User blog:Chubbyman2/RE: Thrawn, Art, and The Bigger Picture

Even after hearing Thrawn's theme all these times, I still get chills every time. The organ intro, the low vocal accompaniment, crescendos, decrescendos, and the like. As of today, May 3, 2018, I have finished Thrawn, by Timothy Zahn. Usually, I do not flaunt my success at having finished a novel, and I am not doing so now. Thrawn is an interesting character, one of mystery and deserving praise unlike any other. I do not have much to say about Thrawn that I have not already thought of before in my mind or have said to my acquaintances at school. That is, of course, a lie.

When I first heard about Thrawn, it was through a Youtube video explaining who Thrawn was and his importance to Season 3 of Rebels, his debut on screen. After finishing the video, I was intrigued. I was not used to a franchise such as Star Wars being able to create such complex characters. All praise, of course, goes to Timothy Zahn for creating Thrawn and all the novels that he was featured in. Of course, I do not mean this as an insult in any way to Star Wars, George Lucas, or Disney. However, series such as Star Wars was always known for its action-intensive storylines and sci-fi aspects, rarely for its characters. I would figure that to be a more Star Trek thing, but as I am unfamiliar with the franchise, I cannot be certain. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

After watching a few more videos on Thrawn, I decided to pick up Rebels again and see exactly what Thrawn was like. He was, if anything, better than what I expected. Lars Mikkelsen, his voice actor, did a phenomenal job in both Rebels and Sherlock, a series I was a big fan of around a year ago. However, Charles Augustus Magnussen was more revolting than anything else, whereas Thrawn has already made it to third place on my favourite fictional characters of all time list.

What really intrigued me about Thrawn was his tactical abilities. When thinking about tacticians in fiction, I generally think back to Lelouch from Code Geass, as he was probably the main reason why I even ventured into the study of military tactics and social philosophies. Thrawn, however, takes a different approach. He studies art. When I first learned of that from the Rebels Season 3 trailer, I was surprised. My negative opinion of Rebels was only shadowed by my opinion of art, which I regarded as useless, ridiculous, and trivial. Even now, I do not know what my stance on art is, but I am certain that it will change either very soon or never at all. However, reading the Thrawn novel gave me insight as to how Thrawn exactly studies art. He notices certain patterns, as is his speciality, and trends over different behaviors. By doing this, he can relate one species to another based on the techniques used in their art pieces, drawing similarities and differences from what he knows.

Personally, I do this with other people's personalities, as I believe that no one is ever 100% unique in their behaviors, thoughts, and actions. There is always a recurring pattern, and one can and should endeavor to experiment on those with "unique" personalities (or ones they have not encountered before) to be able to find an efficient and effective way of interacting with their kind in the future. Though it is never clearly explained, I believe this is what Thrawn does, except he does it at a level of detail which most, including me, cannot hope to understand. An additional skill Thrawn has is recognizing what certain details entail about a certain species and, more importantly, how to react to it. That is what makes Thrawn unique and a brilliant tactician; that he is able to analyze and draw conclusions about a species from recognizable patterns (which are only recognizable to him) and apply them to his strategies. That is a brilliant skill, as it is essentially winning a battle before it even begins. It is as the great military leader Sun Tzu once said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

Thrawn visualizes the bigger picture, and that is what I constantly strive to do, but often fail miserably. I shall likely speak of this again another day, when I feel that I actually can see the bigger picture, but it is difficult. In a life where there are no rules to follow, no objectives to be reached save those set by the delusional society, and no guidelines as to how to operate, it is difficult. Being a military strategist means being able to see several steps ahead of everyone else, and one must have a goal in mind to set up strategies in order to reach it. Being able to see ahead is useless if you do not know what you want. Thrawn's objective was simple: to protect his people from the incoming Yuuzhan Vong invasion by infiltrating the Empire and learning everything he can, so that they (the Chiss) may be better prepared. I have no vision, or rather, I had a vision that slowly faded over time. Sometimes, I fail to see even one day ahead due to my lack of motivation to do so. What's the point of strategizing when you don't have any goals to reach? What's the point of seeing ahead if you can't even see where you are headed right now? Perhaps one day, I will gain a worthwhile purpose in life. But for now, all I can do is prepare for the inevitable and unpredictable event that is the future, and hope that I will be ready when my opportunity comes. For it will come. I am counting on it.

-Charles