A/V STAR WARS REBELS (show's over, spoilers allowed)

This season has done much better by its villains than the second, that's for sure. The second gave us Vader as the bookends, but the middle had the Inquisitors who were just jobbers with cool designs, and even they were in fewer episodes than you'd think. The few other antagonists were all either one-shots, or anti-villains who got converted (Ketsu, Fenn Rau). At least Thrawn has been showing up consistently even if he's not directly involved with the action. And even in episodes that he's not in we've had Pryce or Maul to pick up the slack.

 

I'm torn on this. The RO Visual Guide mentioned that the fleet carried out "high profile strikes" pre-Scarif, including Lothal. So I'm not expecting Thrawn to destroy a large portion of the Rebel Fleet. My gut still says that his big "achievement" will be destroying Atollon Base and thwarting a major Rebel attack. I expect Sato to die, most likely the carrier to be lost too. I know a lot of people want Thrawn to score some massive, all our victory, but that doesn't fit with the timeline. As we learn in RO & ANH, the Empire is just waking up to considering the Rebellion a major threat.

--Adm. Nick

 

The Empire is a system, and I think people are forgetting that while it is a morale boost to the rebels to do things like kill Stormtroopers, sabotage ships, etc, they are only winning until they LOSE. That's the nature of guerrilla warfare. Thrawn could sacrifice a fleet if needed, and as long as he was able to completely crush the Rebels, it would come out a win.

 

Bail Organa said they have just gathered their forces though, two years ago is not just.

 

Unless you find out that the Long Con is anti climatic.

 

Or maybe he just gets removed from the situation. Perhaps on the eve of his victory he gets sent off to find a dry cleaner in the unknown regions for a few years. I mean those white uniforms must be a pain to clean.

 

And of course we already have a way of saying it will be? I didn't care at all about Thrawn when I read HttE, so I may just be biased, but I do think it's usually better to way until something disappoints before saying it's disappointing.

Edit: that... may have come out a bit harsher than I intended? I just mean that talking about whether it will be anti climatic or not is weird for me, because it hasn't happened yet so we're experiencing the first viewing - maybe if it turns out to be disappointing, it will ruin the effect of the previous episodes, but that isn't the case yet.

 

Well, in regards to the efficient use of resources, EU Thrawn had no other choice. The New Republic controlled 3/4 of the known galaxy, plus the Empire's remaining moffs and governors were reluctant to share ships with Thrawn. NEU Thrawn is an altogether different beast, in that he is around at the height of the Empire's power and access to resources. Losses are secondary to him (civilian or his own forces) in the pursuit of his goal. My assumption is that Thrawn is one of the first in the upper Imperial echelons to see the growing Rebellion as a serious, potentially fatal threat to the Empire. Hence his willingness to casually dismiss losses.

But yes, I hope that TPTB have something cool in store for Thrawn, otherwise he'll end up being a cool looking blue alien with a cool voice. Krennel is a great comparison, BTW.

--Adm. Nick

 

Thrawn did seem kinda anoyed though, considering he gave Kallus an evil look

 

All Thrawn has done so far is steeple his fingers. (It's now replaced the Cocks Eyebrow as his Picard Manouver of choice) which is having trouble lasting 22 episodes.

The whole problem with the whole bigger picture thing, is we know that Thrawns plan (assuming the writers even know what that is) is doomed to failure. He's essentially he's just Wiley Coyote after the Ghost crew with his "Plan"

 

Yeah, if the writers pull off some sweeping, ambitious plot on the part of Thrawn, I will say the losses were forgivable. However, the longer they take to get to the point, the more losses pile up, the bigger the punchline the writers have to pull off to make the losses appear justifiable. I hope they're not setting up expectations they can't meet. Right now I have high expectations. I though the episode in which Thrawn met Herra was the best. It's still the best Thrawn so far.

EU Thrawn...tricky. Though he claimed to not be like Vader and would never waste troops, I always though that was more PR than anything else because I never felt that he argument that Vader wasted troops was justified. I always felt Vader and Thrawn were the same but Thrawn was a better PR spinster when it came to justifying his destruction of entire worlds and summary, on the spot executions. .

That being said, I never felt Legends Thrawn or Vader would lose a Star Destroyer just to narrow down a search parameter and feel that was justified. I feel I'm more justified in my assertion after seeing canon Vader in Rogue One appear annoyed with the ridiculous, unfocused wanton destruction that the Death Star is capable of and the political fall out that follows such acts. I think Legends Thrawn would be similarly annoyed by such acts. and I cannot see him just losing a Star Destroyer and being okay with that.

