Your Top 20 Favorite "Thrawn" Book Characters: No. 16, Rukh

Thrawn's creepy little pal

Illustration by Mirandemia

I asked for your favorite Thrawn novel characters and you voted. The list so far:

20. Un’hee

19. Ziinda

18. Jorj Car’das

17. Vah’nya

Species: Noghri

Abilities: Stealth, climbin’ stuff, killin’ stuff

Job: Bodyguard

Canon appearances: Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn: Alliances

Legends appearances: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command

The bio: In the original Thrawn trilogy, Rukh is a member of the Noghri race. With their planet Honoghr devastated by ecological disaster, the Empire pretends to help the Noghri recover, keeping them sick enough to be enslaved but just healthy enough to pledge their sons as soldiers out of gratitude. Darth Vader gives dominion over Honoghr to Thrawn, who selects Rukh as his personal bodyguard from the ranks of the Noghri assassins who have pledged their loyalty to the Empire.

In the old canon, Thrawn exists as a menacing presence outside the Imperial chain-of-command, like the Vader to Thrawn’s Tarkin. However, thanks to Princess Leia, he ultimately discovers the Empire’s manipulation of his people and murders Thrawn. In the Disney canon, he dies in the Rebels cartoon when he gets electrocuted. Timothy Zahn, however, is already scheming to bring him back.

From the books:

For a long moment Rukh just looked up at him, and Pellaeon felt a drop of sweat trickle down his back. With his large dark eyes, protruding jaw, and glistening needle teeth, Rukh was even more of a nightmare in the dimness than he was in normal lighting.

Why he’s a favorite: Rukh is the Oddjob to Thrawn’s Goldfinger: He’s the mysterious personal muscle of the cunning main villain. That he commands the loyalty of such a strange alien only adds to Thrawn’s mystique. How Thrawn commands Rukh’s loyalty in Legends canon, however, is a potentially divisive detail. For fans of Thrawn as he was in the Expanded Universe, it’s a key to understanding the character. The Grand Admiral will let an entire species languish to supply himself with loyal bodyguards. That Thrawn is an exploitative colonizer. His art collection is just another thing he’s extracted. It’s a far cry from the Thrawn who adopts the Chimera symbol from a threatened culture he tries to protect.