It is amazing how Tarkin a tyrant, Yularen a military leader, and Governor Pryce a politician, all helped in getting Thrawn past the politics of the Empire.
Yeah but with Pryce it was more of a they need each other and to work together situation. Thrawn didn't like Arhinda but he knew he needed her. Yularen and Thrawn actually had respect for each other.
I would like to give Eli Vanto a honorable mention. He was Thrawn's friend and student during Thrawn's raise in the empire. He was incredible at logistics (something that gets over looked often) and a solid commander in his own right. He was basically scalped by Thrawn for the Chiss ascendancy where he did well under Thrawn's former Commander and arguably best friend Admiral Ar'alani. I like the character so much I wish Timothy Zahn would do a series on Eli and his time with the chiss.
@@Controlqueen31 You know what your 100% right. She does deserve a mention. She stayed with the empire and she out fought an admiral who and three star destroyers with one with no lose of life for either side.
I actually believe that ar alani had a thing for Thrawn but ofcourse Thrawn did not understand what's happening? Maybe we might get some more in Ashoka series. As much as I love Ashoka my favourite character is our favourite Pantoran with an eye condition :)
My two favourite officers are Jerjerrod and Tarkin. They’re such a contrast to each-other. For example, Tarkin blew a hole in Scarrif and blew up Alderaan as if it was nothing, but Jerjerrod struggled to blow up a Forest planet populated by terrorists and teddy bears. Tarkin is a monster, Jerjerrod is a human.
2:20 Grand Admiral Thrawn: "To defeat the enemy, you must know them. Not simply their strengths and battle tactics but their history, philosophy, ... art."
It makes sense to know your enemy's history and philosophy, but not art because it only tells you about the individual artist and not the enemy as a whole. I had a real good belly-laugh when I read that when the Thrawn books first came out, but I have no problem with any of his other skills, just his ability to get intel about an enemy by looking at their art is preposterous at the highest order. Thrawn's skills are similar to how Patton defeated Rommel because Patton read Rommel's book of infantry tactics, but I don't remember Patton being able to gain intel by being an art enthusiast.
@@JohnFourtyTwo perhaps, but even having an idea of the individual artist and how they perceive the world through their art gives Thrawn ideas due to historical and societal beliefs and customs. Heck compare different paintings from the times of the Italian Renaissance versus Ming Dynasty tapestry or decorated clay pots from the Middle East to even modern day pieces of art that would’ve made even the likes of DaVinci be impressed. Through art, it speaks of the history of the times, the culture, even the tone of color can have some significance especially when those are aware of it. Even the straightness or curved of lines, the symbolism that is (literally) drawn, You don’t have to be an artist to have an appreciation for a piece of art or color that doesn’t seem like much beyond appealing to you. It could be that it’s a “nice painting” or something along those lines. But even having something as simple as a poster or something decorative could yield results about one’s character or mentality. Of course having a higher form of analytical and tactical prowess would be able to help make even the most obscure or separate events be connected to the bigger picture. Very rarely would Thrawn be unable to grasp the meaning of an art piece, though that would lead to devastating results on the part of his enemies. Fortunately he’s not solely reliant on art to make his strategies. Just like the aforementioned quote: you must _know_ them beyond military tactics, but history and philosophy as well. Having an understanding of any one or two of those fields when concerning the enemy would bear fruit for victory, providing that one can *correctly* understand that topic and have contingencies for unknown factors
That bit with Veers and Vader is rather interesting. Veers wasn't blinded by his pride and learned the type of enemy the rebels were and if the Empire didn't adapt to the new enemy they were never gonna crush the rebellion. Shame this only came to light after the Hoth battle otherwise they might have had the time to implement the proposed reforms. Also I just have new appreciation for Cassio Tagge, who could see how badly the Empire was wasting resources on super weapon projects.
I would have thought Vader would already agree with Veers and Cassio. Vader was critical of the Death Star in Episode IV, and his experiences as Anakin in the Clone Wars must have told him that lots of small, elite and well-equipped forces can be more effective than giant super weapons. I wonder what Vader thought of the TIE Defender project - given Vader still piloted a starfighter, he probably would support a project to greatly improve the Empire's starfighter corps
You should have used Gilad Pellaeon instead of Kallus because he didn't betray the Empire and switched sides. He lived on and commanded as efficiently as Thrawn in the later years.
@@GenerationTech Yeah, his name was mentioned in Rebels, I think, but you right. They haven't remade or built a canon back story for him. I thought you commentate on Star Wars Legends material, anyway. You could have used the ISB head guy as an example instead of Kallus.
@@GenerationTech I think you should consider going over some of the EU characters that haven't made their way yet into the new canon in their own video.
So glad you mentioned Cienna! Can’t get enough of Lost Stars and how she’s portrayed in the book and manga. Despite her growing disillusions of the Empire, her oaths pushed her to preform her job to the T.
I'm still laughing about that. I'm 95% sure I actually witnessed that footage being filmed. I think that's the night of the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots. Quite a night...
@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 definitely was from that night. Philly played a hell of a game. Not exactly the hat idea to trash your own city but hey it’s Philly.
ISB Admiral Garrick Versio was amongst the finest imperial officers, and a highlight of a rather dubious Battlefront II story. He was arguably not as good as Thrawn but he still managed to frustrate the Rebel Alliance with dwindling and very limited resources as it went on. Without Admiral Versio, the situation would have destabilised even faster for the Empire (and bad writing aside for how exactly that came about, it must be said that the likes of Versio at least gave the Empire a fighting chance) Sadly the whole, 'Operation Cinder' thing took precedence because apparently the Empire hadn't spelt out it was evil enough yet. The 'justification' of Admirals and other Imperial officers destroying their own strongholds, in-canon, is the unconvincing and frankly tedious concept of this being done to 'send a message to all' that 'the Empire had changed' and would 'brook no weakness'. To show everyone they were fair game. But Palpatine wouldn't do that. If he wanted to hurt the rebels, he'd give them the problem of taking those planets and bases themselves. To make it, as bloody as possible out of spite. That is how Palpatine would want to do things. Not to punish his own side just for failing to defend him when it was his own fault anyway (at Endor)
Honestly the fall of the empire just wasn’t depicted in a manner I find even remotely believable in BF2. Like honestly your incompetent idiots would go with cinder because they lack even an ounce of brain power to think of something even remotely creative. However people like Admiral Versio who aren’t stupid and having read inferno squad is more of a pragmatic imperial would see there’s no way to save the entire Galactic empire take the few assets they have go to either an isolated or pro imperial planet and set up little easily defendable successor states to small for the Rebellion to really care about while they leave your fanatical morons to die trying to save a clearly failed institution and then they would slowly build up their wealth and power so after the rebellion gets done going after the fanatics the successor states are powerful enough it’s still not worth picking a fight. The New Republic as we know would eventually fell and then the imperial successor states would resume control. I feel bf2 ruined every character in the novel inferno squad to just create the most unoriginal and predictable plot ever. They could have done something interesting but made a Saturday mourning cartoon.
The problem is the Dark side makes you a fuck head. Palpatine of ROTS would certainly make do as you describe, but he's had 20 years of completely unhinged egotism and dark side meditation thereafter. The dark side is corruption made manifest. Something not made clear by his death but Anakin had he lived would spent decades to maybe the rest of his life trying to heal the spiritual scars of dark side immersion, not the acts he committed, the immersion itself, which fucked up his soul worse than the fire fucked up his lungs.
@@RudeAndObscene Sort of but only because that is how C(h)uck Wendig wrote him to be in the Aftermath books. I don't really like the whole Battle of Jakku, structurally, anyway. It is just the most obvious it can be, with the entire thing used as a convenient way to explain away the downfall of the Empire. The pre-Disney Expanded Universe ('Legends') lore with the Empire lasting as Imperial Remnants in a fractured yet still powerful series of splinter states, was far more interesting. Some of that was guff too, but a lot of it was well-written. It gave the Empire more than a little over a year post-Endor; much more. It gave them over a decade, which is much more accurate. The Galactic Empire's power should be so vast, that even with planets falling at a rate of dozens per day, in a Galactic War, they'd still be able to recapture them at a decent rate and hold onto some fortified worlds that acted as key strategic hubs in their defence lines. There is simply no way that the Empire, being so vast, would just go mental and completely tear itself apart regardless of how selfish, greedy and incompetent most of the officers are portrayed to be. There'd be sensible portions of the command structure, like Thrawn, strong-arming and corralling at least _some_ kind of defence together. They would be able to do massive damage to the rebels, defensively. The Empire has always been nerfed but even at their most stupid (and there is no shortage of that, in the Empire, as written) they can still win battles by sheer weight of numbers and attrition. No, they couldn't always guarantee numerical advantages as things fell apart, and I truly do understand that, but it is not the case that they'd completely fall apart, no matter how bad defections, low morale and defeats impacted recruitment and loyalty from older troopers. Plenty would be deserting, or even joining the rebels. But all the same, it would not be quite so abysmal as is often portrayed. The Battle of Jakku is just a big plot convenience to make some BS about the end of the Empire. It was clearly not convincing enough by itself so they made the Empire seppuku itself via Operation Cinder, removing any chance of it holding on until it could outlast the rebels. I get the concept that millions more rebels flocked to the rebel banner as things deteriorated. Even the holonet broadcasts of the DSII blowing up at Endor, would by itself inspire millions across the galaxy to join the rebels. Yet here is the issue; the war should have lasted _at least_ another 10 years, and by the end of it, there would be millions more dead on both sides. Possibly/likely billions, galaxy wide. It doesn't make sense for the Empire to functionally collapse in almost all forms in 1 year flat. No way.
