The Thrawn and Anakin friendship to the Thrawn and Vader partnership is so important to me.
There’s something so inherently saddening and yet heartwarming about them going from Anakin being the outgoing, loud, charismatic adrenaline junkie, and Thrawn being quiet and proper to Thrawn being exiled and soon he almost takes up that role in a subtler light whilst Vader stands still and quiet.
Vader having someone who knows his past, knows who he is, and yet still respects him for who he’s become — and Thrawn having someone who knows of his fall from grace, knows what he used to be, and still looks at him like someone worth dignity.
These two have both been cast away from the life they once led, the people they loved, and they’re trying to cope the best they can.
They wouldn’t dare to call the other a friend lest they lose more, lest they defy what they are taught. But they are tired, flawed, and ultimately the only ones who can understand each other in this hell of a galaxy that they must carve out a home in.
