain't happening. The Empire had men like Pellaeon and Thrawn. And maybe not everyone would agree, but that's always how I kinda saw Trench of the CIS. Bearing that in mind... how would you feel about him showing up again in Rebels as a military commander of the rebellion?
While Trench may have a slightly nasty streak: "I smell fear, and it smells good." he might make for a good morally ambiguous Rebel.
The Essential Guide to Warfare makes an allusion to the possibility- at the end of his War Portrait (p90-91): Trench was once again listed as killed in action. But Yularan had his doubts - after all, he'd seen the tough old spider survive the loss of a flagship before.
During Valorum's chancellorship, Trench, leading a Corporate Alliance force, attacked Malastare, blockading the Malastare Narrows (which I think was the main route in). Valorum sent the Malastarans credits to hire privateers, as well as "military observers" including Yularan. Trench's flagship was destroyed in the confrontation, and Trench was not heard from again by the Republic, until the Clone Wars. Before that, Trench was a great military leader in the Andoan Wars. The wars were stopped by Republic intervention, with a Judicial fleet, when Ando was about to win its war against the Andoan Free Colonies. This was what made the Andoans upset enough that they eventually seceded, at some point after Trench's first apparent death (possibly as one of the founding Separatist groups).
Thanks. So he probably should survive the Bonus Content then. Or we will continue the speculation until we see him in Rebels or even after that.
I never really got that feeling about Trench that the OP describes, he just felt like he had a nasty personality to me. But not all rebels are perfect, so it might be nice to see him fighting with the alliance in Rebels. I'd rather see him on the Empire's side though.
I find the idea of Separatist holdouts from the Clone War very intriguing, and I've often thought how cool it might be to delve deeply into some idealistic Separatists who still take the fight to the Empire throughout the early Imperial Period, straight on through to the formation of the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Civil War. I don't know that I've ever considered Trench as a viable candidate (as with SkywalkerSquadron, I've only ever thought of him as evil), but I'll give the OP credit, your thinking outside of the box has me at least considering the possibility. Maybe the Admiral is not "evil," per se, simply a being who really enjoys the chess match, and lives for those victories over skilled opponents (nothing wrong with that - he's a military man/creature, after all). Whomever it would wind up being, I'd absolutely love to see former Separatists fighting the Empire and joining with the Alliance in Rebels.
Separatists who have survived the Clone Wars siding with or actually joining the Rebel Alliance is one of the more interesting possibilities that have been brought up. They should at least try it out in the show and see how it goes.
I'd really like seeing this, actually. If he was part of the Rebellion, I just hope the rebels let him have his emblem put onto his ship.
My question re: Trench, specifically, is what do we know about his motivations? From what little I can gather, at first, at least, it would seem that Trench was fighting for a cause. Trench is of the Harch species, a species native to the Secundus Ando system. The wook tells that during the last century of the Republic, the Harch ruling nests allied themselves against the Andoan Free Colonies and, in 57 BBY, the Andoan Free Colonies attacked Secundus Ando, beginning the Andoan Wars, a conflict which ultimately culminated in the year 39 BBY at the Battle of Raquish (a "decisive victory" for Trench's forces, but one which afterward "turned into a debacle with the intervention of a sizable fleet of the Republic Judicial Forces which ordered the demilitarization of the sector"). This fostered poor relations with the Republic, and would seem to lay the groundwork for Trench's later involvement with the CIS during the Clone War. But then we find that just five years later (34 BBY), Trench was involved at the Battle of Malastare Narrows, where we know he was working for the Corporate Alliance (who were still members of the Galactic Republic at the time, and who had no prior link to Trench or his species that I can see). I suppose my question is "why?" Was he a hired gun? A mercenary who offered his unique talents to the highest bidder? Given the role of the Corporate Alliance (a "conglomerate of megacorporations"), and its magistrate's stated promise: "we will do all we can to protect our assets and intellectual properties," I'd wager a guess that this is the case. All of which means, If I'm reading things correctly, Trench is a complicated being who has demonstrated that he's willing to fight for a cause, but is also not above working under less altruistic conditions, either. So what can be made of Trench's involvement in the blockade at the Battle of Christophsis, then? Trench aligned himself with the CIS and fought as an Admiral against the Republic, but did he have anything other than professional interests invested here? Was Trench fighting for a cause he believed in, or eyeing the bottom line? We know that even after coming within an eyelash of being vaporized by Anakin and Yularen, Trench would later come back for more and return to the CIS. Can we now add revenge to the list of the Admiral's potential motivations? Maybe he's become so enraptured with the idea of commanding forces during wartime, that he's willing to listen to anybody with an interesting offer? The reason I'm asking these questions, of course, is because I'm thinking that if we can get a basic sort of read on Trench, and answer the question of "why does he fight?", we may be better equipped to gauge whether the guy could ever potentially side with the rebellion against the Empire. I'd think that, at least in the beginning (with what I imagine might be resources too minimal to fund mercenaries), those who choose to fight for the rebellion are likely to be the sort who would willingly risk their lives for a cause, and not the sort who are interested in profiteering. This potentially being the case, where does this leave us with Trench?
It would be great to see Trench being a part of the Rebellion in Rebels and it would be interesting to see how the heroes would get on with him since he is a Separatist.
I do admit to getting a little bit of ROFL value out of anakinfanwithoutagallbladder hating a character (Trench) because she's scared of spiders.
Still thinking that Admiral Trench, as resilient as he's been, won't survive the bonus content. I think TaradosGon has to date come up with the best death for our good friend Trench: So, no to spiders Harch?
If the Republic turned heel, it's only natural and fitting to have some ex-Separatists do a face turn.