@@charlottewolery558 Yes I am aware the dark side does this to people. Palpatine is a major league monster, everyone knows that. Yet he was smart too, and he got into power via patient and diligent work, tediously (for himself) enduring years and years of political mundanity to creep closer to totalitarian rule. He must have been seething the entire time, but he was elated in his moment of triumph in the end. By the time Order 66 came, the relief from that Palpatine must have felt is immeasurable. And yes I agree, he got even more insane and megalomaniacal after two decades in absolute power. Nevertheless, it is still pretty bogus for him to completely spite his own Empire. I get what they were going for, like a purity spiralling sickness in the very nature of the elitist Empire, destroying itself. I do understand that. I'm just saying it was executed poorly and in a pretty dull way. Imperials are arrogant. Imperials are foolhardy. Imperials are egotistic. Imperials are x, y, z etc etc. It's not telling a story we haven't already been told hundreds of times by Star Wars. It's boring. We know the Empire has a lot of idiots. We know. But it might have been (aka definitely would have been) more interesting to see an Imperial fightback with moral justification. Battlefront II promised to present a more grey and atypical story, where the Imperial loyalist perspective matters. In the end, and in short-order, that was soon put in the bin. The 'default to demonise all Imperials' quickly snapped back into line. Yes, the Galactic Empire is not only evil, but built on lies, commanded from the very top by Sith Lords and generally speaking, not a great faction. It's full of silliness on almost every bureaucratic and militaristic level, and plenty of the officers are completely useless. Yet this is a numbers game. There are/were _trillions_ of imperials. Even by accident, enough competent Imperials would rise to the top to make serious impacts on any rebel efforts. For every excellent Imperial commander, there may well be dozens of idiotic ones, this is unavoidably true. Operation Cinder is still extremely stupid, though. Yes, it fits the behavioural profile of a psychopath, which Palpatine is blatantly portrayed to be. All the same, I dislike how they've pathologised and demeaned Palpatine's character in that way. In a way, it was better when he seemed like the Devil, like some supernatural force in the living and cosmic force. A force nexus. He is the dark side. He is the manifestation of ultimate evil and darkness. And yes it is corrupting his mind and body. Yet the way I see it, it's like this addict that is so used to that which is slowly destroying them, it takes something pretty insane to even hurt them anymore. They have become immune to most other degradation. That was what was always special about Sidious/Palpatine. That he was this sleeping volcano of dark side powers, and not only that, a _deliberately_ sleeping volcano. Unnatural, truly monstrous - hiding his power levels pretty literally. When people try and hold Palpatine to the same mental health standards as Galactic Citizen Joe Schmoe in the general public, I do wonder if that is missing the point with Palpatine. He was supposed to be a lot smarter than that. True enough, he was a bit of an idiot at Endor, yet that was all part of luring in the rebel fleet. And the magnitude of how much the Emperor got nerfed on an intelligence level at Endor, is another matter entirely. The whole Operation Cinder thing is just an excuse to effectively bin the Empire and 'justify' the beginnings of the First Order. And yes, sometimes Imperial factions will have hard-line sects and branches that try and redefine the Empire in it's own grim image. Even so, this would be _immeasurably_ more interesting if allowed to be shown taking place slowly and logically, over a decade or so. Even after Endor and Palpatine's 'death', the Empire could take three dozen defeats the size of Endor and still Wallace & Gromit a way to win. They were not so numerically weak as to get to the point of strategic defeat after Jakku. It was a big chunk on a sector by sector level, to lose, in ships. Nevertheless, the Empire could still fortify enough keystone worlds with actually competent top brass. If they started purity spiralling as things got worse, then why would they tolerate idiotic commanders and admirals? The remaining Grand Admirals actually worth a damn, like Thrawn, would be smart enough to appoint the officers that deserved it. If they didn't, then things would only go one way. It is poor world-building for the Empire to supposedly be completely run by idiots. It did foster vicious, self-serving commanders, but why do most of them have to be idiots? That is just part of the trope of making the Empire moustache twirling villains, constantly. It's just bad writing.
I'm pretty sure that footage of "the unknown regions" *aka Philadelphia PA* was taken the night of their Super Bowl victory against the Patriots and I was a firsthand witness to that exact incident in Center City. That impressive display of gymnastic ability. If I remember correctly it was right around the corner from City Hall. It was indeed a party.
Been on a binge of your content last few days while at work, and just watched the most incompetent on Friday. I gotta say, the difference between the least competent VS the most in the Empire really shows how much of a knife edge the Rebellion was on.
I always thought the point of Captain Needa's death was to show what the Empire did to honest soldiers who did their duty, took responsibility and looked after their men. He didn't try to blame anyone else, he admitted his fault and was killed for it.
@@jaffarebellion292 Needa was one of those Imperial officers who were certainly competent but not overly spectacular. He was decent and Thrawn would have been more than happy to have him under his command.
@@madgavin7568 That's the thing, though. Needa was a good officer, much like Pellaeon. But Thrawn's M.O. is to take good officers and make them truly great. Under Thrawn's wing, Needa likely would've thrived and gone on to do incredible things.
@@madgavin7568 that's the point, the entire culture of the imperial military point to the fact that if you are decent and professional you get to be blamed for any failure even if is not your fault and if you are very very lucky you get only demoted; Thraw was more or less the exception to the rule, this is one of the big reason the entire imperial navy and army as such abysmal failure, people are too scared to made mistake and occupied in CYA to protect their life (litteraly)
still inferior to the legend that is gilad pellaeon ,veteran through the clone wars and civil war, second in command to thrawn , Captain of the chimeara and of course a magnificant mustache .
Hey Disney ignored the bevy of strong women even diverse ones from the EU. Loved and respected by the fans. All abandoned to give us MaReySu and RheeeeeeeeeeVa! Why build on what made a beloved fictional IP when you have a wide open chance to teach a PolSci class liberal arts school style?
Thrawn, hands down. Unavoidable. Veers, also good. Piett, though not without flaws, but the the emperor put him in a peculiar situation at Endor. Jerjerrod, also good. Captain Needa, who paid for a not unreasonable failure with his life, to preserve his men. Probably still competent, certainly a good officer for that.
Needa was a veteran Navy Officer of the Clone Wars and participated in the Battle of Coruscant where i believe he distinguished himself. He paid the ultimate price for a rather "minor" failure, to protect his crew, and he knew that facing Vader was going to be a one way trip. He's one of the most underrated Imperial character ever, a fine Officer and a brave man. I'm also glad Krennic was mentioned because i've seen too many people bashing the character for his actions, but as mentioned in the video, he was a great architect and insanely good project manager who recognized talented people when he met them and knew how to use their skills. When you read the book about Tarkin, it's also heavily implied that Tarkin viewed Krennic as a threat because the latter almost manages to outsmart him towards the end and that's why he gets rid of him in Rogue One. And i totally agree that Piett should actually be on this list. He was far from being incompetent and proved himself before and after joining the Empire. The fact that he survived working that close to Vader for so long is a testimony to that.
Actually I think Adrimel Piett was a competitive Officer he know how to use his rank and proved himself in combat multiple times and actually earned his rank
I would say Piett was better in survival than war. The problem with the Empire was that it was structured to promote the former rather than the latter.
I can see him having the same problem with many real world generals, where they were brilliant at one position But become worst when promoted He may be a good ship captain, but not a brilliant fleet commander
Juno eclipse was a competent officer and decorated combat pilot, survived over 100 combat missions, and one of the imperial officers, vader trusted and respected, even during the bombing of callos. She was not as ruthless as many other imperial officers were. She would play a major role in galen marek's redemption, and defected from the empire after darth vader branded her a traitor, and he nearly killed galen and would help starkiller create the rebel alliance in (legends), and retain her rank as a captain in the alliance fleet.
A lot of EU characters were left out, including Juno Eclipse, Gilad Pellaeon, Soontir Fel, the far more competent and manipulative original version of Thrawn, and several more. Granted, the general level of competency was far higher on both sides in the EU than in the current canon.
@Michael Fuller I mean that until we see him on screen, there's no telling whether they'll radically change him to fit the whims of the writer, i.e. making him nerdlessly cruel or an incompetent buffoon.
“The Chiss’ territory was located in the Unknown Regions, an exceptionally chaotic area of the galaxy, where normal hyperspace travel is dangerous because of the high concentration of gravitational anomalies.” _casually zooms in on Philadelphia with Google Maps_
I really like how Commander Kimmund's interactions and thoughts on Thrawn's style of leading his crew in Thrawn Alliances, makes me wish half of the book wasnt a Padme and Anakin story
Dedre will have to be added to this later! Andor makes me feel like I’m reading one of the novels which honestly were what cemented by Star Wars fandom years ago
Grand Admiral Zaarin as well, he developed the TIE Avenger AND Defender in legends, he started his own coop, he captured palpatine, and after he was thwarted by reinforcements led by Vader AND Thrawn it took Thrawn to fill his shoes
O can't get my head around Krennic being a great officer. In the books and movies he's anything but competent. His project is built on the backs of talented scientists who he then murders so he can get all the credit.
Absolute love this video. I’m always a sucker for Thrawn. I’ve even persuaded myself to start reading heir to the empire despite it not being canon. Krennic actually surprised me. He was more competent than most, but he was sloppy. He often failed to see threats shown clearly the events of rogue one in which he downplayed everything until the end. He also required Thrawn’s assistance to sort out the mynock problem which he refused to regard as anything but median estimate grallocs despite them losing huge amounts of valuable materials and parts. He didn’t even investigate the possibility of piracy when ships were ‘randomly’ jumping to nearby star systems. That’s my take but Krennic has never struck me as a decent strategist. More an excellent delegator (which I guess is a form of leadership in itself).
I strongly encourage reading books from the original canon. At least in my opinion, Rogue One and The Mandalorian are the only Disney things remotely comparable in quality to the good parts of the original canon. There was a lot of mediocre stuff in the original canon, but that’s inevitable when there are hundreds of stories being told. I’m somewhat biased by caring primarily about writing quality (so I absolutely hated the sequel trilogy despite desperately wanting to like it) and having grown up with Star Wars, but there’s a lot of fantastic stuff in the original EU. With how much Disney focuses on precision engineering media for maximum profit, art and creativity be damned, I think it’s going to take them a long time to have anywhere near as many quality stories.
Tagge was always one that stood out for me. Realising that depending on a super weapon was not the best thing and trying to focus on how dangerous the rebellion were actually.
Great vid GenTech. I really like Veers, he also deserves credit for his contribution to the AT-AT walker design. He and Vader led an Imperial assault on the rebelling world of Zarloris.
Lets finally recognize that Thrawn is also a beneficiary of plot armor. Any time they need a "brilliant" foil for rebel plans outside of Palpatine, they call on Thrawn.
