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Mitth’raw’nuruodo watches the holo-recording of Darth Vader's most recent assignment: his mission for the Emperor.
It has been a while, since he saw ... Lord Vader fight. Usually, it would be wiser from a tactical perspective for a commander to stay back or remain in a remote location while their troops follow their orders. However, Mitth’raw’nuruodo himself understands not only the pragmatism of leading by example and having a hands-on approach to a particular situation in which the variables can change quickly without direct intervention, but also the twin values of morale and demoralization branching out from a specific reputation.
And Lord Vader represents all of these qualities.
There is a reason why the Imperial Navy and the Stormtrooper Corps both fear and admire the Dark Lord of the Sith. The Chiss Grand Admiral watches as Lord Vader, with seeming effortlessness, not only attacks all resistance with wide arcs of his lightsaber, but manages to catch and redirect all blaster bolt fire coming towards him -- and back at his enemies.
The Way of the Krayt Dragon, but writ larger now. It is far more precise. It needs to be. Lord Vader's bulky armour and larger form requires broader swipes, but Mitth’raw’nuruodo can still see the subtlety there: the details. Gone is most of the whirlwind speed of Ataru, the Fourth Form of lighsaber combat, save elements of it in controlled bursts. As one of the twelve Grand Admirals of the Empire, Mitth’raw’nuruodo had access to this information from the Imperial Archives -- taken in turn, presumably, from the Jedi Temple after the Purge, which he had seen other Jedi, and one in particular, use and adapt. However, there are other aspects now, with variations to the Dark Lord's fighting technique. Form Five, itself an evolution of Form Three -- with its emphasis on defense and deflection -- is in prime form. Mitth’raw’nuruodo can more than imagine Lord Vader having focused his skill with Djem So, Form Five's highest adaptation, to the point where he can still overpower and break the stances of other duelists should the need arise. Certainly, from what his sources had told him from his castle on Mustafar, Lord Vader has more dangerous and sophisticated technologies than training remotes these days.
No. Mitth’raw’nuruodo can see it. He sees Form III. It makes sense that Lord Vader can utilize it, given who his ... Master used to be, and from what Mitth’raw’nuruodo studied of that particular Jedi General and his own strategies. Deflection, always deflection, and keeping his blade around his body -- sometimes letting the enemy exhaust their strength -- but always followed by flourishes of Makashi, of Form II with those quick flicks of the wrist.
It isn't as flashy, and his posture isn't as wide or open, anymore. No. Lord Vader, for all of his broad strokes, direct stabs, tight parries, and deflecting ripostes is a closed circuit of dark intent. But the fire is still there. Tightly controlled. Contained.
Lessons learned through vulnerability exploited. He protects the fortress of himself while expanding it across the battlefield, turning it into his own territory, claiming it at the head and centre of the V-formation of his 501st Legion. His Vader's Fist.
Mitth’raw’nuruodo understands that diamonds are formed through the pressure of contradictory forces that will either purify a grain into the hardest substance in the galaxy, or turn it completely into powder. Into black ash.
One would think, if one examined another individual's art, that the best way to understand Lord Vader would be through looking at his armour. His limbs are clearly prosthetics. Mitth’raw’nuruodo sees the way he walks, and moves. It seems more mechanical than organic, awkward and stiff. But some internal force, some strong centre of gravity makes those cumbersome limbs move as smoothly, as fluidly, as any predator stalking in the wilds. Certainly, the armour and helmet itself -- complete with flowing cloak and robes -- is a throwback to the Late Classic Republic period with influences from the earlier Sith eras of this side of the Galaxy. It is art -- fashion -- crafted to obfuscate, intimate, and generate fear. Even the obvious control panel, presumably a life support system -- indicating grievous injury or medical regulation -- is most likely a distraction, to lull the enemy into a false sense of assuredness in knowing where the Dark Lord's weakness lies.
A feint. Presumably it is only for show, and Lord Vader can simply power through damage or injury done to it.
No. It all comes back to the metaphor of the diamond. Of the crystal.
Darth Vader's lightsaber hilt is twenty-eight centimetres, an alloy metal and carbon composite. Both are materials blended together, seemingly simple but with complexities and matrices. They are worked into the black-ridged handgrip, made wide and lengthy for his cybernetic hands. It is a utilitarian design, something made to accommodate a high-output diatium power cell in a black chamber to focus and hone the power source throughout the entire cylindrical construct. Upon first glance from anyone else, including any surviving Jedi Knights of the same martial-monastic culture, it is crude and over-large, but to Mitth’raw’nuruodo he knows its structure to allow for the ventilation and distribution of the power contained within it: much like the mechanics of Lord Vader's breathing apparatus. The shroud emitter, from what the Chiss recalls, is similar to the ... other he had seen, a rounded emitter shroud that focused the power within it into a massive column of energy. Mitth’raw’nuruodo knows only a little about Kyber crystals, aside from those utilized in Project Stardust, but from what he recalls of one Jedi and their discussions, and what he's gleaned from the Archives, they are semi-organic mineral formations usually, but not always, found on the planet of Ilum during a Jedi's early Trials.
