Star Wars: Rebels

[bilateralrope]

Imagine the EU-fanboy outrage if Thrawn dies during Rebels.

[Galvatron]

I think there's a decent chance that Thrawn has already made a post-Endor appearance. He simply wasn't identified...

[Thanas]

Nah, that scene in Aftermath was retconned with the battle of Jakuu.

[The Romulan Republic]

I really hope they do not resurrect Thrawn for the new canon, because only Zahn's writing (including thought process of observers) could do his character justice and I do not see this show ever adopting an Imperial POV. With Thrawn you need to walk a very thin line between "too wanked to believe it" and "awesome character". I fear that with the quality of the comic series they will either make him fall prey to a really stupid mistake (like all Imp commanders) or just not-Thrawn. I especially dread the later.

While I like to see more new stuff over rehashing the old as a rule, I wouldn't mind a return of Thrawn. I think its absurd to presume that their is no other writer who could write the character well (or, you know, they could rehire Zahn).

However, he would obviously have to be portrayed somewhat differently given the new continuity. Ideally without losing the essence of his personality.

Now, you may feel differently, but to me, Thrawn is defined by the following qualities:

1. He is a villain without being a cartoonish one, or evil for the sake of evil.
2. He uses his mind primarily, rather than having special powers or being otherwise action-oriented.
3. In keeping with the second point, he is calm. Cool. Basically at the opposite end of the scale from Kylo Ren cutting up equipment with his lightsaber. The word "cultured" comes to mind.
4. He thinks outside the box. Incidentally, the "studies artwork to understand his enemies" thing was never that important to me- indeed I consider it a rather gimmicky and silly weakness in how the character was written. But it is an example of how Thrawn works- he sees things in ways other people don't. You see this as well in his unconventional uses of familiar technologies, like cloaking asteroids to blockade a planet.

Now, all of those are qualities another writer can convey if they have a basic understanding of the character, and they can all work in the new continuity. Although number two perhaps makes him more suited to being the villain in a book than in a visual medium. Though they managed a non-fighting villain on Rebels with Tarkin.

[Thanas]

I am saying it would not work in this medium because most of the allure of Thrawn comes from Pellaeon's thoughts and the thought's of others. No way to do that in film.

[RogueIce]

Nah, that scene in Aftermath was retconned with the battle of Jakuu.

Can you provide details? Because it amuses me that this new EU isn't even two years old yet and already they're needing to retcon themselves.

[FaxModem1]

Also, quick question, if Deathwatch are considered traitors, why are they wearing Deathwatch armor?

Though is that "Deathwatch Armor", or "Armor model MA-36e, which the Deathwatch happened to wear"? There's an important difference.

The symbol on their helmets seems to be the same as Death Watch's. but I could be mistaken.

[Zixinus]

I always got the impression that for Thrawn looking at their enemy's artwork was just another aspect of intelligence gathering, merely doing it on an unorthodox psychological way. He didn't just pick particular species's art: he picked the art his enemy has and studied. In one case he went as far down as studying the art that his enemy chose to decorate his lobby.

I think that's the essential aspect of him: he makes very throughout plans very methodically, he makes maximum use of all intelligence he can gather. He does not allow his emotions or his ego to distract him from his task, being calm and collected at almost all times. This is true not just for studying the enemy's art, but also things like technical things. There were several instances where he displayed technical understanding of what was going on that other officers didn't.

I think many people liked him because he was the ideal officer: he plans his war as well as humanly possible on his side, he does not let his ego make decisions for him and he values the people working for him. He does not waste them, has a trust in them and surprisingly, treats them fairly humanly: that was the point of the tractor-beam officer and operator scenes. He didn't go down there to find somebody to blame to please his ego, he went down there to find and solve the problem.

[FaxModem1]

Thrawn has always seemed a bit like David Xanatos from Gargoyles. Someone who makes contingency plans, so that if he loses, he still wins.

[Lord Revan]

Thrawn has always seemed a bit like David Xanatos from Gargoyles. Someone who makes contingency plans, so that if he loses, he still wins.

sort of while there were situations were Thrawn lost without any dout he belived in the saying "no plan survives the contact with the enemy" and planned accordingly. Something that makes imperial commanders often look like fools is that they to pre-plan a battle too heavily resulting in battle plans that are totally inflexible and fail if the enemy doesn't act according to your preset notion, Thrawn on the other hand prepares for the "x-factor" and thus doesn't make stupid mistakes as often as instead of going "no fair!" when the opponent does something unexpected he goes "hmm intresting, I guess I try this tactic now", it doesn't always work obviously but it works more often then the typical imperial response.

