#thrader

Thrawn/Vader this time; with the infamous @draculard

Vader stalked through the corridors of the Chimaera toward Grand Admiral Thrawn’s private quarters, fuming. Only Thrawn would be so bold— and foolish— as to delay when directly summoned by the Dark Lord himself.

And with no justification or explanation beyond being “otherwise occupied at the moment.”

Crewmembers and officers alike scuttled out of Vader’s way as he strode down the hall, the taste of their terror mollifying him slightly. They, at least, regarded him with a proper mix of fear and respect. Unlike their commanding officer.

As he drew closer to Thrawn’s quarters, Vader reached out with the Force by habit, lightly touching the minds and sensing the emotions of everyone nearby. Thrawn’s emotions, he knew, would be completely and infuriatingly closed to him, with nothing available beyond a vaguely muted sensation of an ordered mind, and everything else locked firmly behind an iron will—

Except…

"Anakain is dead.”

Thrawn/Vader is SUCH a good ship A++ would ship again. They don’t really have much going for them in new canon (yet), but in old canon there was a lot of mutual respect - and trust - between the two. They were each confident in the other’s abilities, and neither one felt the need to undermine the other to the Emperor, even though both had Palpatine’s ear and attention (and usually he tends to pit one person against the other to see who will claw their way to the top - with Thrawn and Vader, neither ever took the bait on that one. They each knew the other was competent and had the Empire’s best interests in mind instead of amassing influence only for themselves).

Vader even entrusted his Noghri assassins to Thrawn, which is HUGE. “Yeah you want to have exclusive control over a group of elite DEATH COMMANDOS that only I have had personal control of, and bent over backwards with manipulation and misinformation to get? Here ya go, ENJOY.” Who DOES that? Vader, apparently. To Thrawn. It’s HUGE. So their relationship already has a real big chunk of respect in it, and that’s one of the most important components of a healthy relationship, imho. 

…And new canon gives us a Thrawn that likes tinkering with old droid technology. Mutual interests ftw. 

I honestly think they’d form a remarkably stable relationship. Vader is impulsive, temperamental, and openly aggressive, whereas Thrawn is quiet, contemplative, and more subtly sinister. His long-term planning with Vader’s knack for on-the-spot improvisation make for an impressive complement of each other. Instead of their differences driving them apart, I see those differences being the interlocking pieces that would fit them together. And they could inspire each other with those differences, too. In old canon, Vader calms when he’s faced with Thrawn’s implacable patience and methodical logic. And I feel like Thrawn also benefits from seeing Vader’s spontaneity and passion.