You forgot one thing when Talking about Cienna Ree by the time the battle of Endor happened she lost all faith in the empire and after the battle of Endor she told Nash Windrider to tell her dad "That I should've stood by the one who stood by us" and the main reason why she decided to Crash the Inflictor into Jackku was because it was the only way to fulfil her oath to the Empire without dishonoring herself. Heck the only reason she survived that was because Thane Krell was the only person besides herself who knew the override code to the bride doors which was "Look into my Eyes"
Your most incompetent and competent Imperial Officers videos were very good. I would like to see similar ones for the Rebels, and perhaps among the gangsters and the Bounty Hunters as well.
This was a great video!! Thank you for all your work in Researching, Developing, Producing, Recording, and Posting it and ALL your GREAT Content!!! I always look forward to seeing your Vids in my que!! Please keep up the good work, and THANK YOU!!!! -Matthew-
I still say Tarkin, at least in Ep. IV, was a brilliant officer. Only later books & comics made him into a maniac with the so-called Tarkin doctrine and other weaknesses created by weak writing. They done Peter Cushing dirty.
blaming everything on the tarkin doctrine is really dumb since any Equipment the empire would be god saving grace against the CIS to smash through the sieges and devastate their warships and defeating the cis starfighters in their own game. lets also not ignore the fact that Literally every single competent rebel who knee strategy was an imperial defector who knee very much about imperial tactics also they targeted specifically Research facillities of the empire. the reason the empire couldnt adapt was because the rebels were carefully specifically designed to combat the empire and they rarely engaged anything they didnt had a chance of winning
While you are certainly right -- the expanded content definitely upped everything about Tarkin to eleven and then kept going -- even in New Hope he was never brilliant. He completely dismissed the very notion of a threat from the Rebels, was tricked by Leia multiple times, hastily destroyed Alderaan, and did not even bring any other ships to support his attack on Yavin IV, the long sought after rebel base. It is only the expanded universe stuff that gives him any degree of competence or gravitas.
@@laisphinto6372 Unfortunately that's the problem. the Tarkin doctrine was designed to fight a type of enemy that no longer existed. Great against the Confederacy, poor against the Rebellion. Ironically the Grand Army was far better equipped for handling the Rebel Alliance.
@@George-Hawthorne i dont buy that tarkin doctrine theory. this sounds way more like a "doctrine" that was introduced after the Battle of yavin to blame absolutely everything on tarkin. also the imperial vehicles werent designed for fear they were capable Equipment to fight wars. the reason the Rebels were seemingly so good is because the majority of the rebels were former imperials with a deep knowledge about imperial military tactics,thats like fighting not only Someone that has deep knowledge about you through defections but also has spend 20 years to specifically fight you in detail with up to date knowledge
Tarkin is definitely one of the most competent officers. Reading catalyst, the thrawn books and the tarkin novel, tarkin was just so far ahead of most of the other imperial officers. In my opinion, he is a reflection of thrawn. Where thrawn was politically inept yet absurdly talented at warfare, tarkin was inept at warfare and absurdly talented at politics.
Cienna is so underrated! So glad that you highlighted her here! I recommend Lost Stars to people all the time, it's such a fun read and you get some really well written and cool character interactions!
I mean I do think that the shortage of officers like these was very much intentional. I mean if the entire Imperial Officer Corps was composed of people like these 8 I think it's more than likely they might have deposed Palpatine before the alliance ever could.
I think one man who deserves at least some notice is Zel Johans, High Colonel of the 212th Vanguard Armor Regiment, aka "Hell's Hammers". He never lost a battle under his own eye, the unit only losing one battle as Johans was away. He did whatever he had to do to win, and oftentimes did it without a massive amount of casualties, despite often being the first into the battles.
Could you guys go over the imperial warlord factions? Such as the greater maldrood, zinjs empire, empire of the hand, pentestar alignment, eriadu authority and the others? I think it would be cool if you guys take a deep dive into that legends materia
Even though he is in legends Grand Admiral Pellaeon , was tutored under Thrawn and became the leader of the remnants of the imperial navy, he even withdrew the fleet from two deadly battles, and help signed the peace treaty between the republic and empire.
I think that Kallus is really incompetent. He has control over at least one ISD and doesn´t manage to catch 6 little Rebels because he isn´t able to bring in more than 6 Stormtroopers. I mean he had the opportunity to trap them almost every episode.
In seasons 1 and 2, Kallus mostly seems to be doing his best with what he's got - Lothal seems to only have a few poorly trained and equipped conscripts led by incompetent local officers (the two highest-ranking ones seem to be more concerned with pouring funding into laser tag arenas with floating platforms for kids than actually killing rebels), and although an ISD is powerful, it can only be in one place at a time. And in seasons 3 and 4, Kallus is actively working against the Empire, so he's not exactly going to capture all the rebels!
That one guy was a commandant who was training kids for the Empire(and the arena was used to also find force sensitive children for the imperial directive called Project Harvester), made sense that his budget went to training kids. Kallus was absolutely incompetent well after he left lothal and only "started winning" when he joined the good guy's team.
@@br61499 It's only gay if at least one of the two (or three, or four, or five...) peepees gets excited about touching the other peepee(s). Wait.... I may need to check the science on those numbers again... damnit....
I think that Zeb and Kallus should get their own "buddy cop" type show on Disney Plus, with a series finale, which could come at any time A. B. Y., centered around what becomes the First Order.
Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day! Amen
If Thrawn was the top grand admiral of the entire Imperial Navy unlike that pos Tarkin we'd never would even have had rebellion. He would of cut off their head the very first time they ever showed their face, I still believe it's the actions of two people who screwed the Empire over. One was Tarkin even existing in the military he should of been left in a jungle somewhere and be done with him, the second thing is a so called "Galactic genius" who manipulated an entire war on both sides no less but couldn't understand how the very people he ruled thought/reacted to being blown the f**k up and in doing so should of basically shot himself there and then as he was going fall no matter what he did at that point.
Militaries need officers like Tarkin. Just *never* above the rank of major. In a unit that is expected to be facing continuous, direct enemy contact, a Tarkin is exactly what is needed. The problem is that he was put in charge of the ENTIRE military, which he ran like an undersupplied company trapped in a Kurskesq slog, instead of acting like the military's top officer. This is true for many of the Imperial Command incompetents. They were good, even excellent combat officers, but unable to function as command officers
I disagree, Jedi and Light Siders are the main reason for the Empires defeat, especially Luke. Sure battles would have been lost without Lightsiders, but theirs nothing the Alliance could have done to stop Death Stars, Dark Trooper mk 2 & 3, Sidious, Vader and Imperial sanctioned Darksiders. What would be an interesting debate would be the Galactic Civil War been like with no force users on ether side, no Mk 2 and 3 Dark Troopers WITH the Bioroids in them, no force sensitive nor force attuned people ether. Some Grand Admirals are also not in it because they are sanctioned Darksiders.
@@nicholashodges201 Yes and but someone like Palpatine should of realized that he was supposedly very good at using people to their fullest abilities. But this case with Tarkin just slaps that theory in the face cause as you said he should of never been in a command role outside of a small unit not an entire military. Yet Thrawn showed he could win entire battles with the bare minimum of supplies, I just fail to see how Palpatine made such a big mistake in picking his officers.
@@lancer737 Dark Troopers would exist with or without jedi/lightsiders being present in the civil war, they where apart of the Yuzanvong invasion plan plus it was the work of one of the Grand Admirals (the guy with the eyepatch and the driod tie fighters). As for the force users being the main cause of the empire's lose, you fail to realize the war could never of been won on if they didn't have soldiers to fight for them. And after blowing up a literal cultural utopia world of the empire in cold blood it would of made even the most diehard Imperial question their loyalty. Plus if force users could of won with bare minimum help do you think two of the most powerful of their time (Yoda/Obi-Wan) would be hiding. My main point is here no matter who Palpatine was facing or not facing at the time of literally making just two decisions he basically dethroned himself. One was making Tarkin Grand Moff and two blowing up an entire world and oh wait... Tarkin was the one who chose the planet so their both doubly retarded since both agreed before they fired the laser.
@@SasoriZert Dark Troopers wouldn't exist without force users. The Mk 2 Mk 3 and various offshot Dark Troopers suits were made to be used with the "Dark Trooper bioroid" a fully engineered cybernetic human made to use the force, just like Terror Troopers. Normal Troopers could use those suits, but they were not the intended users. You can find bits of lore about the Dark Trooper bioroids in "Star Wars: Rebellion" "Star Wars: Battlefront 2 game guide" "Lore for the Terror Bioroid program found in the game and novel of SWTFU2." You can also see hints of this in the Mando season 2, its not only Palpatine they wanted baby Yodas DNA for, take in mind the scientists doing the work with his DNA was also a Dark Trooper technical. Their was no Grand Admiral involved with the Dark Trooper program, you are thinking of General Mohc. Now that Grand Generals are a thing, he probably should have been one. You need to think out how lots of the Battles in the war woukd play out for Rebels with no Lightsiders, no force Sensitives, and no force attuned members. At the very least, the Empire wins the Battle of Endor without Luke being their, and the ground battle is even worse without Jedi Clone X2 and General Rohm Kota not being their.
I'm a little confused as to why Krennic is competent, and Tarkin incompetent, when what Krennic does well is what Tarkin does better, and both of their failings are more-or-less the same as well. The salient difference between the two characters was their military acumen. Tarkin was a competent officer whose war experience an draconic measures translated badly when combating guerilla warfare, and Krennic was a civilian who'd manoeuvred his way into the military sphere through political means. And Tarkin didn't steal the Death Star, he oversaw its construction and was planned to handle its completion by the Emperor long before it was finished. Krennic simply didn't know any of this and didn't realise Tarkin's personal connections with the Emperor.
Tarkin literally made the decision to destroy an entire planet which lead to an endless supply of recruits for the rebels and a rallying cry that no one can ignore. Tarkin is easily the most idiotic military commander you can ever have in his position. His attitude is best used leading small elite teams not an entire military and the population under his troops commands.
@@SasoriZert It's easy to make that estimation in hindsight. The entire point of the Death Star was to do precisely what Tarkin did. Whilst I won't deny his involvement in the conceptualisation of this, since he was partook directly in the creation of the general attitude the empire took, lets keep in mind that the Death Star began with the Emperor. Tarkin or not, the Death Star would have been made, at least one planet would have served as an example, and the things would have proceeded as they did. I don't know. In the Tarkin novel, it lays out clearly that his strong-suit is in direct large-scale military action. In the Clone Wars his style worked well, but as I said in my original comment, this translated badly to what was essentially a peace-time rebellion.
