Full Series Thrawn in Rebels

Exactly. SW Rebels is very childish and the villains always lose against the young little heroes, even the most powerful and most intelligent ones, because children would be sad to see the heroes be defeated.

But the thing is: Thrawn was considered as a genius, a real threat to the whole New Republic, genius generals like Bel Iblis, or skilled heroes like Wedge, Luke, Leia, Han, Mon Mothma, Ackbar, they were all considering him like one of the most skilled enemy they ever had to fight, and all of them were almost defeated by him.

And you would make me think that this feared and respected genius, Thrawn, who made the whole galaxy panic, would be defeated by the young little heroes of SW Rebels? because he WILL be. As they won't make the heroes lose against him, because they're the heroes, and heroes never lose, especially in tv series for children.

So in SW Rebels Thrawn will be losing against them, and so become ridiculous, because the real Thrawn would NEVER be defeated by such people. No one should be able to outsmart him (except maybe Palpatine, not for strategies/tactics but in a manipulative/political way, but that's all), and certainly not the young Ezra, a young pink Mando and their little friends.

All the villains in SW Rebels have been ridiculous so far, or far less charismatic than what they usually were.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't read the Thrawn books, but isn't Rebels a bit early for him to be in power as an Admiral? A way to see Thrawn but not de-power him would be for him not to be the man in charge yet. He's the guy who gives strategic advice his admiral ignores. He's the guy whose part of the plan works, but the Rebels escape because another Imperial's part of the plan fails. He's the guy always watching carefully, taking notes on everything that goes down. The camera lingers on him a bit too long as he does this, as if to say to the audience "you should keep yours eyes on this one. He's going to become someone."

 

If they respect the chronology of the books, yes, you're right, he's not Grand Admiral yet during the events of "SW Rebels". But the thing is: they now consider the Expended Universe "non-official", so they don't have to respect the chronology of the Thrawn books. If they want to change everything and make him Grand Admiral during SW Rebels, they can

But yes, that's an idea, a way to put him in SW Rebels without making him directly defeated by the heroes would be that he's under the orders of someone else (who will be defeated) and who ignores his advices at one point and so fails.

 

They don't need to respect the books at all because their non canon.

 

(Knowing that SW Rebels is canon and the Thrawn trilogy non-canon, it always gives me shivers for the future of Star Wars)

 

The EU had the holiday special...just saying.

Back to Thrawn.

 

You really have a grudge with Rebels, don't you?

 

The expanded universe was always non-official. Fans just kept ignoring Lucas and others, who pointed out it was never, ever canon.

 

With Rebels, a bit more than TCW you have to take the medium into account, and its rated more for kids than TCW, less of a budget, its format for episodes is different. I do not think the writers are on Zahn's level thats for sure to be frank, so why not just get him onboard in some capacity if they were gonna use Thrawn. But Zahn created a lot of memorable characters and plots, he's a tough act to follow and his trilogy I think holds up better than anything they released so far post ROTJ. I would like to see Thrawn but I don't want him to be a dud like the rest of the Imperials or even Admiral Trenchfoot.

 

As a big fan of Zahn's work and the character Thrawn, I hope this rumor about him appearing on the show holds true. Even in the books (which I know are non-canon now) around the time of Rebels, Thrawn wasn't a Grand Admiral, so they could have him try to stop the Rebels and his superiors would get in the way.

 

I agree with you about TCW. That show while a cartoon, was able to appeal to all ages and not just kids. It felt like Starwars if that makes sense. I am still amazed that Disney can't give them a decent budget, though it does explain why they use the same stuff for different planets and locations.

Regards Zahn While the his original Trilogy was great and stull arguably the best EU books off all time, his Hand of Thrawn books, less so (but still ok) but his latest Allegiance and Choices of One were pretty dire to be honest.

But him just being another vanquished foe for the Ghost Crew to slice through would be an issue. Like you say the format and writing of the show, would indicate that happening.

Vana go Re- read that Side Trip scene again. The use of the language (Vader being uncertain etc) is clearly showing Thrawn leading Vader along by the nose while Vader is a bit of Homer Simpson in it.

 

There was also a rumor back in January of 2014 with Mara Jade being used on Rebels , then another one in March of 2015 with Gellar attached but they're not using that name anymore and calling her Aileen Zahn instead.

 

Yeah I do remember those rumours, though the difference in this case is wasn't this put out by a pretty reliable site ?

 

Can't say I like the prospect of this. It already bugs me that Vader makes a big appearance to destroy the Rebel cell, learns of Ahsoka being there then just ****s off and leaves it to the Inquisitors because the main cast would probably die otherwise. I feel like Vader and by extension, Thrawn should be reserved for the seasons when the shows ready to start picking people off.

