Full Series Thrawn in Rebels

I hope Thrawn keeps the good guys on the run throughout the last season of REBELS, and the series ends with him basically being victorious.

Different Ghost crew members will experience different fates, and the Alliance itself won't be completely broken, of course. All the pieces remain that will result in Scarif. But for the most part, Thrawn is depicted as victorious and the Empire recognizes it.

Thrawn's story in REBELS should end with the Emperor giving him a badass Super SD and sending him on a long-term, deep-space mission in the Unknown Regions.

Enhances Thrawn's prestige and preserves him for post-ROTJ storytelling.

 

I have to disagree. Villains need to die at the end of the story or face justice at the least, not ride off into the sunset. Thrawn's an evil man, serving an evil empire. One day, he'll have to pay for that.

 

I have to disagree. Villains need to die at the end of the story or face justice at the least, not ride off into the sunset. Thrawn's an evil man, serving an evil empire. One day, he'll have to pay for that.

 

Why can't he pay for it after ROTJ?

 

I agree. Like you mentioned earlier, this could open up a storyline after ROTJ and the Rebels can close out his story there. The Empire is still going strong in this current timeline, he doesn't have to have an actual ending for the finale.

 

Villains need to die one day, but not at the end of a childish story like Rebels, where the character cannot be developped the way he deserves it.

Thrawn deserves to be more developped and used more wisely in a post ROTJ story and only then, he could die. Not at the end of something like SW Rebels...

And the argument about Ezra who could have killed Thrawn when he wanted, it's stupid, Thrawn could have also killed them by attacking their ship on Ryloth, and there would have been no heroes anymore. He had many opportunities, just like the heroes had opportunities, but it's like in many movies of tv series, the heroes or villains could die at the beginning but they don't, because the writers need them for the show.

Just like Frodo could have given the Ring to the giant eagles to drop it into the Mordor volcano. There would have been no story to tell if he had done that.

 

The eagles would have refused. And if they did get to Mordor, the Nine Nazgul would intercept them with their winged beasts.

Thrawn chooses not to kill the Rebels because he wants to observe them first, and lead him to the larger Rebel Fleet.

Ezra on the other hand has no reason not to kill an opposing Imperial Officer, one who is posing a direct and major threat to the Rebellion. Seriously, all Ezra has to do is Force Pull one of the stormtrooper blasters to him and shoot Thrawn in the head. Kanan could also have killed Thrawn on Atollon, when he attacked them in person.

Thrawn is the only competent Imperial in Season Three. Kill him and their efforts in Lothal Sector will be seriously hampered. Too bad Ezra and Kanan can't do what needs to be done.

 

Regardless if villains need to die (I personally don't want him involved with the Sequel Trilogy), I believe it would be foolish to cut short the storytelling potential that Thrawn brings after only two seasons. I think he was only in something like 8 episodes in Season 3, with at least half of those appearances consisting of 90 second scenes of him making some kind of observation. Season 4 is going to be quite a bit shorter with 15 episodes, with the first few dealing with the protagonists closing up the Mandalorian plot threads while the next couple of episodes after that dealing with Saw Gerrera's fall from grace before they fully get back into the main Rebellion vs Empire storyline. So it's not like next season is going to be especially Thrawn-heavy.

It's too soon after bringing him back into play, and something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a commercial perspective either when you consider how successful the sales were for Zahn's new book.Its a character that does very well for Lucasfilm and they seem to be very aware of that. I think what's more likely to happen is that he'll be taken off the board at the end of season 4, Zahn'll pump out another 2-3 books and then they'll bring the character into Filoni's rumoured Post-RotJ series and have him serve as one of the chief antagonists there for a couple of seasons before dying.

 

Yes and I wouldn't mind a Thrawn stand alone movie post-ROTJ as well. Really hoping for this.

 

It would be a shame if Thrawn dies in Rebels, imho. A movie would be great but i doubt it sadly. If Thrawn dies he should die in a Book from Zahn.

 

The reason for him not to kill the heroes is exactly the same as the reason why the heroes do not kill him: the writers wanted everyone alive for the show, that's all, don't start to try to find all the examples of plot holes or all the times something in Rebels looks totally illogical, because there are really, really plenty. So many things do not make any sense in that tv series, it's for kids, the writers do not expect kids to think a lot about what seems logical or not... that's why I would like to see Thrawn in something more mature, a movie or a new tv series maybe, but ONLY if it's done the proper way and respect the character.

I don't want them to ruin the character. Maybe it's better if he just stays in books...

 

...After his most recent SW effort I'm not too excited at that prospect. I say let Luceno have a go.

 

The newest book was fine. It was well reviewed, sold very well. In comparison to the other works he's done I'd say it's probably ranks somewhere in the middle, well below the original trilogy and duology but above the majority of his other standalone novels. In general I think he works better in longer form storytelling than he does with done-in-one stories.

Despite what he'd say, it was definitely handcuffed by having to fit into a specific point in canon and not be overly ambitious with what he could do. I personally hope he gets his next proposed trilogy greenlit and more room to manuever.

 

That's a problem with most franchise fiction books, especially Star Wars. The Thrawn book was fine, but nothing special. The format didn't work for me, I didn't care for the characters, and I hated all the whitewashing, but it chugged along at a good pace for the most part.

I think Luceno could bring the depth and moral ambiguity/downright dastardliness that Zahn doesn't seem willing to give his creations any more. We know Luceno can work well within a cramped continuity, there isn't likely to be much free space for original story telling appearing any time soon.

