We always hear of a morally “balanced” Thrawn, however…
[Meta]- In “Heir to the Empire”, Thrawn murders a subordinate for not getting a lock on with a tractor beam. Later, in “The Last Command”, a similar instance of escape happens, yet Thrawn allows this operator to live. The circumstances and reasons differ, granted, and this is touted as Thrawn being more morally ambiguous, giving favor to innovation over ignorance, as the first instance involved a lack of training, and the second involved a total tractor beam failure as a response to an innovative , yet detrimental, snap decision by the operator. Thrawn spares this second man. However, having recently gone back over the archives, it is stated previously and repeatedly that Thrawn, in the short span between the second and third books, is now in a political game to keep the empires loyalty. C’baoth is “planting seeds of deception” and its later mentioned that they are bringing to take hold. While there is a tactical reason for this move, this is also a political reason. The entirety of it does beg the question though, is Thrawn more heavy handed when he has absolute authority?