Star Wars The Mandalorian Era Is An Imperial Civil War Theory Explained

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Era Is An Imperial Civil War – Theory Explained

Star Wars has rewritten Grand Admiral Thrawn’s origin story, and the new twist means The Mandalorian could be entering an Imperial civil war.

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The Mandalorian era playing out across multiple series on Disney+ could be telling the story of an Imperial civil war between Emperor Palpatine and Grand Admiral Thrawn. The streaming service’s flagship series The Mandalorian was a phenomenal success for the House of Mouse. As a result, Lucasfilm is launching two spinoff shows—Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett—based on characters who both made their return to the Star Wars franchise during season 2. There will reportedly be a single overarching narrative running through the shows, and it would appear to feature Grand Admiral Thrawn.

In terms of the Star Wars timeline, Grand Admiral Thrawn was last seen in the Star Wars Rebels series finale. Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger outsmarted the Chiss strategist over the skies of Lothal, summoning the Purrgils—or “Space Whales,” as they’re colloquially known. The Purrgils trashed Thrawn’s fleet, before seizing his flagship and jumping into hyperspace with Thrawn and Ezra still aboard. The Grand Admiral hasn’t been seen since, but he appears to have returned to the Outer Rim some five years after Return of the Jedi, because his name has been associated with an Imperial resurgence in that sector of space.

The general assumption is that Lucasfilm Television is making their own live-action version of Timothy Zahn’s celebrated “Thrawn trilogy,” which famously kickstarted the old Expanded Universe back in 1991, but is now non-canon. There is, however, an alternative possibility—that Lucasfilm is telling a far more complicated story; one in which the Empire is actually fracturing.

Grand Admiral Thrawn Is No Imperial Loyalist

Lucasfilm has always been keen to absorb the best bits of the old EU back into canon, and they wasted little time bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn into play. What’s more, they brought Zahn himself back as well, and he’s been gradually revealing the backstory of the alien Grand Admiral. Zahn’s latest Star Wars book, Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, finally confirms what’s been suspected for quite some time: Thrawn is no Imperial loyalist at all. In fact, the entire story he’s told explaining how he came to join the Empire is a lie.

Thrawn has always claimed he was exiled from his race, the Chiss, after committing a major political indiscretion. The Chiss originate from Star Wars’ Unknown Regions, described as an “unexplored infinity… closed off by a labyrinth of solar storms, rogue magnetospheres, black holes, gravity wells, and things far stranger.” Although they possess phenomenally advanced technology—especially for the Unknown Regions, where scientific progress has been slower to advance than in the rest of the galaxy—they are not warmongers. In fact, they hold to a strict code in which they must never attack first. Thrawn trusts his instincts more than he does any military philosophy, and so he’s always seemed as though he was at odds with the Chiss over this. The general assumption, then, has been that one day he went too far, and was exiled, only to catch the attention of Emperor Palpatine himself, and find a new home in the Empire.

Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil reveals this is only half-true. In reality, Thrawn’s commanding officers knew the Chiss were faced with a number of terrifying threats in the Unknown Regions, and they were curious about whether the Empire could be an ally. They therefore manipulated Chiss politicians into exiling Thrawn, who was secretly assigned to infiltrate the Empire. Thrawn tried to ensure the Empire was shaped into a tool to help the Chiss, and presumably he returned to his people after his ship was blasted into the Unknown Regions in Star Wars Rebels. But this raises a disturbing question—why has Grand Admiral Thrawn returned?

Thrawn’s Return Must Be About The Chiss, Not The Empire

Thrawn is loyal to the Chiss, not to the Empire. Fundamentally, that means he won’t have returned to the wider galaxy in service of the Empire, but in service of the Chiss. While it’s possible he believes the New Republic to be a potential threat that he wishes to neutralize, it’s unlikely. The Republic is still in its formative years during this time period, and shows little interest in exploration. The more likely scenario, however, is that Thrawn believes the Chiss is facing another threat; one he believes they need reinforcements for. If that’s the case, his work in the Outer Rim—specifically around the cloning vats at Mount Tantiss on Wayland—are about creating an Imperial force who can back the Chiss up in some mysterious conflict. But who are the Chiss threatened by?

The Emperor’s Plans Are Proceeding In The Unknown Regions

Surprisingly, the most likely threat is the Emperor himself. Palpatine had used Grand Admiral Thrawn’s knowledge of the Unknown Regions to prepare a Contingency that was to be activated in the event of his death, and this caused havoc across the galaxy after Return of the Jedi. The Empire commanded his most loyal agents to launch devastating, genocidal attacks across the galaxy, culminating in the Battle of Jakku. The Republic believed the Empire was finally defeated at Jakku, but in reality the Emperor’s most dangerous operatives fled into the Unknown Regions, following coordinates the Emperor had prepared for them. There, they learned the Emperor had prepared massive automated shipyards and vast armories to reinforce them, and the Empire transformed into the First Order.

Meanwhile, Palpatine’s spirit was resurrected on the ancient Sith world of Exegol. Situated in a box system in the depths of the Unknown Region, thus almost impossible to navigate to, Exegol is a vergence in the Force where the veil between life and death is unusually thin. The Emperor had placed cultists there to draw his spirit from beyond the veil, and it was placed inside a clone. The experiment wasn’t altogether successful; the clone body was unable to contain the Emperor’s dark side presence, which overwhelmed it and caused accelerated decay. All this meant Palpatine was trapped on Exegol until such a time as he found a suitable host body. Still, from Exegol Palpatine began to manipulate events across the galaxy, operating through proxies and taking command of the First Order through the puppet he called Supreme Leader Snoke.

The Imperial presence in the Unknown Regions would have been a game-changer for the Chiss. No longer were the Empire potential allies against other threats; now, they had become a threat themselves, an invading force attempting to secure and expand their power base. Worse still, the Emperor’s knowledge of the Chiss – derived from Grand Admiral Thrawn himself – would have made it easy for him to manipulate them. The nascent First Order would have been a big problem for Thrawn.

The Mandalorian Era Could Be An Imperial Civil War

All this means The Mandalorian era could actually be exploring an Imperial civil war. The Chiss could have sent Thrawn to the Outer Rim to create an army that would reinforce them against the First Order, and the Imperial experiments on Grogu could have been an attempt to create Force-sensitives who could fight against the Emperor himself.

If this is the case, then Grand Admiral Thrawn is destined to lose, of course; the First Order remained in the Unknown Regions, dominating it, and by the time of the sequel trilogy there’s no hint the Chiss survived. What’s more, the genetic experiments being conducted upon Grogu look very much like the kind of cloning and genetic engineering the Emperor himself would be interested in, so presumably Palpatine absorbed those projects into his own plans, just as he took advantage of Sifo-Dyas’ clone army to set up Order 66.

This theory fits well with the latest revelations surrounding Grand Admiral Thrawn’s origin, and it sets up some exciting potential plots. It’s only a theory at this point, of course, but if it’s true then Lucasfilm plan to do something far more creative than simply adapt a classic EU Star Wars story for their new Mandalorian era canon.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-wars-mandalorian-thrawn-palpatine-empire-civil-war/

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