@@Anglomachian It's not speaking from hindsight my guy as Sun Tzu said it best "You don't rule through fear, it's a tool at best used to terrify your enemies". Now notice how he specifically says "enemies" you don't go blowing up one of the most if not the most cultural significant planet in your Empire to frighten your enemies. You do that when your some egotistical bastard that's never been loved and just cause you think it'll prove a point. A person can't expect too do something like that and not expect the response to be full blown rebellion, cause you've not only shown in that one action that you give zero fucks about the common people and even if they serve you which I'm sure 90% of them did or at the very least didn't feel strongly enough one way or another to actually rebel. So in short this is far from me "speaking in hindsight" this is me looking at history and knowing how any type of normal person would react in this situation. Plus as for a planet would of have to served as a example you didn't need a populated one, let alone one as important as the one that got blown up. Tarkin is the one who made the choice of the planet so he alone is at fault for that Palpatine is more at fault for just putting a idiot like Tarkin in that position in the first place.
Tarkin is incompetent because he saw the problems military had and repeatedly chose the wrong responses. Accept Mon Cala's surrender? No. He bombarded the planet and turned them all against the Empire, resulting in their addition to the Rebel fleet. Discriminate between allied and enemy targets on warring planets? No. Tarkin killed damn near everyone, to the point that the Empire actually reassigned him due to bad press. Destroy the rebel flagship and fleet at Scarif? No. Tarkin chooses to kill Krennic instead, destroys a vital Imperial post, and let's a good majority of the Rebel fleet escape. Take his officers seriously when they report a flaw in the Death Star that the Rebels are exploiting? No. He dies at Yavin. For all his machinations, Tarkin is a man who never learns that brutality isn't always the right option. It not only cost him his life, but turned half the galaxy against the Empire. Krennic may have blundered, but nowhere near as spectacularly as Tarkin.
@@rippera45 Again, hindsight is 20/20. Accept Mon Cala's surrender? Shortly after the empire has been formed? We know that forces the remnants of their forces into the rebellion, but there have been times in real life when accepting surrender at the wrong time simply emboldens others to try their luck. If you're referring to Antar 4, then yes, he ordered the planet to be made an example of without reference to their individual allegiances. Yes, this led to Teller's group, but the alternative was to allow separatists to escape and carry on the war. He destroyed the facility to remove the threat of rebels gaining the information within, not knowing it'd already been compromised. It was arguably more clever to eliminate the information , especially knowing that Vader was about to appear and deal with the rebel fleet. Did he also do it to kill Krennic? Sure he did. Not denying that. But what was he actually supposed to do about the fleet? So far as I'm aware, the DS1 couldn't target capital ships like the DSII could. I mean, honestly, would you have believed it? This is all NOT to say that Tarkin wasn't flawed. As I've stated, him treating everything like it's a war, and that he must always be "racing to the light of the lasers", because society is like a jungle, and he the taming hunter, was what ultimately undermined him. My question is why Krennic is competent, and Tarkin isn't, when Krennic was an opportunistic psycho who at the end of the day was a glorified administrator who, much like Tarkin, was undermined by his own inability to see that his actions had consequences. He was not more competent than Tarkin.
Thrawn might be one of my favorite characters in Star Wars and definitely my favorite imperial. I have so much respect for him and yet I could never live up to his standards and expectations if I were in SW and served under him. My mind just isn’t strategic enough. Like I’m a good problem solver and a reasonably good critical thinker, but I’m not great at strategy or tactics. It’s why I’m bad at chess. Man I’d love to see Thrawn play chess now that I come to think of it. If he ruled the empire the Rebels would’ve been destroyed before they got well established.
Thrawn was also very vocal of his disproval of the Death Star. He called it a dangerous consolidation of resources and calculated that instead of "Tarkin's Folly", the whole imperial navy could've nearly been doubled in size, and upgraded all TIE fighters to Interceptors equipped with shields and hyper drive systems.
I like how even in a fictional franchise like star wars, there are still doctrinal divides within the imperial military between reformers and old guards, only in this case reformers are the actual pragmatic ones while the old guard is made up of arrogant elitist leaders who think nothing of the rebellion yet fight like they're taking on a symmetrical enemy.
First time viewing any material from your channel. You definitely know your stuff; it's clear your depth of knowledge on the subject runs deep. And while I agree with many of your points, you make some excellent points, there are several others that could be argued. One of the first things that got my attention is your narration. Your words are, or seem as though they are, carefully chosen, in just the right amounts and delivered in a "matter of fact" style. Never heard you stumble or stall or at a loss for what to say. Also don't remember you repeating yourself. It's like you were reading from a script but the script wasn't in front of you, it was in your head. Your voice quality is professional and delivery was on the mark. Impressive...most impressive. In summary, I really enjoyed this video and Im looking forward to more stuff from your channel. Liking and subscribing...now!
Agreed, piett was hampered by palpatine's desire to show off the death star 2. Without being held back he would've crushed the rebellion right there, but palps wanted people to see all his cool stuff instead
Remember people I do not have ps5s to give out
But you still have those questionably obtained light sabres, correct?
We only wish you did.
its a crime you dont included the best imperial officer
3rd and last one on the thumbnail are the same person
@@JB-yb4wn hey I resent that ok those lightsabers are obtained completely legalu
As someone from the Philadelphia area, I take your labeling of us as the real world equivalent of the unknown regions as a great compliment.
As a truck driver that frequents the greater Philadelphia area, i agree.
In fairness, Detroit would be a close second place, in that competition...
Though the video is unflattering, it's unfortunately largely true. I'm ashamed how many idiots are running around.
I mean, if we are Csilla that means Philadelphians are the Chiss... an analogy I wholeheartedly would agree with
@@shaunnestor7649 nj ssi-ruu let’s go
It is amazing how Tarkin a tyrant, Yularen a military leader, and Governor Pryce a politician, all helped in getting Thrawn past the politics of the Empire.
Yeah.
I didn't even realize that, that's pretty cool
Shocking 😲😲😲
And then Pryce Killed a single Jedi at the cost of the entire imperial fuel refinery on Lothal, destroying the progress of the TIE Defender project.
Yeah but with Pryce it was more of a they need each other and to work together situation. Thrawn didn't like Arhinda but he knew he needed her. Yularen and Thrawn actually had respect for each other.
"Are we BLIND?? DEPLOY THE GARRISON!!" Was instantly classic
That and " we stand in the midst of MY ACHIEVEMENT! NOT YOURS!"
@@ashleysmith9755
Don’t forget “We were on the verge of greatness! We were THIS close!”
"Farming? Really? A man of your talents?"
Rogue One is like prequels: a meme factory
I would like to give Eli Vanto a honorable mention. He was Thrawn's friend and student during Thrawn's raise in the empire. He was incredible at logistics (something that gets over looked often) and a solid commander in his own right. He was basically scalped by Thrawn for the Chiss ascendancy where he did well under Thrawn's former Commander and arguably best friend Admiral Ar'alani. I like the character so much I wish Timothy Zahn would do a series on Eli and his time with the chiss.
If I may add another honorable mention to your discourse: Commodore Faro
“Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals talk logistical.”-Napoleon Bonaparte who lost in Russia do to bad logistics.
@@Controlqueen31 You know what your 100% right. She does deserve a mention. She stayed with the empire and she out fought an admiral who and three star destroyers with one with no lose of life for either side.
I actually believe that ar alani had a thing for Thrawn but ofcourse Thrawn did not understand what's happening? Maybe we might get some more in Ashoka series. As much as I love Ashoka my favourite character is our favourite Pantoran with an eye condition :)
I hope they do and subvert our expectations.
My two favourite officers are Jerjerrod and Tarkin. They’re such a contrast to each-other. For example, Tarkin blew a hole in Scarrif and blew up Alderaan as if it was nothing, but Jerjerrod struggled to blow up a Forest planet populated by terrorists and teddy bears. Tarkin is a monster, Jerjerrod is a human.
I mean they still had troops on the moon which is why jerjerrod hesitated
@@deerhawk7788 they had troops on scarif
@@rinsekai irrelevant, I was pointing out that the forest moon did not just have rebels and ewoks on it.
There’s a deleted scene where palpatine orders the destruction of Endor and he hesitates because of the troops on Endor.
@@levongevorgyan6789 There were troops on Scarrif and I’m sure Alderaan.
2:20 Grand Admiral Thrawn: "To defeat the enemy, you must know them. Not simply their strengths and battle tactics but their history, philosophy, ... art."
yes
It makes sense to know your enemy's history and philosophy, but not art because it only tells you about the individual artist and not the enemy as a whole. I had a real good belly-laugh when I read that when the Thrawn books first came out, but I have no problem with any of his other skills, just his ability to get intel about an enemy by looking at their art is preposterous at the highest order.
Thrawn's skills are similar to how Patton defeated Rommel because Patton read Rommel's book of infantry tactics, but I don't remember Patton being able to gain intel by being an art enthusiast.
@@JohnFourtyTwo art can be a good way to understand the history tho
Sun Tzu agrees
@@JohnFourtyTwo perhaps, but even having an idea of the individual artist and how they perceive the world through their art gives Thrawn ideas due to historical and societal beliefs and customs.
Heck compare different paintings from the times of the Italian Renaissance versus Ming Dynasty tapestry or decorated clay pots from the Middle East to even modern day pieces of art that would’ve made even the likes of DaVinci be impressed.
Through art, it speaks of the history of the times, the culture, even the tone of color can have some significance especially when those are aware of it. Even the straightness or curved of lines, the symbolism that is (literally) drawn,
You don’t have to be an artist to have an appreciation for a piece of art or color that doesn’t seem like much beyond appealing to you. It could be that it’s a “nice painting” or something along those lines. But even having something as simple as a poster or something decorative could yield results about one’s character or mentality.
Of course having a higher form of analytical and tactical prowess would be able to help make even the most obscure or separate events be connected to the bigger picture.
