I wouldn’t call it an ‘out-of-context problem’. Thrawn understood exactly what happened as soon as the knife started going through his chest, because he always knew what a dangerous double-game he was playing with the Noghri, and the consequences of them discovering how they had been tricked; he just couldn’t help himself, no matter how disastrous any slipup would be, because it was too clever a trick to not play. (Again, look up the meaning of the word ‘thrawn’. Zahn didn’t pick it by accident.)
I wouldn’t call it an ‘out-of-context problem’. Thrawn understood exactly what happened as soon as the knife started going through his chest, because he always knew what a dangerous double-game he was playing with the Noghri, and the consequences of them discovering how they had been tricked; he just couldn’t help himself, no matter how disastrous any slipup would be, because it was too clever a trick to not play. (Again, look up the meaning of the word ‘thrawn’. Zahn didn’t pick it by accident.)