#survivor’s quest really made me love formbi so much oh my god

[elivanto]

i can’t get over how fucking funny the thrawn & formbi dynamic is. or rather formbi’s dynamic with thrawn. because i doubt thrawn’s losing any sleep over him.

i just. i need to—

here, have a couple cute passages about thrawn blatantly disregarding the cedf’s protocols on preemptive strikes

outbound flight (2006):

Car’das shook his head. “We were lucky.”      “We had a good leader,” Maris corrected. “The Vagaari are going to be very unhappy about this.”      “Good,” Thrawn said evenly. “Perhaps they’ll be angry enough to make an overt move against the Chiss Ascendancy.”      Car’das frowned. “Are you saying you were trying to goad them into an attack?”

chaos rising (2020):

But in that case, why hadn’t [Thrawn] come out of hyperspace much farther out and done at least a quick recon before committing himself and his ship to this vector? At least then he might have found a way or route that would have given his shuttle a better chance of getting somewhere before it was destroyed.      A cold chill ran up his back. No, Thrawn couldn’t be that short-sighted. Not the Thrawn whose battle tactics Qilori had had the misfortune to see firsthand.      Which left only one other option. Thrawn had arrived on this particular vector because he wanted the Nikardun to attack him.

again, chaos rising:

[Thrawn] shook his head slowly. “I can beat them, Ziara. I can take all four, right now, without any serious damage to the Parala.”      “Serious is a highly relative term,” Ziara pointed out. “Even if you can, we have no justification. Chiss territory hasn’t been invaded, and we haven’t been attacked.”      “If we move closer, we might be.”      “Deliberate provocation is also disallowed.”

AND NOW MAY I PRESENT ARISTOCRA CHAF’ORM’BINTRANO’S THOUGHTS ON THE MATTER

outbound flight (2006):

[Car’das] stole a look at the commander’s profile. “I take it you and Aristocra Chaf’orm’bintrano disagree on this point?”      “I and the entire Chiss species disagree on this point,” Thrawn said [...].      “Did you tell the Aristocra about the Vagaari ship?” Car’das asked. “There seemed to be plunder in there from a lot of different species.”      “I did, and he wasn’t particularly impressed,” Thrawn said. “For him, the defensive-only doctrine admits to no exceptions.”

and 50 years later—

survivor’s quest (2004):

“I see now why your people don’t need to bother with preemptive strikes,” he commented. “With a refuge like this, you can afford to let any enemy take the first shot.”      Formbi swiveled sharply to face him. “That has nothing to do with the Redoubt,” he said stiffly. “It is completely and purely a matter of honor and morality. The Chiss are never to be the aggressor people. We cannot and will not make war against any until and unless we have been attacked. That has been our law for a thousand years, Master Skywalker, and we will not bend from it.”      “I understand,” Luke said hastily, taken aback by the vehemence of Formbi’s response. No wonder Thrawn and his aggressive military philosophy had rubbed these people backward.

formbi: thrawn is terrible formbi: the worst officer in the cedf, really formbi: his disregard for the law, not to mention his love for aliens with the most incredibly dull fashion sense is SO unbecoming formbi: thank fuck he’s gone. no other chiss would EVER try to get away with deliberately provoking an attack on their own people smh

ALSO FORMBI:

survivor’s quest (2004):

“And even knowing who [the Vagaari] were, you let them aboard your ship?” Jinzler demanded, sounding more surprised than angry.      Formbi closed his eyes again. “The Vagaari are a violent people, Ambassador,” he said wearily. “They have killed many, enslaved many others, and driven all who know them to terror and despair. […]”      “So the Vagaari need to be slapped down hard,” Mara said, frowning. “So what’s the problem?”      Formbi smiled wanly. “The problem is Chiss military doctrine, Jedi Skywalker,” he said. “Specifically, the decree that no potential adversaries may be attacked until and unless they first act against Chiss interests within Chiss space.”      Mara stared at him. “You wanted them to make a move against you,” she said, not quite sure she believed it. “You invited them aboard one of your ships and into your most critical military base, hoping they’d pull this exact stunt.”

i just love that he’s pulling a “i’m going to provoke these people into attacking us so that we’ll be justified to destroy them” à la thrawn—despite literally having thrawn arrested for it during the outbound flight Incident—and having it completely backfire because he’s, of course, not thrawn. you tried, formbi. you tried.

#not shown: me screeching with delight in the background #this is probably not as entertaining as i feel it is?? #survivor’s quest really made me love formbi so much oh my god #if he shows up in lesser evil there’s a high chance i’ll implode on the spot #thrawn #formbi #sw lit #outbound flight #chaos rising #survivor’s quest #ascendancy tag #star wars #my sw meta