And yes Zixinius the art thing was a form in intelligence gathering specifically Thrawn used it to get to know the character of his enemy.

[Thanas]

Nah, that scene in Aftermath was retconned with the battle of Jakuu.

Can you provide details? Because it amuses me that this new EU isn't even two years old yet and already they're needing to retcon themselves.

Quite simple. The fleet and SSD he commands is the one destroyed at Jakku. The guy in command at the time was some Moff who used terribly idiotic tactics. So unless you have some explanation why Thrawn gave his fleet and flagship to some nitwit....

[RogueIce]

Nah, that scene in Aftermath was retconned with the battle of Jakuu.

Can you provide details? Because it amuses me that this new EU isn't even two years old yet and already they're needing to retcon themselves.

Quite simple. The fleet and SSD he commands is the one destroyed at Jakku. The guy in command at the time was some Moff who used terribly idiotic tactics. So unless you have some explanation why Thrawn gave his fleet and flagship to some nitwit....

I don't. But it wouldn't surprise me if some hack EU author would hand him the Idiot Ball for some misguided fanservice.

[Galvatron]

Nah, that scene in Aftermath was retconned with the battle of Jakuu.

Can you provide details? Because it amuses me that this new EU isn't even two years old yet and already they're needing to retcon themselves.

Quite simple. The fleet and SSD he commands is the one destroyed at Jakku. The guy in command at the time was some Moff who used terribly idiotic tactics. So unless you have some explanation why Thrawn gave his fleet and flagship to some nitwit....

I doubt that Moff was supposed to be the mysterious fleet admiral from Aftermath. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up writing that Thrawn sacrificed his SSD and that fleet to allow the remainder of his forces to disappear.

[Thanas]

For what purpose though?

[Purple]

Maybe to rid him self of a troublesome Moff...

[Galvatron]

For what purpose though?

Presumably, to fake his own death and throw the NR off his scent. Perhaps Thrawn is the real architect of the First Order and Snoke is a substitute for Joruus C'baoth in this new continuity.

That's just me flinging poo, though. I'm sure they could fabricate any number of reasons. What I really want to see is the return of the valiant Commander Pter Thanas from Truce at Bakura.

[Thanas]

I for one would rather they not use him or any other old EU characters, for there are not many intelligent reasons to reuse them.

[Galvatron]

I for one would rather they not use him or any other old EU characters, for there are not many intelligent reasons to reuse them.

Popularity is a reason.

[The Romulan Republic]

Popularity, the fact that some of them are interesting characters, the chance to explore how those characters would be different in the new continuity.

Of course, it depends on having a good writer who understands the characters and isn't hamstrung by executive interference. But that is always the case.

[Galvatron]

Zahn might actually find it liberating to rewrite Thrawn now that so many of the historical gaps are filled in this time.

[The Romulan Republic]

As Zahn commented on weather he'd be willing to come back and write for the new continuity if Disney asked him to?

[Galvatron]

The recent issue of the Kanan comic gave us one whole page to show us his encounter with the Mandos from this last episode.

[Elheru Aran]

As Zahn commented on weather he'd be willing to come back and write for the new continuity if Disney asked him to?

I suspect if they waved enough money in his general direction he'd probably do it, especially if they tell him he can write his pet character again.

[Galvatron]

He could also write any new novels without the pressure (or fanfare) of having them regarded as surrogates for the sequel trilogy of films.

[Elheru Aran]

The main issue I can see though is that there is probably at least a decent outline for the next two movies, and allowing Zahn to write within that timeline risks spoiling them. IMO it's more likely that if they got him to write more Star Wars stories, it would be more inter-war stuff, pre-TFA, or stuff that's completely way off to the side of the TFA plot ("the Order's got some hush-hush project over on the Outer Rim, now let's talk about this thing that's not really connected to the movie at all except in a highly contrived and tangential fashion"). Frankly that's how it's going to be for the next few years as they work on the next two movies, there won't be any real plot development ahead of TFA and its sequels until they actually come out. Concurrent plots and plots that take place between the OT and ST, sure.