John is only smart after the 2nd one because he just magically knows what's gonna happen or what others think and is also lucky enough all the coincidences he needed to take place just so happened to occur.

Meanwhile, Unlike his Chad Legends Counterpart, Canon Thrawn is just a terrible strategist all around, who fails at everything and he (Along with the writer) just keeps coping about how he's actually wining.

If you took the plot-armor away It'd be an interesting fight tho. Two teams of morons just constantly tripping over each other until the least stupid one comes out on top.

I'm picking Thawn cause he at least has infra-estructure.