Very rarely would Thrawn be unable to grasp the meaning of an art piece, though that would lead to devastating results on the part of his enemies. Fortunately he’s not solely reliant on art to make his strategies. Just like the aforementioned quote: you must _know_ them beyond military tactics, but history and philosophy as well. Having an understanding of any one or two of those fields when concerning the enemy would bear fruit for victory, providing that one can *correctly* understand that topic and have contingencies for unknown factors
That bit with Veers and Vader is rather interesting. Veers wasn't blinded by his pride and learned the type of enemy the rebels were and if the Empire didn't adapt to the new enemy they were never gonna crush the rebellion. Shame this only came to light after the Hoth battle otherwise they might have had the time to implement the proposed reforms.
Also I just have new appreciation for Cassio Tagge, who could see how badly the Empire was wasting resources on super weapon projects.
I would have thought Vader would already agree with Veers and Cassio. Vader was critical of the Death Star in Episode IV, and his experiences as Anakin in the Clone Wars must have told him that lots of small, elite and well-equipped forces can be more effective than giant super weapons.
I wonder what Vader thought of the TIE Defender project - given Vader still piloted a starfighter, he probably would support a project to greatly improve the Empire's starfighter corps
Personal take: Vader respected Veers because of all the officers he dealt with he most reminded Vader of the clone commanders he used to serve with
Shame for the empire...
You should have used Gilad Pellaeon instead of Kallus because he didn't betray the Empire and switched sides. He lived on and commanded as efficiently as Thrawn in the later years.
I thought about putting Pellaeon in there he actually does exist in the new canon but he doesn’t have much of a backstory yet…unlike in the eu
@@GenerationTech dont bother about the new disney shit, nobody does
@@chrissobiech2677 He uses a weird hybrid canon which has disney canon post endor so it wouldn't work sadly
@@GenerationTech Yeah, his name was mentioned in Rebels, I think, but you right. They haven't remade or built a canon back story for him. I thought you commentate on Star Wars Legends material, anyway. You could have used the ISB head guy as an example instead of Kallus.
@@GenerationTech I think you should consider going over some of the EU characters that haven't made their way yet into the new canon in their own video.
So glad you mentioned Cienna! Can’t get enough of Lost Stars and how she’s portrayed in the book and manga. Despite her growing disillusions of the Empire, her oaths pushed her to preform her job to the T.
Lost Stars is probably my favorite SW book so same here
@@antoniojimenez7148 It’s definitely one if not the most underrated sw book out there
@@antoniojimenez7148 I have the book it is so good
She looks cute in the manga ngl.
Cienna was a cool character. Good book
Philly being in the unknown regions makes so much sense
I'm still laughing about that.
I'm 95% sure I actually witnessed that footage being filmed. I think that's the night of the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots. Quite a night...
@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 definitely was from that night. Philly played a hell of a game. Not exactly the hat idea to trash your own city but hey it’s Philly.
I’ve never understood why ppl from philly are so proud of their city being filled with assholes and idiots who trash the place win or lose
No it doesn’t
*The Real Imperial Might*
Glory to the Empire!
Long love the Emperor! Death to the xeno scum!
Long Live the Empire!!!!!!!!
TRAITORS!!!!! YOU BETRAYED THE REPUBLIC FOR AN EMPIRE THAT DOESN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT YOU!!!
Long Live The Empire!
Vader knew Veers was right but was powerless to inactive the reforms because of Palpatine's oversight
ISB Admiral Garrick Versio was amongst the finest imperial officers, and a highlight of a rather dubious Battlefront II story. He was arguably not as good as Thrawn but he still managed to frustrate the Rebel Alliance with dwindling and very limited resources as it went on. Without Admiral Versio, the situation would have destabilised even faster for the Empire (and bad writing aside for how exactly that came about, it must be said that the likes of Versio at least gave the Empire a fighting chance)
Sadly the whole, 'Operation Cinder' thing took precedence because apparently the Empire hadn't spelt out it was evil enough yet. The 'justification' of Admirals and other Imperial officers destroying their own strongholds, in-canon, is the unconvincing and frankly tedious concept of this being done to 'send a message to all' that 'the Empire had changed' and would 'brook no weakness'. To show everyone they were fair game. But Palpatine wouldn't do that. If he wanted to hurt the rebels, he'd give them the problem of taking those planets and bases themselves. To make it, as bloody as possible out of spite.
That is how Palpatine would want to do things. Not to punish his own side just for failing to defend him when it was his own fault anyway (at Endor)
Honestly the fall of the empire just wasn’t depicted in a manner I find even remotely believable in BF2. Like honestly your incompetent idiots would go with cinder because they lack even an ounce of brain power to think of something even remotely creative. However people like Admiral Versio who aren’t stupid and having read inferno squad is more of a pragmatic imperial would see there’s no way to save the entire Galactic empire take the few assets they have go to either an isolated or pro imperial planet and set up little easily defendable successor states to small for the Rebellion to really care about while they leave your fanatical morons to die trying to save a clearly failed institution and then they would slowly build up their wealth and power so after the rebellion gets done going after the fanatics the successor states are powerful enough it’s still not worth picking a fight. The New Republic as we know would eventually fell and then the imperial successor states would resume control. I feel bf2 ruined every character in the novel inferno squad to just create the most unoriginal and predictable plot ever. They could have done something interesting but made a Saturday mourning cartoon.
The problem is the Dark side makes you a fuck head. Palpatine of ROTS would certainly make do as you describe, but he's had 20 years of completely unhinged egotism and dark side meditation thereafter.
The dark side is corruption made manifest. Something not made clear by his death but Anakin had he lived would spent decades to maybe the rest of his life trying to heal the spiritual scars of dark side immersion, not the acts he committed, the immersion itself, which fucked up his soul worse than the fire fucked up his lungs.
Palpatine is basically a pouty child who breaks a toy instead of letting another kid have it
@@RudeAndObscene Sort of but only because that is how C(h)uck Wendig wrote him to be in the Aftermath books. I don't really like the whole Battle of Jakku, structurally, anyway. It is just the most obvious it can be, with the entire thing used as a convenient way to explain away the downfall of the Empire. The pre-Disney Expanded Universe ('Legends') lore with the Empire lasting as Imperial Remnants in a fractured yet still powerful series of splinter states, was far more interesting. Some of that was guff too, but a lot of it was well-written. It gave the Empire more than a little over a year post-Endor; much more. It gave them over a decade, which is much more accurate.
The Galactic Empire's power should be so vast, that even with planets falling at a rate of dozens per day, in a Galactic War, they'd still be able to recapture them at a decent rate and hold onto some fortified worlds that acted as key strategic hubs in their defence lines. There is simply no way that the Empire, being so vast, would just go mental and completely tear itself apart regardless of how selfish, greedy and incompetent most of the officers are portrayed to be. There'd be sensible portions of the command structure, like Thrawn, strong-arming and corralling at least _some_ kind of defence together. They would be able to do massive damage to the rebels, defensively.
The Empire has always been nerfed but even at their most stupid (and there is no shortage of that, in the Empire, as written) they can still win battles by sheer weight of numbers and attrition. No, they couldn't always guarantee numerical advantages as things fell apart, and I truly do understand that, but it is not the case that they'd completely fall apart, no matter how bad defections, low morale and defeats impacted recruitment and loyalty from older troopers. Plenty would be deserting, or even joining the rebels. But all the same, it would not be quite so abysmal as is often portrayed. The Battle of Jakku is just a big plot convenience to make some BS about the end of the Empire.
It was clearly not convincing enough by itself so they made the Empire seppuku itself via Operation Cinder, removing any chance of it holding on until it could outlast the rebels. I get the concept that millions more rebels flocked to the rebel banner as things deteriorated. Even the holonet broadcasts of the DSII blowing up at Endor, would by itself inspire millions across the galaxy to join the rebels. Yet here is the issue; the war should have lasted _at least_ another 10 years, and by the end of it, there would be millions more dead on both sides. Possibly/likely billions, galaxy wide. It doesn't make sense for the Empire to functionally collapse in almost all forms in 1 year flat. No way.
@@charlottewolery558 Yes I am aware the dark side does this to people. Palpatine is a major league monster, everyone knows that. Yet he was smart too, and he got into power via patient and diligent work, tediously (for himself) enduring years and years of political mundanity to creep closer to totalitarian rule. He must have been seething the entire time, but he was elated in his moment of triumph in the end. By the time Order 66 came, the relief from that Palpatine must have felt is immeasurable. And yes I agree, he got even more insane and megalomaniacal after two decades in absolute power. Nevertheless, it is still pretty bogus for him to completely spite his own Empire.
I get what they were going for, like a purity spiralling sickness in the very nature of the elitist Empire, destroying itself. I do understand that. I'm just saying it was executed poorly and in a pretty dull way. Imperials are arrogant. Imperials are foolhardy. Imperials are egotistic. Imperials are x, y, z etc etc. It's not telling a story we haven't already been told hundreds of times by Star Wars. It's boring. We know the Empire has a lot of idiots. We know. But it might have been (aka definitely would have been) more interesting to see an Imperial fightback with moral justification. Battlefront II promised to present a more grey and atypical story, where the Imperial loyalist perspective matters.
In the end, and in short-order, that was soon put in the bin. The 'default to demonise all Imperials' quickly snapped back into line. Yes, the Galactic Empire is not only evil, but built on lies, commanded from the very top by Sith Lords and generally speaking, not a great faction. It's full of silliness on almost every bureaucratic and militaristic level, and plenty of the officers are completely useless. Yet this is a numbers game. There are/were _trillions_ of imperials. Even by accident, enough competent Imperials would rise to the top to make serious impacts on any rebel efforts. For every excellent Imperial commander, there may well be dozens of idiotic ones, this is unavoidably true.
Operation Cinder is still extremely stupid, though. Yes, it fits the behavioural profile of a psychopath, which Palpatine is blatantly portrayed to be. All the same, I dislike how they've pathologised and demeaned Palpatine's character in that way. In a way, it was better when he seemed like the Devil, like some supernatural force in the living and cosmic force. A force nexus. He is the dark side. He is the manifestation of ultimate evil and darkness. And yes it is corrupting his mind and body. Yet the way I see it, it's like this addict that is so used to that which is slowly destroying them, it takes something pretty insane to even hurt them anymore. They have become immune to most other degradation.