 

Well you look at what he accomplished with say, Outbound Flight. That fit within the established timeline of the Prequels, but Zahn was able to really go off and create his own sweeping set pieces because it didn't necessarily have to link right into the start of, for example, Attack of the Clones. With this one it was very much a direct prequel to and concurrent with Rebels and I think because of the era they're in there's not a lot they can really do, since the Galactic Civil War hadn't begun yet.

While he does wonders with continuity, I do genuinely think Luceno suffered for it too with Catalyst, only because of the nature of that story he had the ability to go further back and show us the action and chaos of the tail end of the Clone Wars. The majority of that book though, to me, felt like it worked more because of the relationship between Galen and Krennic, but even then I think it's a step down from his usual output. Something like Plagueis is amazing, but it's very much catered to be a "behind the scenes" epic and not something that I think is easily replicated for every character or story. What I think needs to happen for both these writers is that they need to allowed to work further down the line, either concurrent with the events of the OT capturing some other facet of the war, or carve out the uncharted era of canon in the 30 year gap.

 

The problem any writer would have is that Thrawn's new timeline severely handicaps the story potential. He's this super brilliant strategic genius... who was absolutely nowhere to be found in the OT. Palpatine is no fool, there has to be a really, REALLY good reason why he would not send Thrawn after the Rebels after the first Death Star debacle. From ESB we know that the Empire hit back hard and the Rebels were left reeling - but if Grand Admiral Thrawn had been running things I can't see how they wouldn't have been utterly crushed, save for ''plot armour.''

Nu Thrawn's main ''weakness'' is that where Legends Thrawn was essentially a brilliant underdog, a lone wolf cobbling together forces and fleets to take on the ruling power in the galaxy, Nu Thrawn IS the ruling power, or works for them at least, whereas the Ghost crew are just one single cell of the Rebellion. With the resources of the Empire at it's peak and his own skills and abilities, it's really hard to justify why he hasn't/doesn't just end things within maybe an episode or two.

 

Your not wrong (Thrawn just doesn't work in a Road Runner in Space cartoon) but that whole argument regards the OT is also relevant for Ezra and Kanan and co running around decimating Imperials by the dozen. It really doesn't make sense and with just a minuscule of thought Rebels as a show is easily picked apart.

 

Really, by very nature of this era Rebels was incredibly limited with what it could have done and the same goes for the various novels they've put out. Rogue One is where the galactic events actually get interesting, everything beforehand is just killing time and resolving Clone Wars scraps.

 

Yes, exactly. The time period necessitates that there are some very noticeable and problematic limitations put in place as we already know what happens next - Rogue One as the turning point, then the OT as to the actual downfall of the Empire. These new characters running around DON'T MATTER to the overarching story of SW. That's not because I don't like them, it's a fact. Not one of them is ever mentioned again in the main saga. They just. Don't. Matter. If Rebels never existed, if none of the characters or events had been created... nothing would have changed.

This is particularly problematic when it comes to a character like Thrawn. The first time he appeared, he was a legitimate threat. A military genius, with the Republic in troubled times - he really could have won, or at least made a serious impact (and arguably, he did.) Nu Thrawn can slap around these EU nobodies all he likes, he can be as smart and charismatic and dangerous as you like - still going to be vanished into the ether by the time the OT happens. And in the post-OT EU, there's already an influential and dangerous Admiral/Warlord causing trouble... but her name isn't Thrawn, it's Rae Sloane. (who is awesome, but not Thrawn.)

 

I disagree, the Dark Times has rich potential. I think the format and function of the show is the greater limitation.

I wanted Rebels to be a lot more bleak - especially given the presence of doomed Jedi characters and the spoiler in the opening crawl of ANH, but it's a family show on a channel marketed to children, and I think one of its main purposes is to acclimatise TCW fans to the tone and continuity (and merchandise) of the OT and ST eras.

 

I agree with you on what the show should have been about and I think it should have been set nearer to RotS rather than so close to ANH.

I'm not sure it's trying to acclimatise fans from TCW though. The age range/tone and format of the show are specifically geared to a younger audience and even the youngest of the TCW audience (which was a show for all ages not just one demographic) would be older than that bracket they are targeting now. Besides it has Starwars slapped on it, people would see it regardless. Hell would Rebels have even lasted this long if not for the fact it's a Starwars show ?

 

I'm not really sure a bleak story can sustain itself in a way that's satisfying in the long term. If they went full dark with it we'd be seeing countless protagonists being shed every season and a lot more bloodletting and defeat than I think an audience can really have the patience for. I happen to really love Logan as a film, but I wouldn't want every X-Men film in the series to be as bleak and miserable as that one was.

Unless you have a show that maybe starts 18 months before (and concurrent with) Rogue One that lasts only 2-3 seasons then I don't believe it could be something conceivably satisfying. And unlike something akin to Game of Thrones which IS very dark and bleak at times, the Dark Times era dictates that our protagonists can't have a great big win that even GoT sometimes provides its main characters. Maybe it's doable in the written medium, but for television I think it's a different story.

 

It is doable just not for a kids cartoon

 

Even if you had a HBO live action series I'd be skeptical. Even series like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead have major victories for the protagonists to offset the overwhelming darkness, victories, that don't occur in SW canon until Rogue One.

It would be far more doable to have a show set during the context of the actual Galactic Civil-War where you can take the good with the bad.

 

Really the show should have been set during the GCW and not have force sensitives