Star Wars: Rebels

[The Romulan Republic]

I think the scene you're thinking of is in Dark Lord, although some of the details are wrong. I think he actually heard the name Vader in the report, and I don't think it was Mos Eisley, but a smaller town on Tatooine.

Edited to fix stupid typo (I put CNN instead of scene ).

[Burak Gazan]

CNN! For pan-galactic coverage
Don't give them ideas...

If Vader was in the newsfeed, then with all the rest, no doubt would remain in his mind. Probably thinking he should have given into that impulse of mercy after all...

[Vympel]

Thoughts:

- I'm disappointed that they didn't have the funds/time to actually animate the TIE scopes with the craft they're meant to be shooting at. It was distracting;
- Also, I know it costs money to give TIE pilots actual human faces, but make the 'keeping their helmet on for no good reason' a little less obvious next time;
- It was awesome seeing three TIE Interceptors take out, what, twice their number in short order with no losses;
- Wow, do Rebel transports have shit shields or what? They can't take anything;
- Glad they didn't kill off the Imperial ace; and
- It was so obvious that was Kallus' voice - even my ass though, is he Fulcrum or isn't he? Clearly he is.

EDIT: that said, introducing TIE Interceptors this early? Where were they at Yavin?

[eMeM]

I can swallow unshielded transports but unshielded and unarmed CR-90 is a bit too much. Especially when it is not really unarmed, as we see it firing the dorsal quad turbolaser when it appears the second time, to rescue the bomber, why didn't they use it earlier, when the corvette was almost destroyed bu three TIEs?

Also, quad (turbo?)laser CR-90? Is it something we've seen already? Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to other CRs, but Tantive's both dorsal and ventral turbolasers were twin, this one has a quad on top and a twin on the bottom.

@early interceptors
We are two years before Yavin, the old EU had Interceptors introduced in 1BBY, so that's not a big change.

[Thanas]

I really like how most of the stuff was copied after Tie fighter, including the way the Y-wing exploded and other stuff. Nice hommage.

The minimalism is still shitty.

[hunter5]

I can swallow unshielded transports but unshielded and unarmed CR-90 is a bit too much. Especially when it is not really unarmed, as we see it firing the dorsal quad turbolaser when it appears the second time, to rescue the bomber, why didn't they use it earlier, when the corvette was almost destroyed bu three TIEs?

Also, quad (turbo?)laser CR-90? Is it something we've seen already? Maybe I didn't pay enough attention to other CRs, but Tantive's both dorsal and ventral turbolasers were twin, this one has a quad on top and a twin on the bottom.

@early interceptors
We are two years before Yavin, the old EU had Interceptors introduced in 1BBY, so that's not a big change.

I always figured they only had military grade shields on a small portion of their ships. Remember in the end of season 1/ beginning of season 2 they has to steal shield generators for their fleet. Odds are a good portion of their fleet doesn't yet have military grade equipment.

[RogueIce]

I love the music they have for Thrawn here. Looking forward to seeing if it's a dedicated "Thrawn Theme" if he has one.

[The Romulan Republic]

Every villain needs a good theme.

[Rogue 9]

I don't know how the hell she's going to get out of that one. I'm afraid it'll be some stupid contrivance like they sometimes do, but I hope the rebels manage to pull something actually clever.

[Adam Reynolds]

If Timothy Zahn is involved in the writing process, they will.

[The Romulan Republic]

The writers on this show have handled their major villains fairly well from what I've seen, at least since the end of season two.

And Hera's not exactly incapable herself. Admittedly, I don't think she could out plot Thrawn, but she did manage to out fly Darth Vader back at the start of season two.

She's also got at least two Jedi on her team, and even Thrawn Trilogy Thrawn had difficulty containing Jedi.

[Reyvan]

Based on one of the other previews, Ezra is probably right outside that door disguised as a Scout Trooper. He'll probably have something to do with how Hera gets out of that.

[Adam Reynolds]

The writers on this show have handled their major villains fairly well from what I've seen, at least since the end of season two.

The random element I was thinking of was even earlier, from S1E11 when Sabine, Ezra and Kanan went up against a probe droid. To destroy it covertly Ezra used the Force to convince an animal to destroy it rather than shooting it themselves, which would indicate an enemy presence.

She's also got at least two Jedi on her team, and even Thrawn Trilogy Thrawn had difficulty containing Jedi.

Indeed. They were his weakness to the point that he needed an alliance with C'Baoth to contain them. Which actually was also the weakness of those books for me. Virtually everything new in them about the Force was problematic.

Though the at least comment leaves me with another question: Do we know Ashoka's fate?

[eMeM]

We know she survived and will appear in Rebels in some form at some point in the future (not in this season).

[The Romulan Republic]

Source? Because while her survival seemed plausible, I hadn't heard that before, and it seems a fairly big spoiler to leak.

[eMeM]

Well, maybe it wasn't explicitly said, but...

https://youtu.be/lS4sclln5J4?t=1h48s

[RogueIce]

Classic Thrawn. What more is there to say?

