Lit LEGENDS: What if Palpatine had brought Thrawn into Shadow Hand?

Excerpt from Wookieepedia:

Not so much interested in discussing Palpatine's motives for remaining hidden from Thrawn, as to discuss what would have been the outcome if the resurrected Palpatine had made himself known to Thrawn, brought him up to speed on Operation Shadow Hand, and made him Supreme Commander of the Imperial forces.

Would that have been the end of the New Republic and the rebirth of the Empire?

 

The Pre-Shadow Hand campaign was a complete Imperial success, which Thrawn laid the groundwork for anyway. The failures in Operation Shadow Hand were not from a tactical standpoint. The devastation of Mon Calamari was stopped because Luke turned off the World Devastators from Byss. The Battle of Pinnacle base ended when Palpatine killed himself on accident with a force storm. The Battle of Balmorra ended because Sedriss called a truce to access the Viper Automadon technology. Palpatine was directly in command at Onderon so Thrawn would likely have been elsewhere at that point regardless or been overruled by Palpatine when they disagreed. Onderon led to Palpatine's final death and the destruction of Byss.

 

Unlikely. Here's the truth from Thrawn's own mouth.

"I rule the Empire now, not some long-dead Emperor."

Thrawn wouldn't have bent the knee to a clone of Palpatine. He would have seen Sidious as a mere shadow of the Emperor, not belieiving that it was the original Palpatine's spirit inhabiting a clone vessel. Between that and his ysalamiri, I think Thrawn would have found a way to combat and thwart Sidious's plans. He would have failed, of course, as Palpatine possessed a far greater military than Thrawn. But I don't think the last Grand Admiral would have served what he would have seen as a mere clone of the Galactic Emperor.

 

Thrawn has seen some pretty crazy Force powers, so would he really have that much reason to disbelieve Palpatine resurrecting himself? Not to mention, I'm sure Palpatine has ways to prove he is who he says he is.

Actually, considering Thrawn's motives, I think he probably would go along with clone Palpatine's plans even if he thought he wasn't the real deal. Thrawn himself can't rule the galaxy or impose order...the only person really able to unite the Imperial warlord factions is Palpatine himself.

 

It's worth noting that the quoted Wookieepedia passage is a... somewhat creative interpretation of the original source. Which reads thus:

Note that there's nothing about Palpatine being "genuinely devastated" at Thrawn's death-- in fact the implication is that Palpatine was behind it! And there's certainly nothing to suggest Palpatine had any plans for Thrawn in his upcoming offensives.

In fact, according to the unknown voice of the DESB (unlike most WEG resources, there's no in-universe frame story or narrator) Thrawn did play a role in Core offensive: he was serving as a distraction, drawing the New Republic's fleets from the Core and directing their attention abroad. Even his collapse appears to have been beneficial: the details are unclear, but as we know from the Atlas that the Imperial capital at Orinda fell to the New Repulic shortly thereafter we can surmise the New Republic had committed forces deep into the northern quadrant during the time between Thrawn's death and the Emperor's return. Lusankya, at least, was moored at the newly captured Bilbringi shipyards, some twelve hours or so from Coruscant at flank speed-- in fact, if you do the math, it seems like a decent chunk of the New Republic high command including Ackbar was out there during the blitzkrieg.

So anyway. I know you're asking what would have happened if Thrawn had actually been included in the planned offensive, but it's a question that can't really be answered, since so much of the offensive (and Operation Shadowhand the following year) was dependent on Thrawn doing exactly what he already did.

 

My favorite part of the pre-Shadow Hand era is that Palpatine was presenting himself as a warlord called the Omnipotent Battle Leader. He told hardly anyone he was the Emperor, and half the people he told, he killed because he didn’t like the way they reacted. So everyone was just following the hot new Imperial warlord. I like to imagine Palpatine as Omnipotent Battle Leader had a lot of similarities with his prequel-era Darth Sidious persona.


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This cautious and secretive approach is quite justified, given how many warlords went rogue as soon as they heard of Palpatine’s first death. Sidious couldn’t be sure of their reactions, thus he organized the pre-Shadow Hand campaign anonymously. The subsequent Imperial Civil War is proof that many of the Imperials would have stood against Sidious. Too many of the task force commanders were ambitious and dreamed of ruling the Empire themselves.

The carnage of the brief Imperial Civil War was swift, brutal, and abhorrently wasteful. Dreadnoughts and torpedo spheres and entire fleets lost while the New Republic hid and regrouped. And yet the outcome was to Palpatine’s benefit, removing the vipers that wanted to occupy his throne.

I’m always in awe of how much the Dark Empire managed to achieve in such a short period of time. Within a matter of weeks, the Core belonged to the Empire again and the New Republic was a scattered, fleeing remnant. But nothing was done to consolidate those gains and within a year all of those conquests disappeared into thin air.

Despite this, the impact of Operation: Shadow Hand were very long-reaching and were felt many years after Palpatine’s final death. The destruction of Byss and the collapse of the Dark Empire left many loose ends that came back to trouble the New Republic.

• The Deep Core warlords and their plethora of warships
• Lumiya and Carnor Jax
• The Megador and Dominion and their usage by Imperial forces in the years following Shadow Hand

 

If Palpatine resurrected and Thrawn had joined forces i feel like the New Republic wouldnt have had a chance.

 

Thrawn was working for Palpatine during the GCW and the Rebels won anyway. Palpatine and Thrawn are impressive but far from invincible.

 

As noted, Palpatine wanted to see how the Imperial brass reacted to his return, as he was likely unsurprised-many wanted to rule the empire themselves or their own empires. Palpatine likely thought, rightly or wrongly Thrawn felt the same as the former. So he was most useful to distract the New Republic.

I don't honestly think Thrawn had any real place in the dark side magocracy Palpatine was building, and he would have been slated for elimination sooner or later.

 

I'm inclined to believe Thrawn would have eventually betrayed Palpatine, since he was already building his own power base as the Empire of the Hand, perhaps he was aware that Palpatine's endgame was slightly different than his, and upon seeing what the Dark Empire truly was, he would have quit.

Either that or he would have been compelled to obey due to Palpatine's overwhelmingly superior military, political, and actual power, until Palpatine realizes Thrawn is more of a liability for his long-term hold on the Empire.

I wonder if Thrawn had any idea of what kind of being the Emperor truly was and what his intentions were.

 

Palpatine eventually wanted to turn the galaxy into Byss writ large-that is sapient beings used as fuel to feed his ever growing power. He would have replaced secular officials and institutions with various dark side subordinates, and automated or minimized the rest.

Pretty much any Imperial officer that had any notion the empire was supposed to represent order, stability and perhaps progress would have recoiled-not to mention realizing they were going to be disposed of once Palpatine became powerful enough and confident enough in his dark side adepts.

So yeah-Thrawn or really anyone who wasn't fanatically loyal to Palpatine would have absolutely opposed the dark empire as both a threat to the empire they believed in and their personal survival.

 

That number is completely believable to me, given that eight years after that, the Remnant had two hundred star destroyers remaining.

A hundred lost during Daala’s and Pelleaon’s campaigns over eight years makes sense to me.

Shadow Hand wrecked both the Empire and New Republic navies, but with the main shipyard and manufacturing worlds of fhe Galaxy under their control, the latter was able to rebuild. The former could not.