That was what was always special about Sidious/Palpatine. That he was this sleeping volcano of dark side powers, and not only that, a _deliberately_ sleeping volcano. Unnatural, truly monstrous - hiding his power levels pretty literally. When people try and hold Palpatine to the same mental health standards as Galactic Citizen Joe Schmoe in the general public, I do wonder if that is missing the point with Palpatine. He was supposed to be a lot smarter than that. True enough, he was a bit of an idiot at Endor, yet that was all part of luring in the rebel fleet. And the magnitude of how much the Emperor got nerfed on an intelligence level at Endor, is another matter entirely.
The whole Operation Cinder thing is just an excuse to effectively bin the Empire and 'justify' the beginnings of the First Order. And yes, sometimes Imperial factions will have hard-line sects and branches that try and redefine the Empire in it's own grim image. Even so, this would be _immeasurably_ more interesting if allowed to be shown taking place slowly and logically, over a decade or so. Even after Endor and Palpatine's 'death', the Empire could take three dozen defeats the size of Endor and still Wallace & Gromit a way to win. They were not so numerically weak as to get to the point of strategic defeat after Jakku. It was a big chunk on a sector by sector level, to lose, in ships.
Nevertheless, the Empire could still fortify enough keystone worlds with actually competent top brass. If they started purity spiralling as things got worse, then why would they tolerate idiotic commanders and admirals? The remaining Grand Admirals actually worth a damn, like Thrawn, would be smart enough to appoint the officers that deserved it. If they didn't, then things would only go one way. It is poor world-building for the Empire to supposedly be completely run by idiots. It did foster vicious, self-serving commanders, but why do most of them have to be idiots? That is just part of the trope of making the Empire moustache twirling villains, constantly. It's just bad writing.
I'm pretty sure that footage of "the unknown regions" *aka Philadelphia PA* was taken the night of their Super Bowl victory against the Patriots and I was a firsthand witness to that exact incident in Center City. That impressive display of gymnastic ability. If I remember correctly it was right around the corner from City Hall.
It was indeed a party.
Yes, I was there. There was a flaming dumpster two alleys over...
At the Ritz Carlton hotel, I'm pretty sure
Only in Philly lol. Crazy upset tho.
Been on a binge of your content last few days while at work, and just watched the most incompetent on Friday. I gotta say, the difference between the least competent VS the most in the Empire really shows how much of a knife edge the Rebellion was on.
I always thought the point of Captain Needa's death was to show what the Empire did to honest soldiers who did their duty, took responsibility and looked after their men. He didn't try to blame anyone else, he admitted his fault and was killed for it.
Needa knew the difference between an error and a mistake. I sometimes wonder what he could have accomplished under Grand Admiral Thrawn.
@@jaffarebellion292 Needa was one of those Imperial officers who were certainly competent but not overly spectacular. He was decent and Thrawn would have been more than happy to have him under his command.
@@madgavin7568 That's the thing, though. Needa was a good officer, much like Pellaeon. But Thrawn's M.O. is to take good officers and make them truly great. Under Thrawn's wing, Needa likely would've thrived and gone on to do incredible things.
@@jaffarebellion292 Potentially. Decent men can accomplish great things under a great leader, assuming there's no ego involved.
@@madgavin7568 that's the point, the entire culture of the imperial military point to the fact that if you are decent and professional you get to be blamed for any failure even if is not your fault and if you are very very lucky you get only demoted; Thraw was more or less the exception to the rule, this is one of the big reason the entire imperial navy and army as such abysmal failure, people are too scared to made mistake and occupied in CYA to protect their life (litteraly)
I hope we get to see Sloane in live action some time. She was really interesting in the Aftermath trilogy, not just the usual evil imperial officer
Yea she was an awesome character o wonder what happened to her In the unknown region tho
still inferior to the legend that is gilad pellaeon ,veteran through the clone wars and civil war, second in command to thrawn , Captain of the chimeara and of course a magnificant mustache .
Where is Ciena? Is she safe? Is she alright?
Hey Disney ignored the bevy of strong women even diverse ones from the EU. Loved and respected by the fans. All abandoned to give us MaReySu and RheeeeeeeeeeVa! Why build on what made a beloved fictional IP when you have a wide open chance to teach a PolSci class liberal arts school style?
I feel like Moses Ingram would've been infinitely better as Rae Sloane rather than Reva Whoever.
Thrawn, hands down. Unavoidable. Veers, also good. Piett, though not without flaws, but the the emperor put him in a peculiar situation at Endor. Jerjerrod, also good. Captain Needa, who paid for a not unreasonable failure with his life, to preserve his men. Probably still competent, certainly a good officer for that.
Needa was a veteran Navy Officer of the Clone Wars and participated in the Battle of Coruscant where i believe he distinguished himself.
He paid the ultimate price for a rather "minor" failure, to protect his crew, and he knew that facing Vader was going to be a one way trip.
He's one of the most underrated Imperial character ever, a fine Officer and a brave man.
I'm also glad Krennic was mentioned because i've seen too many people bashing the character for his actions, but as mentioned in the video, he was a great architect and insanely good project manager who recognized talented people when he met them and knew how to use their skills. When you read the book about Tarkin, it's also heavily implied that Tarkin viewed Krennic as a threat because the latter almost manages to outsmart him towards the end and that's why he gets rid of him in Rogue One.
And i totally agree that Piett should actually be on this list. He was far from being incompetent and proved himself before and after joining the Empire. The fact that he survived working that close to Vader for so long is a testimony to that.
Actually I think Adrimel Piett was a competitive Officer he know how to use his rank and proved himself in combat multiple times and actually earned his rank
I would say Piett was better in survival than war. The problem with the Empire was that it was structured to promote the former rather than the latter.
I can see him having the same problem with many real world generals, where they were brilliant at one position
But become worst when promoted
He may be a good ship captain, but not a brilliant fleet commander
8:57 Darth Vader when Force Choking Krennic: "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director."
Krennic, “Harder, Lord Vader?”
Vader, “Whaatt?”
@@isaackim7675 I wonder how Vader would react to that.
@@isaackim7675YAHOOO
@@jsb6975.ah.crapbasketswait.. isn’t that a bit in a captainsause video?
I think a paint the town red one
That deleted scene of Jerjerrod questioning the Emperor's decision to blast Endor is probably the Star Wars thing I think about more than any other.
Juno eclipse was a competent officer and decorated combat pilot, survived over 100 combat missions, and one of the imperial officers, vader trusted and respected, even during the bombing of callos. She was not as ruthless as many other imperial officers were.
She would play a major role in galen marek's redemption, and defected from the empire after darth vader branded her a traitor, and he nearly killed galen and would help starkiller create the rebel alliance in (legends), and retain her rank as a captain in the alliance fleet.
A lot of EU characters were left out, including Juno Eclipse, Gilad Pellaeon, Soontir Fel, the far more competent and manipulative original version of Thrawn, and several more. Granted, the general level of competency was far higher on both sides in the EU than in the current canon.
@jaffarebellion292 captain pellaeon was re-canonized by star wars rebels incase you didn't know.
@@CloneScavengerVulpin8389 He was name dropped. Given what they did to Thrawn, it remains to be seen whether or not he's still the same character.
@@jaffarebellion292 I believe it is the same pellaeon.
@Michael Fuller I mean that until we see him on screen, there's no telling whether they'll radically change him to fit the whims of the writer, i.e. making him nerdlessly cruel or an incompetent buffoon.
Chiss Space being Space Philly is hilarious
As someone who plays Star Wars Empires at War. Veers is amazing. That AT-AT support from turn 1 is just awesome.
“The Chiss’ territory was located in the Unknown Regions, an exceptionally chaotic area of the galaxy, where normal hyperspace travel is dangerous because of the high concentration of gravitational anomalies.”
_casually zooms in on Philadelphia with Google Maps_
2:30 As someone in Philly, this absolutely tracks.
I really like how Commander Kimmund's interactions and thoughts on Thrawn's style of leading his crew in Thrawn Alliances, makes me wish half of the book wasnt a Padme and Anakin story
This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.
I think Krennic is my favorite Imperial Officer right after Veers in the movies.
Absolutely
Didn’t talk about Janek “Tank” Sunber. One of the most down to earth officers around who eagerly would help his troops anytime he could.
I’m glad someone mentioned him, his performance during the battle of Maridun was stellar. General Ziering was also an officer of class
Dedre will have to be added to this later! Andor makes me feel like I’m reading one of the novels which honestly were what cemented by Star Wars fandom years ago
If Legends were added, I’m betting Pelleon, Fel, and Maybe Isard would be added to this list
Pelleon is in rebels I believe. And I agree all three of them were some of the best of the best
Grand Admiral Zaarin as well, he developed the TIE Avenger AND Defender in legends, he started his own coop, he captured palpatine, and after he was thwarted by reinforcements led by Vader AND Thrawn it took Thrawn to fill his shoes
Admiral pelleon was in rebels and mentioned in one of the live action series as well, i think he's still Canon.
As someone from the Philadelphia area, I am accepting the role of dangerous territory
Do you carry a blaster everywhere you go just to protect yourself from bounty hunters?
@@jasonml3508 i am the bounty hunter
@@Pokemc0831 oh. Oh no
O can't get my head around Krennic being a great officer. In the books and movies he's anything but competent. His project is built on the backs of talented scientists who he then murders so he can get all the credit.
@@salfrenda9244 welcome to the Empire
Love your content! Keep up the great work. Lots of love.
Absolute love this video. I’m always a sucker for Thrawn. I’ve even persuaded myself to start reading heir to the empire despite it not being canon. Krennic actually surprised me. He was more competent than most, but he was sloppy. He often failed to see threats shown clearly the events of rogue one in which he downplayed everything until the end. He also required Thrawn’s assistance to sort out the mynock problem which he refused to regard as anything but median estimate grallocs despite them losing huge amounts of valuable materials and parts. He didn’t even investigate the possibility of piracy when ships were ‘randomly’ jumping to nearby star systems. That’s my take but Krennic has never struck me as a decent strategist. More an excellent delegator (which I guess is a form of leadership in itself).
I strongly encourage reading books from the original canon. At least in my opinion, Rogue One and The Mandalorian are the only Disney things remotely comparable in quality to the good parts of the original canon. There was a lot of mediocre stuff in the original canon, but that’s inevitable when there are hundreds of stories being told.
