Question of the day 26

Who do you think is the smartest person in Star Wars?

thrawn

obi

yoda clearly

Revan

Palpatine. He was the darth lord and a chancellor at the same time, without anyone ever knowing. Yoda could technically be considered smarter, but he had a life 6 times longer than palpatine, therefore had more time to learn, whereas Palpatine learned all the things he did in a short lifetime

me if I was there

Thrawn is obviously the smartest. The canon says that he has "the most brilliant mind in the empire," and that incudes the emperor. Also, if you look at the legends, where he actually is originally from (Heir to the Empire trilogy) He is so smart that he puts the version seen in rebels, and what ever the thing is you see in Ashoka (not even Thrawn) to shame.

Yoda, is actually a good answer, but, he is better described as wise than smart, and he was out thunk by Palpatine who the canon says is not as smart as Thrawn. Yoda clearly has more wisdom than Thrawn, but as far as all and all intelligence is concerned, Thrawn still wins.

If you say Revan I feel bad for you.

I'll write a speech about why I think revan later

So Revan, originally a Jedi Knight but was willing to defy the council for the greater good and took command of the Republic army and only then did they start winning the war. After that he disappeared for some time because he found the true sith empire building it's armies to attack the galaxy. Revan knew the Jedi would be too weak so he did something that no other man was able to do. He chose the dark side, he never truly fell to darkness. He turned on the Republic because he knew that they would fall without strong military leadership. He also knew that most of the Jedi knights would turn to the sith if the true sith attacked, so he turned them into his sith rather than their sith. Revan understood the big picture unlike any other, and even after the Jedi civil war ended, he learned to master a balance between light and dark which he continued using to keep balance in the force.

Say what you will about Revan, he was both wise and intelligent beyond what most people understand.

I am not saying revan is dumb, there are many characters who are very intelligent in star wars legends, however, after reading source material with thrawn, he is just a level beyond all of that, consistently putting commanders famous for their intelligence to shame, including grand moff tarkin. A small testament to his intelligence is the fact that the emperor promoted him to grand admiral in spite of his alien anatomy.

Thrawn

Thrawn

I still feel like Palpatine is the smartest, because like revan, he was on both sides, though truly committed to one, and though thrawn is smart, you have a one-sided fact that you couldn't even prove to be fully true

The canon says that he has "the most brilliant mind in the empire," and that incudes the emperor.

what about this do you not understand? This fact is stated not only in star wars rebels but also in canon books. Also, if you talk about Revan who exclusively exists in legends, you have to include non canon resources like HttE which explicitly states that Thrawn is the smartest in the galaxy. I do not even need to show any of his feats because the text is self explanatory. If you can point out any text that says Palpatine is the smartest in the empire, I will make a list of all of Thrawn's feats to prove my point.

Also, Palpatine is constantly underestimating his enemies, and even though his successful galactic coup says something several of his tactical blunders make up for it.

These include: Canceling the Tie-D defender project, Letting the rebels have X-wings even though he could have claimed them for himself, investing in Tie-ln fighters, trusting a rebel sympathizer with the construction of a super weapon, investing so many resources into the death star instead of a fleet, letting Darth Vader be in such proximity to Luke who he knew Darth Vader cared for, turning his back to Vader when he was electrocuting Luke even though he knew Vader hated him more than anything, being such a tyrant that he caused everyone to want to rebel, not checking to see if Padame had any children, begetting Rey (like seriously)...

I know I already said Revan, but I might also throw Valkorion into the mix

*the celestials chilling*

Also, if you talk about Revan who exclusively exists in legends, you have to include non canon resources like HttE which explicitly states that Thrawn is the smartest in the galaxy.

I'd also like to mention a detail in this sentence. smartest in the galaxy implies that he is the smartest person alive, not the smartest person to ever exist

Palpatine has a bonus for just being epic overall

True. I was mostly refuting palpatine.