Mitth’raw’nuruodo knows this blade has a crystal, the heart of the blade itself, but as he watches Lord Vader's actions in the holo-recording, he notices it. The dials on the cylinder. Most lightsabers from the Temple had been destroyed in an entirely wasteful manner by the Grand Vizier during the early formation of the Empire, as the Emperor's example of his ascendancy over his former foes, the destruction of their crystals creating an explosion that startled even the most stoic and fanatical of the Imperial citizenry at the time: a hint of what is to come when they are harvested en masse. But Lord Vader's blade ... changes. It varies in length. It is subtle, but Mitth’raw’nuruodo can see the focused energy column from the emitter shorten and grow, taking its opponents by surprise, breaking through their guard. It is very clever, and perhaps in the hands of a novice it would be slow, almost superfluous and redundant. A dual-phase function. One system backing up another. Like Lord Vader's respiratory system that Mitth’raw’nuruodo suspects he can also control at will, lulling his enemies into thinking they have a great, large, obvious target ... until they don't.
Deception is a tool of the Sith, from what little Mitth’raw’nuruodo understands. He has attended the Emperor in his private chambers, surrounded by artifacts from the early Republic and before. While Mitth’raw’nuruodo has knowledge of the Jedi, and to an extent access to it, he has far less on their Sith counterparts, but knows their influences. Everyone expects Lord Vader to wave around his blade and simply use brute force to win: not ever realizing the depths to which he will make an opponent assume they understand him, masking himself with their contempt and fear, until it is too late.
And perhaps a sign of something else.
It's even more subtle. The sound of the blade. The lightsaber Mitth’raw’nuruodo recalls, with its azure hue, possessed a snap-hiss followed by a frequency that some might consider harmonious or synchronized with the firmament. It literally purred with restrained elegant power, like a sliver of the sky after a rain storm.
But Lord Vader's blade is different. The ignition is harsher. The holo-recording is of better quality than the standard blue and white graphic, and Mitth’raw’nuruodo sees its blood-shine, and quite literally can hear the difference: the rumbling of the storm itself, the hard whir of the blade cutting through the air, the harsh crackle as it slices through metal and flesh, and other material. The actual sound itself is discordant, though tightly focused and controlled. It is as though, where the blue blade once purred, the red one growls. Mitth’raw’nuruodo is fairly sure the Kyber crystal is either artificially created as opposed to the natural formations on Ilum and other worlds like Jedha, or it is altered with some feat of engineering -- of miniaturization -- to which he is not privy: perhaps to the finer tinkering of telekinetic manipulation that he knows Force wielders in this galaxy are capable. Mitth’raw’nuruodo also strongly suspects, based on the hilt's design and the presence of the adjustment knobs, that the dual-phase function utilizes not one but at least two Kyber crystals. And if he recalls the legend of Mimban and the Temple of Pomojema, the Kyber Crystal itself was a great artifact that was supposed to vastly increase the strength of its wielder, to either heal the sick from death, or make its user into a god of destruction. Despite the anomaly that Mitth’raw’nuruodo witnessed on Atollon, Mitth’raw’nuruodo doesn't believe this artifact exists, though it might have made its way into Jedi and perhaps even Sith lore.
Power is the key theme here, to Mitth’raw’nuruodo's mind. Control. Focus. A weapon. A tool. Lord Vader is a weapon. Lord Vader is a tool.
Perhaps it was always going to be this way, in retrospect. And, as Thrawn replays the holo-recording, the choreography of the destruction an art-piece in and of itself, a brilliant star collapsing and taking everything down with it, passion taken to its inevitable conclusion, to a shadow of what it was but something enduring, relentless, inevitable, he recalls something he did manage to glean from his own studies beyond the Imperial Archives, from various historians and collectors he's sought out over the years to understand the people who rule this Empire that the Ascendancy barely knew.
Mitth’raw’nuruodo remembers the words:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Mitth’raw’nuruodo thinks about that mantra, translated from a long-dead language and from different variants. He thinks about how the Jedi Code itself did not match the man he once knew, long ago, before War took advantage of his true nature and destroyed him. He considers the children they rescued and how they can only use their power to see navigations, fading through time, like lost dreams, but how Lord Vader could use it to anticipate opponents many steps ahead. Precognition in increments or laid out on ever branching paths? The best laid plans never survive the realities of war, and warfare is a constantly shifting situation but its motivations are always the same. It perpetuates itself, like an antiquated internal combustion engine of barbarity. But it has its art, and the art is in its limitations and innovation to overcome them.
And Mitth’raw’nuruodo can't help but wonder as he looks at Lord Vader wielding his lightsaber like Death itself.
He limits himself, even now, by his own rage and myopic vision. A one-track mind. But what happens if he sees the spectrum, like Mitth’raw’nuruodo can. And Mitth’raw’nuruodo knows that Lord Vader can see much more, if he lets himself.
The galaxy is changing. The Empire is changing. There are threats beyond the Outer Rim, in the Unknown Regions. He has seen them. Lord Vader has now seen them. The old ways of doing things aren't enough anymore.
Something has to change.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
Mitth’raw’nuruodo muses. What will happen when, not if, Lord Vader changes? What will occur when Darth Vader breaks his chains? What will happen, to the Empire, to the Galaxy itself, when he is finally set free?