I've been wondering... what if Grand Admiral Thrawn were Emperor rather than Palpatine? I have come up with a list of reasons how their regimes would have differed, and the obvious choice for a better ruler would be Thrawn. Here are the reasons.

1. There would not be many anti-alienistic feelings, due to the fact that Thrawn is a Chiss, not a pure human. The non human species were truly the backbone of the Rebellion, so if they had not been overly oppressed and mistreated, the Rebellion may not have evr gained much strength.

2. There would not be superlasers. The Emperor mainly built the Death Star for his own personal use, not for the good of the Empire. Sure it destroyed Alderaan, and quite a few Rebel ships at Endor, but the cost to build one would have been enormous. Also, these super weapons are really inefectively defended, and are not worth the effort.

3. The Imperial Navy would have relied on tactics more, rather than brute strength. As you probably know, Thrawn was a master tactian(that was why Palpatine chose him to be Grand Admiral) and he could outplan and outmaneuver any enemy, rather than just overpower them. Thrawn could always find a way to acheive his goal and then some, whether he hid a cloaked ship under a planetary shield to trick the planet into thinking that he had a superlaser, or to, mostly, studying the other species art and being able to decipher their species through only a few moves in battle. Palpatine, on the other hand, relied mostly on his cannon fodder troops and pilots, whom he considered expendable, since he had so many.

4. Palpatine is absolutely, 100%, pure evil. He is as close as any Star Wars character is to the devil. Thrawn is, though certainly mean in his own right, not that evil. He will reward the efforts of any individual soldier, and he keeps morality in his troops high. Palpatine's troops often greatly disagreed with his policies (Biggs Darklighter, Davin Felth, etc...) and most troops truly hated the Death Star. Also, a not so minor point, Palpatine is a Sith Lord! and Thrawn obviously isn't.

So, there you have it. The four main reasons how Thrawn and Palpatine would have differed in ruling the Galaxy Far, Far, Away. Any questions, missed points, or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, happy blogging, and MTFBWY.