I was thinking back to how Mando season one felt like so well done at the time, compared to how things have unravelled now. So much in Ahsoka is tell not show. Whereas Din barely speaks so you have great moments like the Super Battle Droid attack or that scene where the probes search the fires on Mandalore. Where the hell was that stuff here, in show heavily relying on a series of past events to lend it drama? Where was Sabine’s family or her decision to become a Jedi?
Exactly this.
And to me, nothing suffers more from the “tell don’t show” pattern than Thrawn. Ahsoka and some of the New Republic figures act like the prospect of him returning is basically equal to the second coming of Palpatine but there is nothing in this series (and I would argue in any other cannon sources) that would justify this point of view. He was supposed to be a brilliant tactician, nothing more, nothing less. That Mandalorian Season 2 episode re-established him as Morgan Elsbeth’s master for some reason and the only thing he seems to have accomplished since his exile was making friends with some Dathomiri witches while slowly running out of resources until Morgan came to pick him up. His only real achievement after that was getting two second-rate Rebellion heroes stranded on Peridea, while giving a ride to another Rebellion hero, who would have stayed on Peridea if Thrawn hadn’t provdied Sabine with means of finding him. But the real threat to the main galaxy really seems to lie with the necromancer witches, not this overhyped imperial has-been who’s coming along with them.
The fact that we did not see Ezra trying to sabotage Thrawn’s ship and thus ending his campaign before it could even start is just another massive missed opportunity.