The Mandalorian Ahsoka Grand Admiral Thrawn

The fact that Thrawn convinced the Nightsisters to reanimate his stormtroopers as undead soldiers is chilling. If you look closely, Enoch and the other stormtroopers have their legs and other limbs wrapped up in the dark red cloths that the Nightsisters wear. It seems that Thrawn is trusts the Nightsisters just enough to agree with his vision, and he certainly values them more than Skoll and Hati. The latter two are expendable to him.

But this version of Thrawn is crafty to work with rational planners like the Nightsisters. Joruus C'baoth was a loose cannon, and EU Thrawn knew he couldn't rely on him forever. In contrast, this alternate variant of Thrawn picked different allies that, while not completely trustworthy, are more dependable. Sure. They may not have C'baoth's level of battle meditation (if at all). Even so, pretty scary allies to have.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing how much Thrawn and the Nightsisters agree on things, and how their vision differs from those of Skoll and Hati.

 

Well, mostly, yes. And after watching the episode again, I do agree. Even with that, I didn't think the costume fit Lars all that well. Even so, the performance was great and so it wasn't a deal-breaker to me. Just a minor nitpick.

 

I don't care about Thrawn's physique or how well his uniform fit. He's about 70 by this point. Besides, Thrawn ordinarily did not wear that uniform. That was the only uniform he had after Ezra sent him off into this other galaxy. He most likely was wearing clothes he made himself on that world. Besides, the near-human alien is an intellectual powerhouse. Who cares how he looks?

My only critique is that his blue skin should have been a tad darker, but I'm willing to overlook that. I'm just intrigued by how this Thrawn is commanding Night Troopers, many of whom...or all of whom...undead.

 

Well, clearly we both do, judging by the very next sentence in your post, haha. It seems we're both willing to overlook whatever perceived inadequacies (accurate or not) we have with Lars' live-action Thrawn, though, so more power to us

 

So I'm somewhat confused about how the Shadow Council/Pellaeon fit into what we've learned in this show.

It seems that there has been no communication at all from Thrawn other than the Peridea mothers calling to Elsbeth. If that's the case why is Pellaeon at this point still convinced that Thrawn is coming back? The only evidence that he's alive is the word of some witch who says she's getting second hand info from another galaxy. Why is the Shadow Council willing to have a place for a Thrawn rep in this scenario?

 

Tbh, I didn't really notice it until I heard someone else who is a huge Thrawn fan mention that. Then I quoted them. So, I should have attributed it to them.

I do think that Thrawn's makeup looks 95% great and Ahsoka's looks 98% fab. I think Hera's makeup looks the best out of all three of them. But that's just me. I didn't mean to come off as more nit-picky than I was.

What I am concerned about is if Thrawn is going to live beyond this one show. It will take more than two episodes to show that Thrawn is an ingenious threat whose tactics will threaten to bring down the New Republic. But, then, Timothy Zahn's original novels are hard to live up to. Like I said earlier, I'm not concerned about how the protagonists are being handled in terms of writing or performances. I'm more concerned about how our Grand Admiral, the Nightsisters, and certainly Baylan and Shin are going to be fleshed out.

 

My guess Elsbeth works for the shadow council.
Remember she was a long time ally to the Empire.
In Ep5 of Mando's S2 she was exploiting the planet, at that point in time, to get resources to build the Eye of Sion.
Probably it was the council that hired Baylan to rescue her and help in the mission, because also in that episode it looked that she never liked the Jedi. I'm assuming then it would make no sense that herself looked to work with Baylan on her own.
Also, it's not clear the extent of knowledge the imperials had about what really happened to Thrawn. Not sure if most imperials would believe that he was the victim of magical whales from out space.
As Baylan pointed many times even the Jedi believed most of the tales of Peridea were just fantasy.

 

She’s not “some witch.” She’s a senior Imperial figure with a major military construction outfit on Corellia. So she likely has some cred. Plus, these cats are desperate, and likely grasping at all straws, including the Thrawn kind.

 

So am I! But I think most things point to him surviving until at least the Filoni movie, and/or a Season 2 of Ahsoka. I'd be genuinely surprised and disappointed if Thrawn is offed in Season 1.

Now, him surviving beyond the Filoni movie? One can dream, and I do, but I think that'll be it for him.

 

“What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality…..”

Thrawn’s first live action words. This is why Filoni is a genius.

 

Sorry if I said this already but I'm guessing that Thrawn hasn't gone after Ezra, (who Sabine finds REAL FAST), because Ezra lives in an area that is frequented by whatever big scary thing Baylan senses that probably slaughtered Thrawn's men who the Nightsisters have reanimated. Thrawn doesn't want to encounter that big scary thing again and it's not worth feeding his troops into the meat grinder again just to find Ezra who is just as stuck as Thrawn is.

Then again, why hasn't that big scary thing killed Ezra if he's living near where the big scary thing lives? Because the plot demands it I guess.

 

The Good Grand Admiral himself.

 

Even if this is true, if said scary thing is a giant monster of some sort, and we know how much Filoni and Favreau love throwing in a monster, it isn’t impossible that Ezra is friends with it, he does have a special link to creatures.

 

I don’t think it would be anything like a monster. At least I hope it isn’t. I got my full of live action monsters in the mandalorian

 

Unpopular opinion: Thrawn looks a little silly. Not a lot but a little.

 

I love Thrawn. Have all the books and have loved the character since the original 90s trilogy.


