Star Wars: 10 Things Fans Need To Know About Admiral Thrawn
7. He Uses His Foe's Artistic Expression Against Them
The main reason that Thrawn is able to overcome his enemies is by understanding them on a personal level.
Whether his foe is aware of it or not, Thrawn uses a person's culture, history, and artistic expression against them. While the Rebels TV show goes into great detail about his tendencies to collect significant cultural artifacts, it does not reflect all of Thrawn's cunning insights.
Throughout the books, the audience is able to understand Thrawn's somewhat Sherlock-esque way of thinking by over analysing a person based on their body language, presence, history, and more. Thrawn is a devout believer of what we know in the real world as Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
“If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” - Sun Tzu, the Art of War.
The Admiral takes these words very literally and goes above and beyond to understand his foes. Thrawn once defeated a rival by deciphering similarities between the officer's strategies and the way they composed music.