Really letting Kallus know at all was odd. He could have let Kallus think all was well, that he'd gotten the transmission through, and locked him up upon return to base...
I think you're onto something about Thrawn wanting to see what Kallus did. Tat or, maybe given how he HAD to go onto the planet and confront Hera, thus leaving Pryce in charge up top when the woman had no clue what to do when attacked, Thrawn maybe has a flaw in that he HAS to see someone he considered a worthy opponent know they've been beaten.
*nods* I definitely think it was aimed at Kallus himself. The jammer doesn't make much sense pointed at anyone else. I could see it being Thrawn wanting to defeat a worthy enemy personally, yeah. Especially given the assassin droids Kallus set on him earlier. Heh.
Having thought about this while I work, I think we may have stumbled onto a possible flaw for Thrawn--a need to prove to a worthy opponent that he has been the one to beat them and see their response firsthand. He also REALLY shouldn't have gone planetside to chat with Hera like he did (for one thing he's Navy and planetside attacks are the Army's job). I mean, dude was in very close proximity to what would have been--had the Bendu not sown up--a very desperate Jedi Knight. Not a safe place for the commander of a whole operation to be. And he left Pryce, a bureaucrat in charge of the fleet while doing so (while Pryce is competent she's clearly not used to military in-combat pressure, which was what Kallus took advantage of). All for what looks like just the chance to see how Hera Syndulla takes his beating her rebel cell. Both times he takes a risk or does more than necessary just to get that confrontation. Something tells me he might have a bit of a fixation on Kallus and Hera in s4, and that might eventually give him an exploitable blindspot.
Yeah, he does seem to like that personal touch. Though, to an extent, Hera may have been forced on him a bit by Tarkin's demands to take the leadership alive. He probably still shouldn't have gone down personally, though. Some of that may be faith in his own abilities, since he has handily proved that he's hell on wheels in a physical fight, but still. He could have holocalled down once his troops had taken the base. Maybe he thought they might be more intimidated by him personally than by faceless troopers? Making them more likely to surrender alive in the first place? I don't know.
That doesn't justify having Kallus up on the bridge, either. I mean, that was personal. Who goes into battle with an enemy combatant right there on the bridge? Kallus is ISB, he goes toe-to-toe with lasats in hand to hand combat, he goes through stormtroopers like tissue paper literally with his hands behind his back. Kallus might not match Thrawn personally but he is always a combatant. The only reason to have him up there was to force Kallus to watch, to force him to realise what his message had allowed Thrawn to do, and having him up there is what allowed him to escape, a) by leaving Pryce in range for him to manipulate and b) by letting Kallus monitor the battle and know when the last chance to bug out was coming.
He does, you know. He really does seem to want people to personally know he's defeated them. Which, with the kind of people he's up against, is not necessarily the most sensible quirk to indulge in. Heh.
(All of this said, mind you, Thrawn still utterly smashed Kallus in personal combat, utterly smashed Atollon base in ground combat, pretty comprehensively crippled two rebel cells in naval combat, and handily removed any immediate chance to damage the Empire's holdings in the sector. So, you know. The man has a reason to be confident. He just ... maybe needs to be careful about getting too confident, particularly about things like desperate Jedi and angry Force gods, slippery escape artist rebels, and spies who know how to leg it when given the opportunity. Heh).
As for why Thrawn had Kallus on the bridge, there's a couple things that could play into it. Kallus hadn't the least chance of escaping while there for one thing. There was more people and eyes around meaning that there was more chance for people to react to whatever he ended up doing and the fact the restraints there didn't make escape easy. There's the possibility that Kallus would have been one final hostage to convince Syndulla to surrender if the others failed (very long shot but might have worked if she'd manage a way to remove all others around her as potential hostages). Kallus would need to be as obviously helpless as he is on the bridge for that to have a better chance of succeeding. There's a very slight probability that Kallus was being tested to see if he would be fit for the Chiss Ascendancy. (Only if he could consider keeping a traitor alive.)
Maybe more likely, Thrawn probably wonders why Kallus became a rebel and is hoping for a better answer by observing his reactions to his fellow rebels getting defeated. People tend to become traitors for money or they actually have a change of heart about their former allegiance. The jamming thing was probably one test to see which one Kallus was. Being on the bridge and probably recorded is another. So far, the signs all point towards him being the second type of traitor (which Thrawn might have some grudging respect for while his loathing of the first type would be complete). Thrawn then has to wonder why. Originally, Kallus was similar to Thrawn in seeing the Empire as a source of order and security throughout the galaxy. Through that order and security, both wanted peace to come. Thrawn has to keep that view going (even if amended in thinking that Palpatine will need to die for the Empire to rid itself of its corruption and be better) since he's sacrificed pretty much everything on that idea. He wants the power to protect his people from the things "worse than the empire." Since Thrawn's so adamant that the only strong government is one with one main ideology/culture with all others subservient to it instead of one with many equally powerful ideologies/cultures, the only way he views getting that power is through being in a major position of authority in a government like the Empire's. If he had doubts about the Empire as a whole, he would need to doubt a core facet of his life. Kallus definitely had doubts and acted upon them. Even though Thrawn wouldn't like it, his search for exact knowledge would lead him to facing what caused Kallus to turn and see if they have merit or not. If they do have merit, do they warrant enough of a merit to cause Thrawn to seriously consider changing his mind.