 

I don't know. On a quick google search I had gotten:

http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2014/01/speculation-star-wars-rebels-to-have.html

http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2015/03/rumor-sarah-michelle-gellars-star-wars.html

 

It seems, despite the EU being non-Canon, they're getting a lot of inspiration if not ideas from it. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in Canon mediums in addition to Rebels.

 

Lucas DID order the Thrawn trilogy to Zahn, and he did validate it, and he put his veto on things he didn't want Zahn to talk about, and he used many things from these books, Coruscant for example (and it's not a small thing).

If you all are happy with the poor quality and childish level of SW Rebels, well, I'm happy for you. But to me, it will never have a level of a Thrawn trilogy.

 

We're all entitled to different opinions and I can understand where you are coming from, but even though it's not on the same level of darkness as the Clone Wars was it doesn't make it childish. The Luminara episode was dark once we saw her, Kanan getting stabbed by the Inquisitor in Ezra's vision was too; as well as the Grand Inquisitor comiting suicide. It's just on a different level then the Clone Wars was, but like the Clone Wars; each season is progressively darker.

Regardless let's get back to discussing Thrawn instead of how dark Rebels should be or is. I'd like to see Thrawn in Rebels myself.

 

Ok all the points you mentioned I agree with except this. That wasn't really dark. It obviously was done because they couldn't have Kanan kill him but seriously they hardly even showed him falling into the reactor. Trust me of you didn't really follow the show that well you would be confused as to if he actually died. I watched the episode with my friend (surprised I even got him to watch it) and right after he said "Wait so is he dead now? Why didn't they show it?" I was confused for a second when I saw it also. Basically it sorta was left, almost open ended in a way, to determine if he died, and that sorta detracted from it actual seeming like a 'dark' moment.

Back to Thrawn. If he appears I'm sure he'll have some good victories. Vana you should give it a try. Don't judge it before you even see it.

 

What I say is that SW Rebels is clearly targeting a younger audience than Clone Wars or the movies. So because of that, the young heroes always win whatever you do, even if the enemy is stronger/more intelligent/more powerful.

Making Thrawn lose against them is an insult to the character. Even Luke, Leia, Han, Wedge, etc, had trouble against him, and you would make him defeated by a bunch of young heroes? it would clearly make that wonderful antagonist "ridiculous" to be outsmarted by them. That's what I fear.

And probabilities of seeing him in SW Rebels NOT being defeated one way or another by them is near 0.00001%

 

I need to go back & watch that, because I don't remember it as dark either. Hopefully tptb take that into account.

It seems like introducing Thrawn is quite controversial and maybe some fans will be disappointed no matter what.

 

Some of this discussion should also hinge on how many seasons Rebels will release.

I think there's a good argument that Rebels shouldn't be more than four seasons. Maybe five.

After that, the story gets stale and repetitive. TCW drug on longer than it should have in part because the creators were having so much fun and, as a result, they wasted a lot of space instead of maximizing their screen time.

If Rebels is a four (or even five) season series, then Thrawn could be introduced in the final episode of the next-to-last season and the final season could focus on his awesomeness.

 

I do agree. I really liked TCW but I'd rather have Rebels be on...say 5 seasons and wrap up with no hanging threads. As we all know TCW wasn't even allowed to finish its run on CN and had to do S6 on Netflix and put the remainder (some so far) of the material in comic and novel form. I don't want that for Rebels. I say do something like you said and then go forward with some new animated series for another era, group, or whatnot.

 

They've already begun reinserting old EU into the NEU. The Interdictor-class Star Destroyers, being an example. Filoni is a huge EU fan, and incorporated a lot of EU into TCW, and even had plans of introducing the Yuuzhan Vong prior to the show getting cancelled by Disney. If we're going to get any old EU into the NEU, I guarantee it will be with Filoni and Rebels. And Thrawn is the PERFECT place to start. He's a long time fan favorite and would be a great side villain to pop up every now and then!

 

Well, Thrawn was portrayed as more clever than Vader and the Emperor, with him in the lead, the Imperial fleet wouldn't have been wrecked at Endor, but he was not leading them. It is made clear in the EU that he was the only alien that ever rose to a title as high as GrandMoff, but he was often disregarded and his counsel often not heeded. I think that this would be a perfect way to fit him into Rebels. He is always two steps ahead and chases him into a corner. He is in the process of ending the whole Rebellion but then is stopped by Vader or Palpatine for some emotional reason (similar to Anakin, who could have prevented decades of suffering, had he let Mace kill Palpatine). That way Thrawn wouldn't be discredited. Imagine Thrawn as a young cunning captain under the command of Admiral Ozzel, now that would be something...