I’m somewhat biased by caring primarily about writing quality (so I absolutely hated the sequel trilogy despite desperately wanting to like it) and having grown up with Star Wars, but there’s a lot of fantastic stuff in the original EU. With how much Disney focuses on precision engineering media for maximum profit, art and creativity be damned, I think it’s going to take them a long time to have anywhere near as many quality stories.
Tagge was always one that stood out for me. Realising that depending on a super weapon was not the best thing and trying to focus on how dangerous the rebellion were actually.
Great vid GenTech. I really like Veers, he also deserves credit for his contribution to the AT-AT walker design. He and Vader led an Imperial assault on the rebelling world of Zarloris.
Thrawn and Krennic and Tarkin have always been my favorite Imperial Officers
I'm so happy you mentioned Cienna. Lost Stars is a great book, and I wish it was brought up more in the Star Wars community.
Lets finally recognize that Thrawn is also a beneficiary of plot armor. Any time they need a "brilliant" foil for rebel plans outside of Palpatine, they call on Thrawn.
That’s fair
@Peters6221 to put it another way, Thrawn gets to listen in on the writers as they're putting the story together
No, I’m just extremely smart.
Rebels got plot armour
Thrawn got plot armour piercing shells (AP shells)
Also , Thrawn didn't have Plot Armour like the Main Charecters which is the only weakness , But got Plot Armour Penetrating Mind
You forgot one thing when Talking about Cienna Ree by the time the battle of Endor happened she lost all faith in the empire and after the battle of Endor she told Nash Windrider to tell her dad "That I should've stood by the one who stood by us" and the main reason why she decided to Crash the Inflictor into Jackku was because it was the only way to fulfil her oath to the Empire without dishonoring herself. Heck the only reason she survived that was because Thane Krell was the only person besides herself who knew the override code to the bride doors which was "Look into my Eyes"
Love your videos man. I've watched you grow for years and have always learned so much because of your content!
Your most incompetent and competent Imperial Officers videos were very good.
I would like to see similar ones for the Rebels, and perhaps among the gangsters and the Bounty Hunters as well.
Please do cover Dedro Meero and Major Partagaz next :). The ISB bureaucracy turns out surprisingly well staffed with talent.
Absolutely!
7:21 The real reason Vader killed him: making terrible puns
This was a great video!! Thank you for all your work in Researching, Developing, Producing, Recording, and Posting it and ALL your GREAT Content!!! I always look forward to seeing your Vids in my que!! Please keep up the good work, and THANK YOU!!!!
-Matthew-
I still say Tarkin, at least in Ep. IV, was a brilliant officer. Only later books & comics made him into a maniac with the so-called Tarkin doctrine and other weaknesses created by weak writing. They done Peter Cushing dirty.
blaming everything on the tarkin doctrine is really dumb since any Equipment the empire would be god saving grace against the CIS to smash through the sieges and devastate their warships and defeating the cis starfighters in their own game. lets also not ignore the fact that Literally every single competent rebel who knee strategy was an imperial defector who knee very much about imperial tactics also they targeted specifically Research facillities of the empire. the reason the empire couldnt adapt was because the rebels were carefully specifically designed to combat the empire and they rarely engaged anything they didnt had a chance of winning
While you are certainly right -- the expanded content definitely upped everything about Tarkin to eleven and then kept going -- even in New Hope he was never brilliant. He completely dismissed the very notion of a threat from the Rebels, was tricked by Leia multiple times, hastily destroyed Alderaan, and did not even bring any other ships to support his attack on Yavin IV, the long sought after rebel base. It is only the expanded universe stuff that gives him any degree of competence or gravitas.
Tarkin would have made a much better politician than an Officer. I need someone who sees the bigger picture.
@@laisphinto6372 Unfortunately that's the problem. the Tarkin doctrine was designed to fight a type of enemy that no longer existed. Great against the Confederacy, poor against the Rebellion. Ironically the Grand Army was far better equipped for handling the Rebel Alliance.
@@George-Hawthorne i dont buy that tarkin doctrine theory. this sounds way more like a "doctrine" that was introduced after the Battle of yavin to blame absolutely everything on tarkin. also the imperial vehicles werent designed for fear they were capable Equipment to fight wars. the reason the Rebels were seemingly so good is because the majority of the rebels were former imperials with a deep knowledge about imperial military tactics,thats like fighting not only Someone that has deep knowledge about you through defections but also has spend 20 years to specifically fight you in detail with up to date knowledge
Wow these are some of the best starwars videos I have ever seen!
If you're listening to this video without the visuals, you're doing yourself a massive disservice. It's actually hilarious
I had to rewind it multiple times just to rewatch the comparison between Philadelphia and the Unknown Regions. Well played I love it!
I would add Hurst Romodi as well. He played a key role in the Western Reaches pacification and other successful campaigns.
My true roll models, competent..efficient..and intelligent officers
The Force: I am the most powerful entity in the entire galaxy!
Plot Armor: Hello there!
Plot Armor = "The Will of the Force???"
@@captain_hammer Maybe?
Tarkin is definitely one of the most competent officers. Reading catalyst, the thrawn books and the tarkin novel, tarkin was just so far ahead of most of the other imperial officers.
In my opinion, he is a reflection of thrawn. Where thrawn was politically inept yet absurdly talented at warfare, tarkin was inept at warfare and absurdly talented at politics.
Veers: One of the best on land
Thrawn: The best in space
Maybe also a "8 most competent Rebels and 5 most incompetent Rebels?"
Cienna is so underrated! So glad that you highlighted her here! I recommend Lost Stars to people all the time, it's such a fun read and you get some really well written and cool character interactions!
I mean I do think that the shortage of officers like these was very much intentional. I mean if the entire Imperial Officer Corps was composed of people like these 8 I think it's more than likely they might have deposed Palpatine before the alliance ever could.
Why you zoomed in on Philadelphia like that 😅🤣😂
I think one man who deserves at least some notice is Zel Johans, High Colonel of the 212th Vanguard Armor Regiment, aka "Hell's Hammers". He never lost a battle under his own eye, the unit only losing one battle as Johans was away. He did whatever he had to do to win, and oftentimes did it without a massive amount of casualties, despite often being the first into the battles.
Could you guys go over the imperial warlord factions? Such as the greater maldrood, zinjs empire, empire of the hand, pentestar alignment, eriadu authority and the others? I think it would be cool if you guys take a deep dive into that legends materia
I forget his name but I liked the officer who formed a friendship with Vader, even putting his life in danger to help him.
Dude, not only you create pretty good videos from the point of analysis you also make kinda best jokes
0:04 Operation Barbossa? Did you mean Operation Barbarossa .... or is Hector leading the Black Pearl against the dolphins?
Argh we be leading the charge against the Russians argh
Even though he is in legends Grand Admiral Pellaeon , was tutored under Thrawn and became the leader of the remnants of the imperial navy, he even withdrew the fleet from two deadly battles, and help signed the peace treaty between the republic and empire.
I think that Kallus is really incompetent. He has control over at least one ISD and doesn´t manage to catch 6 little Rebels because he isn´t able to bring in more than 6 Stormtroopers. I mean he had the opportunity to trap them almost every episode.
In seasons 1 and 2, Kallus mostly seems to be doing his best with what he's got - Lothal seems to only have a few poorly trained and equipped conscripts led by incompetent local officers (the two highest-ranking ones seem to be more concerned with pouring funding into laser tag arenas with floating platforms for kids than actually killing rebels), and although an ISD is powerful, it can only be in one place at a time.
And in seasons 3 and 4, Kallus is actively working against the Empire, so he's not exactly going to capture all the rebels!
That one guy was a commandant who was training kids for the Empire(and the arena was used to also find force sensitive children for the imperial directive called Project Harvester), made sense that his budget went to training kids. Kallus was absolutely incompetent well after he left lothal and only "started winning" when he joined the good guy's team.
Love all the blink and you'll miss it gags that keep popping up. With the added humor it makes all the videos even better
It's very sweet that Kallus turned his back on the Empire and found love within the Rebels, even getting the chance to settle down with his Lasat.
I don’t think kallus is gay tbh
@@br61499 It's only gay if at least one of the two (or three, or four, or five...) peepees gets excited about touching the other peepee(s). Wait.... I may need to check the science on those numbers again... damnit....
Huge props for the Philly shoutout! That was the Jawn and I took it as a compliment! Go Birds! ;-)
I am surprised that the Baron is not on this list. Baron Soontir Fel is someone I have been hoping to see in film form for so long.
It’s funny I enjoy how are you troll Grand Moff Tarkin every chance you get LOL
2:45 hahaha 🤣 😂 you used Philadelphia as a real world equivalent to the unknown regions 😂
I straight up squealed when you were talking about Kallus.
11:38 Vader emulating Palpatine there, lol
I think that Zeb and Kallus should get their own "buddy cop" type show on Disney Plus, with a series finale, which could come at any time A. B. Y., centered around what becomes the First Order.
Little add-on: Thrawn is considered a savant, even among the chiss.
>mentions the unknown regions
>zooms in on philadelphia
I would ahave put in Eli Vanto as well, he's also very competent and achieved a lot, even thoug he was later sent to the chiss
This show invokes so many emotions
Thrawn is my favorite sw character
Eli Vanto could be on the list too btw
Thought about putting him and gilead on there but decided not to ultimately
Supervisor Dedra Meero needs included in this. 1 of the best depictions of a more nuanced Imp. officer.
Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day! Amen
Operation: Cinder.. now there’s a man who knows his history
Operation Barbarossa was necessary. Soviets were modernizing their military and were preparing to invade Germany in a year or two.
At the very least, they stopped communism from spreading to the west, which Stalin was planning to do as later evidence shows.
it's so great that Grand Admiral Thrawn is coming back in the up coming Ahsoka series him and sabine and Ezra
Glory for the empire!
Really enjoyed this video. Thanks for putting out such fun content.
If Thrawn was the top grand admiral of the entire Imperial Navy unlike that pos Tarkin we'd never would even have had rebellion. He would of cut off their head the very first time they ever showed their face, I still believe it's the actions of two people who screwed the Empire over. One was Tarkin even existing in the military he should of been left in a jungle somewhere and be done with him, the second thing is a so called "Galactic genius" who manipulated an entire war on both sides no less but couldn't understand how the very people he ruled thought/reacted to being blown the f**k up and in doing so should of basically shot himself there and then as he was going fall no matter what he did at that point.