(We know Thrawn knows the Empire's xenophobia, callous disregard of life, corruption[loathing how much politics have taken over the military], and legal slavery [something Thrawn despised in the Outbound Flight and probably has to greatly grit his teeth on]. He doesn't like the Death Star on multiple levels. He definitely despises how many imperial leaders [such as Darth Vader] kill/punish those below them either for failing at something they had no real chance of succeeding at, being the one delivering bad news, and having legitimate questions about orders/have reasonable suggestions. He probably knows about the genocides, or does he? Not much gets past him, but he has had a bit of distraction with his rapid climb through ranks, dealing with nightswan, and figuring out about the Death Star. He's not far gone enough to not have the genocides seriously call into doubt his path and Kallus and Zeb's past would most likely force him to face the Lasset one head-on at least if not to be partially blind-sided by the Genenosian one. [At the very least, Thrawn might have to consider what Palpatine/others would do to the Chiss if their homeworld and empire were found by the Empire. At the very least, Palpatine would have no qualms about controlling Thrawn through the threat of the extinction of the rest of his race.])
There actually is a solid reason for Thrawn to go topside. He knows that this enemy is good at coming up with things on the fly. By being on the ground, he has a better chance to respond to changing circumstances. Thrawn isn't shabby on ground combat after all. His enemies might even underestimate what he could do on the ground and make them easier to defeat.
While Pryce wasn't a good choice to leave in charge, Thrawn wasn't expecting the situation in space to change dramatically. For all he knew, there were no reinforcements coming, especially not from a Mandalorian clan that's tangled in a bitter struggle with another clan (maybe also partially Thrawn's doing). If the Mandalorians hadn't come and Konstantine hadn't disobeyed orders and thereby allowed rebels to escape the blockade, the Imperials would have won in space with no additional input needed on Thrawn's part. If there had been a major change, Pryce could have contacted Thrawn or asked one of the naval people around her give her advice (Heck, Pryce being there probably wasn't Thrawn's choice at all. He always prefers to leave competent leaders in charge when he can. As talked about in the new Thrawn book, Thrawn is seriously lacking in his political skills while Pryce is a very competent politician. Being directly involved in the crushing of a major rebel force [if Thrawn's back up plan was to trap them during the Lothal attack]/rebel base would be major kudos points. Pryce may have pulled some strings to convince Tarkin to command Thrawn to give Pryce some type of command or directly cajoled Thrawn for more ship repairs or something [unlikely given the taste Pryce left in his mouth after Batoon]. Therefore, Thrawn might have given her the ship command as the one she's least likely to mess up on.)
Thrawn's main weakness then is mostly the same one that's in the trilogy. His plans require him to be able to account for every possible variable or they don't work. If he doesn't have all relevant information (such as how relevant the fact Leia is Vader's daughter turned out to be in the original trilogy), his plans fall apart since they were variables he hadn't taken into consideration. There definitely is an aspect of him that wants to meet with those he considers worthy opponents, I'll agree with that. Part of it has to do with him wanting to recruit people to work in the Chiss Ascendancy (hope they get to touch on this in season four) and judging the worthy opponents to be possibilities. Another part may be for the same reason Sherlock prefers to reveal his deductions in front of the subject being deducted/the criminal. He's curious about how much he got right and what he got wrong. The parts he's wrong about, he wants to fix so that he doesn't make a similar mistake again.
Comment on Heart of a Rebel
Kereea on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 10:42AM UTC
Comment Actions
icarus_chained on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 12:48PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kereea on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 05:32PM UTC
Comment Actions
icarus_chained on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 06:01PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kereea on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 06:12PM UTC
Comment Actions
icarus_chained on Chapter 2 Fri 31 Mar 2017 06:33PM UTC
Comment Actions
(8 more comments in this thread)
Cyraina_de_Bergerac on Chapter 2 Sat 27 May 2017 09:32AM UTC
Comment Actions
Cyraina_de_Bergerac on Chapter 2 Sat 27 May 2017 08:16AM UTC
Comment Actions