I loved Hera though. The shocked look when Thrawn said exactly what the heirloom was, demonstrating not only his own insight but also Hera's intelligence - you'll notice she dropped the act (and accent) immediately after, because she knew the gig was up if Thrawn was aware of what the statue was and its significance.

Also loved Thrawn zapping Ezra. It was subtle, but goes to show what kind of attention to detail the Grand Admiral has: why else would a random Scout Trooper intervene to "escort" the prisoner, when two perfectly capable stormtroopers were present? That and Ezra is a little short for a Storm Scout Trooper.

Thrawn's whole conversation was also pretty much his character from the books, walking his Imperial colleague (I won't say protégé as Slavin is clearly not in that league) through his logic chain, subtly prompting Slavin at points to reach the conclusion Thrawn came to long ago. I'd love to see a proper "Pellaeon" type protégé character for Thrawn on the show, that would be awesome.

The only "not Thrawn" moment was him (briefly) losing his cool with Slavin. But even in Legends Thrawn got angry at C'boath during their first encounter, and in this case it can be excused by Slavin's almost deliberate continued arrogance and ignorance, despite Thrawn walking him through it step-by-step moments earlier. Yeah, I can see where it would come from.

Overall, if anyone had doubts as to how Rebels would handle Thrawn, this episode should put them to rest.

[ray245]

However, we know that Thrawn will not defeat the Rebels. Thrawn as a character would only work well if he is the underdog. It's pointless to make him a Hannibal-like figure if Rome is a mere village.

[Raesene]

However, we know that Thrawn will not defeat the Rebels. Thrawn as a character would only work well if he is the underdog. It's pointless to make him a Hannibal-like figure if Rome is a mere village.

Depends on what you see as defeating them. He'll not stamp out the Rebellion as a whole, but can make survival very costly for them. I am sure he's still playing a long term goal and uses the group known to us as a tracking device get a chance to fight against a much larger force.

His remark of 'that's not the rebel fleet, let them go' at the few ships that rescued the Y-wing liberators hints at he knows more about the Rebellion as a whole (of course, he IS a Grand Admiral aftre all) than the previously encountered Imerial commanders (other than Tarkin who can't be bothered with that detail, he has a Death Star to finish in time). The previous adversaries (e.g. planetary governors, local fleet commanders, admirals supervising special projects) maybe/probably didn't get the complete briefing documents and maybe don't know how widespread dissent is in the galaxy. They probably didn't need to know, so they saw their little problem as a big one if not the only threat to the New Order.

[FaxModem1]

If they were to use Imperial characters to have a 'protege' for Thrawn, who could it be?

Tarkin is around his equal, and is more concerned with his Death Star.
Governor Pryce could be a possibility, though again, she seems more his equal.
Slavin is such a nimcompoop that Thrawn is only tolerating him.
Brom Titus seems to be eternally demoted due to is losing to Ezra's cell.

That leaves Kallus. A character who has received the most development on the Empire side, and is potentially becoming a Rebel. It could be an interesting relationship, as Kallus seems to be growing both a spine and a moral center. Though, if they just introduced Pallaeon, that would be fine with me.

[eMeM]

Slavin is certainly out

Kallus has "future Rebel" written all over his face, Tarkin is too important to be anyone's sidekick, Titus I think is too minor of a character, did he even survive the first episode?

I think Spalko Pryce is the most likely candidate for Thrawn's sidekick - maybe he doesn't outrank her (hard to say, governor is a civilian rank), but Holmes didn't outrank Watson either. She is not a lost cause like Slavin, seems to be quite capable on her own but at the same time she knows her limitations and is willing to learn from Thrawn and certainly believes his judgement more than anything else. She also has a reason to follow Thrawn around, as it is her sector that is causing trouble.

[Rogue 9]

Slavin is certainly out

Kallus has "future Rebel" written all over his face, Tarkin is too important to be anyone's sidekick, Titus I think is too minor of a character, did he even survive the first episode?

I think Spalko Pryce is the most likely candidate for Thrawn's sidekick - maybe he doesn't outrank her (hard to say, governor is a civilian rank), but Holmes didn't outrank Watson either. She is not a lost cause like Slavin, seems to be quite capable on her own but at the same time she knows her limitations and is willing to learn from Thrawn and certainly believes his judgement more than anything else. She also has a reason to follow Thrawn around, as it is her sector that is causing trouble.

Titus has survived both appearances so far; he escaped the Interdictor in an escape pod (that somehow avoided getting pulled back in by the malfunctioning gravity well generators) and was last seen ordering the evacuation of the scrapyard station in the season premiere. He wasn't seen making good his escape, but we don't see a death scene for him either.

[NecronLord]

Kallus would be interesting.

But then I subscribe to the 'Kallus is General Madine' conspiracy theory.

[hunter5]

I enjoyed this latest edition episode greatly. Thrawn comes across as both pleasant and terrifying at the same time. He definitely doesn't enjoy doing cruel things but has accepted they are necessary sometimes.

[RogueIce]

"Thrawn's Web" Audio Cue

So very happy they put this up there.