I’ve realized that the biggest issue I have with this show is the lack of reason to fear Thrawn. I know him from the books. Some fans know him a bit from Rebels. But in this show we have been given no information or evidence of his clout beyond his rank. Even from Rebels we know that he has with him one Imperial class Star Destroyer - what difference does that make? I’m sure there were plenty after Endor that had to be dealt with.
I’m loving the prospect of seeing a new region of space in Star Wars, and I want to see Thrawn in live action, but the threat just isn’t something I feel.
I agree, I want to see him in action in the remaining episodes, to see him be this feared, impressive tactician and leader, and not simply be told about it. Unless that is what the “wrap-up film” from Filoni is going to be, and this is just laying the groundwork for that? That will will be underwhelming if it does.
Yeah I do agree that’s an issue. It’s the problem with making Ahsoka a direct sequel to Rebels because if you haven’t seen that show Hera and Sabine are completely new, and while the show does an admirable job of trying to introduce them to new viewers it doesn’t quite work. Also because it’s a sequel to Rebels it doesn’t feel the need to show why Thrawn coming back is such a big deal because it assumes you’ve watched Rebels and therefore know why Thrawn is so intimidating. If you haven’t seen Rebels he’s pretty much the main villain of the later half of that show. I haven’t read his original trilogy, but from what I saw of him in Rebels he was a fantastic villain. He doesn’t get defeated due to anything he does wrong, it’s other characters in the Empire who screw up his well-laid plans.
Thrawn in the novels is essentially unstoppable despite working with fairly limited resources, and is only defeated because he is forced to extrapolate from incomplete and inaccurate information.
Thrawn in Rebels has all the resources of the Empire and he and his underlings still manage to lose regularly to a far weaker rebel group. So it’s not really the same character to me.
Maybe I’d have to read the Zahn trilogy to really get this, but I disagree with this. He’s not at all incompetent in Rebels and he doesn’t lose regularly. Pretty much every time he shows up he either lets them escape on purpose, which isn’t him losing, and every time he does fails it’s never because he makes a mistake. I’ll grant you that his underlings manage to lose regularly, but most of them aren’t really his underlings, they’re all technically Governor Pryce’s underlings. I’d say rather than Thrawn being the one to fail, it’s that Thrawn is the only one who ever succeeds even remotely, and when he does fail it’s never really his fault. He only fails to destroy the rebels at their base because of Bendu a being he had absolutely no knowledge of showed up and the only reason why the Rebels are able to free Lothal is because Thrawn is pulled away by the Empire and Governor Pryce is the one who screws up, and she’s not one of his subordinates. Again maybe I haven’t read the Heir to the Empire trilogy so I’ll just take everyone’s word for it that he was so much better there, but just because he was done better in the books doesn’t mean he was done badly in Rebels. I think he was probably one of the best parts of Rebels.
Back to Ahsoka, I do agree that the acting can sometimes be weirdly wooden, but I disagree that that’s actually really been a huge problem since episode 1. I agree that Rosario Dawson seems somewhat stilted, especially when compared to Ashley Eckstein’s vocal performance. Everyone else however doesn’t feel stilted to me. Hera and Sabine, I don’t really have many problems with their performances, sure they’re not as animated as they were in Rebels but they do a decent job at capturing their essence in live action. I also think/hope that the reason why Rosario Dawson’s acting is the way it is is because tonight’s episode is going to be the turning point for her character and they’ll let her express more of a range, because her performance at the end of Episode 4 was really the first time this season that I truly felt like she was Ahsoka
I’ve read the original Thrawn Trilogy multiple times ,and I thought his character as portrayed in Rebels was pretty accurate . Let’s not forget , at the end of Heir To The Empire ,book one of the OG Thrawn Trilogy , Thrawn was defeated in his first major offensive against the Rebels at Sluis Van shipyards and in the final book , The Last Command , Thrawn is slain by his own underling and bodyguard , the Nogrhi Rukh . …as for episode 5 of Ahsoka …I thought it was fantastic from beginning to end and the best episode so far of the show . I also suspect we will see Luke again and that we won’t see much of Thrawn in Ahsoka ,and that they are holding back those characters for the big event movie by Filloni .Plus ,we got the added benifit this episode of seeing the de aging tech further refined and looking its best yet …