Star Wars: 10 Things Fans Need To Know About Admiral Thrawn

Despite being fairly obvious to fans that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, there were a select few that knew the truth.

Among everyone in the empire only Palpatine was aware of everything that had transpired during to transition from Anakin to Vader. Not even Wullf Yularen was aware despite his history fighting alongside Anakin during the Clone Wars. One of the only other imperials that have been shown to have any inkling is Grand Moff Tarkin with both him and Yularen perishing along with the Death Star.

During a classified mission during the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala came across Thrawn on one of his first missions during his teenage years. Thrawn was sent to recover important defense technology from a separatist base which just so happened to be where Anakin and Padme were infiltrating. After a lengthy journey, the parties succeded in their goals and went their separate ways.

Flash forward to Grand Admiral Thrawn meeting Vader for the first time. Instinctually, Thrawn identified the tall leathery cyborg as the same Anakin Skywalker he met all those years ago. Angered somewhat, Vader made it clear he was not the man Thrawn spoke of.

However, Thrawn was not fooled by Vader and Palpatine's insistence that the hulking mass of angst before him was a different person. After several attempts to get Vader to slip up his true identity, Thrawn ended his pursuit resigned to the fact that the man he knew was gone.