The performance of Thrawn's mannerisms and voice were just perfect. The writing of the character and the depiction of how he moves and speaks is absolutely spot-on.


But....he just looks way too old and physically unfit to be Thrawn. The flabby neck, round jawline, and beer belly makes it seem like this story is set 30 years after Rebels.


It's a really great performance of the character by the actor --and the blue make-up and red eyes look great -- but his aged appearance in the face and overall physique are just jarring.


Could be much worse though -- it's a really great acting portrayal of the character. Hope he stays as fit and healthy as possible for a couple of Ahsoka seasons and then a major film.

 

I mean thrawn is 70 something I believe here

68

 

This is a pretty epic line. Impressive.

I'm no Thrawn expert, but when I listen to Thrawn experts, they describe him as someone who doesn't care about petty things like revenge. He's highly rational, and this means that expending time and troops on a Jedi is a waste of his time unless that Jedi is a direct threat to him.

Or I could be totally off base here and Thrawn lost most of his troops going after Ezra or from encountering that powerful entity being alluded to.

But Thrawn himself says he doesn't care about Ezra in this episode. He says their goal is to leave the galaxy, not waste time with Sabine or Ezra.

If he can have Baylan and Shin off them, he will, but he's not obsessed with it or gaining revenge.

EDIT: I never thought Thrawn's look would translate at all to live action, so I'm impressed with how well it works. And I have zero issue with his physique -- hopefully the people concerned with that have rock hard abs.

 

There are two things to consider. One is that Lars Mikkelsen gained weight for the role of Stregobor in the Witcher (who is more of a hedonistic old wizard) and he was shooting season 3 of that show back to back with Ahsoka, so it’s likely there wasn’t enough time for him to get back into shape.

The other thing to think about is that Thrawn is pushing 70 at this point in the timeline and from what we’ve seen, Peridea and this new galaxy seems pretty hellish. His troops (assuming they’re still alive and not reanimated) all seem rugged and battered, and he admits to Morgan that their numbers have dwindled. Even his white Grand Admiral uniform is frayed and tarnished in places. The 7th Fleet seems like it’s been through hell, and Thrawn’s seen some ****.

 

Until reading this post, I hadn't considered that it would be a single monster. If it is, then I'd agree with the other poster who said Ezra might be OK due to his ability to connect with other living beings. But Baylan's words seem to imply that whatever it is that may be scaring the Nightsisters, it's also connected to the ancient origins of the Jedi.

Ezra and the Noti tribe he lives with are nomads. They're probably primarily fleeing other nomads, but all these people must be nomads for a reason, and that might be that they're all avoiding whatever it is that the Nightsisters are fleeing, whatever Thrawn has clearly been dealing with for the past decade.

My current theory is that Thrawn hasn't kept track of Ezra because he's simply irrelevant compared to that other threat. I suspect the threat may be a person rather than a creature, perhaps something tied to the Nightbrothers in Peridea? Baylan called Peridea the "With Kingdom of the Dathmiri," which suggests that there was once a Witch King. Could the Nightsisters have resurrected something even they were incapable of controlling?

 

Critiquing the physique of a fictional character is, in itself, a ridiculous notion. Sure. But so are a lot of the other things we, as fans, choose to highlight, review and critique. Especially on forums like these. Like the shade of Blue for Thrawns skin, the colour of Ezras eyes and the shape of the Chimaeras antannae. Physique just seems to be a delicate topic to some people, likely because of the real-world implications. But that's not what this is about, at least not to me. I dont see Lars the actor, I see Thrawn the character. Therefore, any critique from me is with the character in mind, not the actor.

Thrawns portrayal in Canon (cant speak for Legends, havent read those books) has been one of a man who keeps himself physically fit through rigorous exercise in the form of hand-to-hand combat; sparring with partners in the Zahn novels and with droids in Rebels.

It is certainly not AS important of a trait to his character as the intellect, the pragmatism, the poise, the ruthlessness, his loyalty to his people and the loyalty he inspires among those around him.

But it is there, and it has been established.

Now, I realize animation, books and live action are three different mediums and so certain things can be near impossible to translate. Like the nuances of Ahsokas fighting style, for example. I have no issues accepting this, nor should anyone really. And so to me, the physique thing is a very minor nitpick, if anything, as they absolutely nailed the more important parts of his portrayal.

Furthermore, there are plausible in-universe explanations for the slight discrepancy in appearance. Like the fact that Thrawn is of a respectable age at this point, plus perhaps his opportunties to train are limited due to the constant danger of Peridea. Also, the dangers of the planet leading to stress eating (joke).

As for my "credentials" to comment, no rock hard abs, no. I do like to keep myself physically fit, however. So, yeah. Not that that should have any bearing whatsoever when it comes to opinions on a message board, haha.

 

I think Thrawn looks great live action…. All though I miss the gold fabric hanging off his shoulders he had in some of the EU art. Was a nice regal touch.

 

His dad bod makes me feel so seen!

 

I don't think I should even need to point this out, but there don't need to be in-universe reasons for why a character looks different. All we need is a reason. And we have a reason -- the actor has a different physique than younger Thrawn, and this happens in live-action adaptation of books and animated series.

But as others have pointed out, Thrawn is older now, so why can't that be an "in-universe" reason?

Again, the idea that we need in-universe reasons for adaptations into live action isn't tenable when it should be obvious that the actor was chosen for his voice and ability to represent Thrawn's intellectual qualities, which are his key qualities, not his ability to look like a trim stud in action scenes.

That's why I point out that those fixated on his bod are just focused on bods more generally.