Militaries need officers like Tarkin. Just *never* above the rank of major. In a unit that is expected to be facing continuous, direct enemy contact, a Tarkin is exactly what is needed.
The problem is that he was put in charge of the ENTIRE military, which he ran like an undersupplied company trapped in a Kurskesq slog, instead of acting like the military's top officer.
This is true for many of the Imperial Command incompetents. They were good, even excellent combat officers, but unable to function as command officers
I disagree, Jedi and Light Siders are the main reason for the Empires defeat, especially Luke. Sure battles would have been lost without Lightsiders, but theirs nothing the Alliance could have done to stop Death Stars, Dark Trooper mk 2 & 3, Sidious, Vader and Imperial sanctioned Darksiders.
What would be an interesting debate would be the Galactic Civil War been like with no force users on ether side, no Mk 2 and 3 Dark Troopers WITH the Bioroids in them, no force sensitive nor force attuned people ether. Some Grand Admirals are also not in it because they are sanctioned Darksiders.
@@nicholashodges201 Yes and but someone like Palpatine should of realized that he was supposedly very good at using people to their fullest abilities. But this case with Tarkin just slaps that theory in the face cause as you said he should of never been in a command role outside of a small unit not an entire military. Yet Thrawn showed he could win entire battles with the bare minimum of supplies, I just fail to see how Palpatine made such a big mistake in picking his officers.
@@lancer737 Dark Troopers would exist with or without jedi/lightsiders being present in the civil war, they where apart of the Yuzanvong invasion plan plus it was the work of one of the Grand Admirals (the guy with the eyepatch and the driod tie fighters). As for the force users being the main cause of the empire's lose, you fail to realize the war could never of been won on if they didn't have soldiers to fight for them. And after blowing up a literal cultural utopia world of the empire in cold blood it would of made even the most diehard Imperial question their loyalty. Plus if force users could of won with bare minimum help do you think two of the most powerful of their time (Yoda/Obi-Wan) would be hiding. My main point is here no matter who Palpatine was facing or not facing at the time of literally making just two decisions he basically dethroned himself. One was making Tarkin Grand Moff and two blowing up an entire world and oh wait... Tarkin was the one who chose the planet so their both doubly retarded since both agreed before they fired the laser.
@@SasoriZert Dark Troopers wouldn't exist without force users. The Mk 2 Mk 3 and various offshot Dark Troopers suits were made to be used with the "Dark Trooper bioroid" a fully engineered cybernetic human made to use the force, just like Terror Troopers. Normal Troopers could use those suits, but they were not the intended users. You can find bits of lore about the Dark Trooper bioroids in "Star Wars: Rebellion" "Star Wars: Battlefront 2 game guide" "Lore for the Terror Bioroid program found in the game and novel of SWTFU2." You can also see hints of this in the Mando season 2, its not only Palpatine they wanted baby Yodas DNA for, take in mind the scientists doing the work with his DNA was also a Dark Trooper technical.
Their was no Grand Admiral involved with the Dark Trooper program, you are thinking of General Mohc. Now that Grand Generals are a thing, he probably should have been one.
You need to think out how lots of the Battles in the war woukd play out for Rebels with no Lightsiders, no force Sensitives, and no force attuned members. At the very least, the Empire wins the Battle of Endor without Luke being their, and the ground battle is even worse without Jedi Clone X2 and General Rohm Kota not being their.
Always happy to see Max Veers get some recognition, especially in a list of decorated leaders like Thrawn and Sloan
On the thumbnail, Thrawn massively reminds me of someone and I can't think who. It's the hair mostly.
Thrawn just just the ultimate leader, insane strategy, his fighting and self defense skill and just pure look makes him just th best one
I'm a little confused as to why Krennic is competent, and Tarkin incompetent, when what Krennic does well is what Tarkin does better, and both of their failings are more-or-less the same as well. The salient difference between the two characters was their military acumen. Tarkin was a competent officer whose war experience an draconic measures translated badly when combating guerilla warfare, and Krennic was a civilian who'd manoeuvred his way into the military sphere through political means.
And Tarkin didn't steal the Death Star, he oversaw its construction and was planned to handle its completion by the Emperor long before it was finished. Krennic simply didn't know any of this and didn't realise Tarkin's personal connections with the Emperor.
Tarkin literally made the decision to destroy an entire planet which lead to an endless supply of recruits for the rebels and a rallying cry that no one can ignore. Tarkin is easily the most idiotic military commander you can ever have in his position. His attitude is best used leading small elite teams not an entire military and the population under his troops commands.
@@SasoriZert It's easy to make that estimation in hindsight. The entire point of the Death Star was to do precisely what Tarkin did. Whilst I won't deny his involvement in the conceptualisation of this, since he was partook directly in the creation of the general attitude the empire took, lets keep in mind that the Death Star began with the Emperor. Tarkin or not, the Death Star would have been made, at least one planet would have served as an example, and the things would have proceeded as they did.
I don't know. In the Tarkin novel, it lays out clearly that his strong-suit is in direct large-scale military action. In the Clone Wars his style worked well, but as I said in my original comment, this translated badly to what was essentially a peace-time rebellion.
@@Anglomachian It's not speaking from hindsight my guy as Sun Tzu said it best "You don't rule through fear, it's a tool at best used to terrify your enemies". Now notice how he specifically says "enemies" you don't go blowing up one of the most if not the most cultural significant planet in your Empire to frighten your enemies. You do that when your some egotistical bastard that's never been loved and just cause you think it'll prove a point. A person can't expect too do something like that and not expect the response to be full blown rebellion, cause you've not only shown in that one action that you give zero fucks about the common people and even if they serve you which I'm sure 90% of them did or at the very least didn't feel strongly enough one way or another to actually rebel. So in short this is far from me "speaking in hindsight" this is me looking at history and knowing how any type of normal person would react in this situation. Plus as for a planet would of have to served as a example you didn't need a populated one, let alone one as important as the one that got blown up. Tarkin is the one who made the choice of the planet so he alone is at fault for that Palpatine is more at fault for just putting a idiot like Tarkin in that position in the first place.
Tarkin is incompetent because he saw the problems military had and repeatedly chose the wrong responses. Accept Mon Cala's surrender? No. He bombarded the planet and turned them all against the Empire, resulting in their addition to the Rebel fleet. Discriminate between allied and enemy targets on warring planets? No. Tarkin killed damn near everyone, to the point that the Empire actually reassigned him due to bad press. Destroy the rebel flagship and fleet at Scarif? No. Tarkin chooses to kill Krennic instead, destroys a vital Imperial post, and let's a good majority of the Rebel fleet escape. Take his officers seriously when they report a flaw in the Death Star that the Rebels are exploiting? No. He dies at Yavin. For all his machinations, Tarkin is a man who never learns that brutality isn't always the right option. It not only cost him his life, but turned half the galaxy against the Empire. Krennic may have blundered, but nowhere near as spectacularly as Tarkin.
@@rippera45 Again, hindsight is 20/20.
Accept Mon Cala's surrender? Shortly after the empire has been formed? We know that forces the remnants of their forces into the rebellion, but there have been times in real life when accepting surrender at the wrong time simply emboldens others to try their luck.
If you're referring to Antar 4, then yes, he ordered the planet to be made an example of without reference to their individual allegiances. Yes, this led to Teller's group, but the alternative was to allow separatists to escape and carry on the war.
He destroyed the facility to remove the threat of rebels gaining the information within, not knowing it'd already been compromised. It was arguably more clever to eliminate the information , especially knowing that Vader was about to appear and deal with the rebel fleet. Did he also do it to kill Krennic? Sure he did. Not denying that. But what was he actually supposed to do about the fleet? So far as I'm aware, the DS1 couldn't target capital ships like the DSII could.
I mean, honestly, would you have believed it?
This is all NOT to say that Tarkin wasn't flawed. As I've stated, him treating everything like it's a war, and that he must always be "racing to the light of the lasers", because society is like a jungle, and he the taming hunter, was what ultimately undermined him.
My question is why Krennic is competent, and Tarkin isn't, when Krennic was an opportunistic psycho who at the end of the day was a glorified administrator who, much like Tarkin, was undermined by his own inability to see that his actions had consequences. He was not more competent than Tarkin.
Thrawn might be one of my favorite characters in Star Wars and definitely my favorite imperial. I have so much respect for him and yet I could never live up to his standards and expectations if I were in SW and served under him. My mind just isn’t strategic enough. Like I’m a good problem solver and a reasonably good critical thinker, but I’m not great at strategy or tactics. It’s why I’m bad at chess. Man I’d love to see Thrawn play chess now that I come to think of it. If he ruled the empire the Rebels would’ve been destroyed before they got well established.
I’d say that Yularen could qualify
Thrawn was also very vocal of his disproval of the Death Star. He called it a dangerous consolidation of resources and calculated that instead of "Tarkin's Folly", the whole imperial navy could've nearly been doubled in size, and upgraded all TIE fighters to Interceptors equipped with shields and hyper drive systems.
I’m disappointed that Captain Needa wasn’t on this list! The one who could take ownership of a bad situation, even if it carried the death penalty…
I like how even in a fictional franchise like star wars, there are still doctrinal divides within the imperial military between reformers and old guards, only in this case reformers are the actual pragmatic ones while the old guard is made up of arrogant elitist leaders who think nothing of the rebellion yet fight like they're taking on a symmetrical enemy.
Zooms in on Philadelphia lol
First time viewing any material from your channel. You definitely know your stuff; it's clear your depth of knowledge on the subject runs deep. And while I agree with many of your points, you make some excellent points, there are several others that could be argued. One of the first things that got my attention is your narration. Your words are, or seem as though they are, carefully chosen, in just the right amounts and delivered in a "matter of fact" style. Never heard you stumble or stall or at a loss for what to say. Also don't remember you repeating yourself. It's like you were reading from a script but the script wasn't in front of you, it was in your head. Your voice quality is professional and delivery was on the mark. Impressive...most impressive. In summary, I really enjoyed this video and Im looking forward to more stuff from your channel. Liking and subscribing...now!
Having just rewatched Rogue One, I'd swap Krennic and Piett on these lists.
Agreed, piett was hampered by palpatine's desire to show off the death star 2. Without being held back he would've crushed the rebellion right there, but palps wanted people to see all his cool stuff instead