Best Over All Military Commander?

[babyblob]

So the thread about Why the Love for Vader got me thinking. I love Vader as the single best villain in the Star Wars Universe but I think he was lacking in several areas in the Military Commander aspect and there are other commanders I feel are more efficient than Vader.

So that gives the question of who do you think is over all the best military commander in the Star Wars Universe. It does not have to be limited to just THe Empire. It can be from any Era. Or pick one for each Era and Faction and make a list.

I dont know a whole lot of expanded universe stuff and next to nothing about the Disney Expanded Universe so I hope this will give me some insight as well as being fun at the same time.

And the character or list can be pre or post Disney or a mixture of both.

[ChrisIII]

Thrawn did pretty well in the original books and a lot of the new EU as well. Only problem is that he kind of failed to account for a few details....

[babyblob]

Thrawn did pretty well in the original books and a lot of the new EU as well. Only problem is that he kind of failed to account for a few details....

Thrawn for sure tops the list and what I know of him he deserves it.

I was windering if there were any others that were just as good or on par with Thrawn from any other faction or era?

[ChrisIII]

Sloane did pretty well in the new EU.


Curiously she isn't among the Imperial commanders in Mandalorian season 3 though, probably got overthrown by Hux.

[Frontier]

Thrawn feels like cheating .

[babyblob]

I guess there was only one answer lol.

[krazijoe]

You don't become a Grand in Star Wars because of your Military acumen. You become a Grand because you destroyed all others that stood in your path...

[ZeroBG82]

Thrawn, Veers and Cody seem like the safest top 3. Maybe round out the top 5 with Rex and a Rebel, let's go with Commander Sato because he actually got to be smart and efficient onscreen.

[babyblob]

Has Veers been in any of the books or anything other than ESB? I enjoyed him on there and would love to read more of him.

[ChrisIII]

Veers was given some other appearances in the old EU.

Currently though, seems mostly limited to ESB apart from a non-canon Lego source. Originally Disney stuck with the deleted scene with Veers getting killed by a snowspeeder crash, but the "Certain point of view" short story revealed he survived although the Walker was still destroyed.

In earlier versions of ROTJ Veers was the leader of the forces on Endor. Think it was intended for Veers to be the guy who delivered Luke to Vader and also one of the Walker pilots, but it was changed and Glover did not return for either role.

[godisawesome]

Sadly, even in Legends, Veers doesn't make a lot of appearances post-ESB; Legends Veers died in the Dark Empire story as a sidenote.

Since this is ultimately a romantic fiction where tactics and strategy tend to arbitrarily rely on what's coolest at that moment, I'm going to go ahead and suggest that Lando and Ackbar should be considered in the running as well for the alliance, albeit more for their ability to cooperate, have faith in other officers to carry out their duties, and improvise in disadvantageous situations. Obi-Wan, as fanciful as his victories tend to be, is also likely a standout form The Clone Wars, and might have lead the most militarily efficient and over-performing armies alongside Anakin by Star Wars standards.

Thrawn, Veers, and the rest of the Imperial war machine suffer from the inherently disruptive and self-sabotaging despotism of the Empire, both stylistically for the fiction and more objectively when it comes to their strategic skills and their historical inspirations. They have massive resource advantages against a comparatively miniscule Rebel Alliance, but just keep making strategically irresponsible political mistakes, and are constantly biting at each other and set-against each other by Palpatine for the sake of preserving his own power, like Hitler did to the German military in WWII. But Thrawn in particular I think has his tactical genius sometimes mistaken for strategic genius... when I think he's actually strategically average or even mediocre; yeah, he's better than the vast bulk of Imperial officers, but they set such a low bar that it's easy to overlook how he's chained himself to a self-destructive entity incapable of finishing off a primarily guerilla resistance force... and I still think the Chiss Ascendancy likely ends up devoured by the First Order or Sith Eternal when all's said and done, ironically making his strategic choice of an ally disastrous.

Ackbar and Lando are mostly just treated as parts of the Rebel Alliance war machine in ROTJ... but Lando's quick analysis of the situation prevents Palpatine's trap from going off without a hitch, and then he and Ackbar improvise a "brawling" strategy against the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron that takes out multiple Star Destroyers, including the Executor, while their faith in other officers like Han and Luke pays off by letting them win the battle.

But its the Clone Wars Jedi generals and the Grand Army of the Republic that might just take the cake, thanks to having the full power of drama and escapism behind them. The droid armies can have similar advantages to the Empire at times, but Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the rets of the Jedi still lead the GAR to decisive victories, and only fall due to betrayal.

[ChrisIII]

Lando and Wedge (Although he was one more of a sideline in ROS) pretty much brought an end to both the OT and ST conflicts too. Although of course Han's group helped in ROTJ, and Rey was able to neutralize the Emperor's lightning attack on the "Citizen's fleet" in ROS.

[Zauriel]

Admiral Akbar.


Akbar is arabic for "great". Admiral is also an Arabic word meaning "Lord of the seas".

[Aahz]

Admiral Akbar.

In the old EU I think Akbar and Garm Bel Iblis were the best ones on the side of the new Republic.