If anything, if canon Thrawn keeps up his methods, he will seem like the caricature of Vader that Legends Thrawn tried to create.

 

And a Gambler thinks he can win back what he spends too but he still goes broke just the same

Based off the Mid Season Trailer, in order to make Thrawn more of a threat, is the reason, the writers have decided to introduce Judo Thrawn, to give him more of an action role.

Matthew Trias I think that was more Zahn than anything else. You only have to read Side Trip or Choices of One to see Vader as a sort of Sith Homer Simpson whose coaxed along by Thrawn

 

I agree with all of that. I also always felt that Zahn meant to convey Thrawn's hypocrisy but later his creation took on a life of its own in the fan base and he adjusted Thrawn's character accordingly.

In the TTT, Thrawn certainly did present a distorted picture of loyalty and good. Vader never pretended to be good. Considering Zahn's penchant for word games, I never thought this Thrawn's displays of hypocrisy to be accidental.

Thrawn definition:
adjective, Scot.

1.​

twisted; crooked; distorted.​

2.​

contrary; peevish; perverse.​

3.​

unpleasant; sullen​

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Indeed, but I'm looking at it from an in universe perspective.

 

We do? On the contrary, we know that he succeeds. Maybe not with the destruction of the entire Rebellion, but definitely with setting them back a few years. In the trailers we see a coordinated attack with a rebel fleet almost as large as the one on Scarif. And yet we already know that Scarif is their first major victory, so this fleet is either destroyed or seriously crippled. Here's how I'm betting it will go:

Thrawn will catch the assembled fleet by surprise, boxing them in and overwhelming their defenses, while the Interdictor keeps them there. He destroys a few ships, including the Quasar Fire-class Carrier and at least one Nebulon-B. When all hope seems lost Sabine arrives with the Mandalorians (which we see in the trailer), and since Thrawn had no way of knowing about the Darksaber he could not have accounted for that in his plans. They destroy the Interdictor, allowing what little remains of the fleet to escape. On top of that, at some point he Base Delta Zeroes Chopper Base, destroying a major base of operations and putting the rebels on the run again. Altogether, he's effectively destroyed the rebel cause and left them in a very vulnerable position, and the only reason he didn't destroy them completely is due to a variable that he had no way of accounting for.

I think it's safe to assume that, for whatever reason, Thrawn stops fighting the rebels after this. He's not even mentioned in any of the other media so far, something may have happened to him. Perhaps, as some have suggested, he ends up getting called away to the unknown regions. Whatever the reason, this means that he's no longer there to act on the effects of his plan. The rebellion does survive, but only because the only person who treated them as a serious threat is now occupied with something else.

"On no fewer than four occasions I told the Emperor that I would not waste his troops and ships attacking an enemy which I was not yet prepared to defeat."

Unless you're referring to a different quote, this one is very much consistent with the NEU Thrawn, and is definitely indicative of the "bigger picture" mindset that Thrawn has in Rebels.

 

In all fairness, I don't think Thrawn is counting this a straightforward win, just analyzing a bad situation to grab the best of what he can from it. If anything, I got the impression that Thrawn was honestly impressed that the Rebels managed to turn the situation around on him and not give away the location of their base entirely.

 

That's very good, I think you might be right on there. Certainly I think you will be right on the bare gist of it, if nothing else.
That then goes into the question of who he takes down before they get away, Is it just Redshirts or does he actually take out a GC member.

I disagree about him being the only one seeing the threat. Tarkin clearly did when he called in Vader. While Vader himself should after having his Inquisitors Killed/Losing his Holocron and being outsmarted by them twice.

As for the Emperor. He also told the Emperor to beware the Ewoks too

Here's a question though, would you agree with me that having 22 episodes is maybe to many a season for Rebels. Which I would argue is one of the things that hurts Thrawn more than anything ?

 

Yeah, I got the impression Thrawn never set up that particular Star Destroyer for disaster, as he did with Konstantine's transport, so he would rather not have lost the Star Destroyer, (which, while probably salvageable for large parts, can never be put back into service again), but since he has now narrowed down the Rebel base to one out of 94 planets perhaps he is not nearly as upset as he would have been otherwise.

Also, that was a beautifully animated explosion! And I think the proton bomb detonation was very lucky, it looks like it not only exploded, but may have detonated some of the destroyer's own ordinances and additional infiltrator droids, ala USS Arizona.




Higher definition version here

 

It was funny because you think it might be repairable with the first big blast. Then all the secondary destructive explosions happen Then you see it breaking up in later shots and you're like , "Aw crap. That did just happen"

 

Thrawn's a glass half full kind of guy.