Online Series: Star Wars: Ahsoka (August 23rd)

[Hivemind]

I mean i literally have the television show to show that he didnt view Ezra as a real threat.

Which is, like I said, bad writing.

 

[Sad People]

Which is, like I said, bad writing.

And thats completely subjective.

 

[Hivemind]

And thats completely subjective.

You think that the "smart villain" (Thrawn) not viewing the very Jedi who defeated him (and will inevitably be involved in his eventual defeat, whether it be in this show or a subequent movie) as not a threat is good writing? I know there are some serious Star Wars apologists out there, but come on. Thrawn isn't a dumb villain, he's supposed to be the cunning one.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

**Not my Thrawn!

 

[Sad People]

You think that the "smart villain" (Thrawn) not viewing the very Jedi who defeated him (and will inevitably be involved in his eventual defeat, whether it be in this show or a subequent movie) as not a threat is good writing? I know there are some serious Star Wars apologists out there, but come on. Thrawn isn't a dumb villain, he's supposed to be the cunning one.

I deleted it because I was rude and was out of line.

My apologies.

 

[Eco]

I mean i literally have the television show to show that he didnt view Ezra as a real threat.

Yes, but we are speaking on the original TV show in which he was the greatest threat to Thrawn.

 

[RandV]

You think that the "smart villain" (Thrawn) not viewing the very Jedi who defeated him (and will inevitably be involved in his eventual defeat, whether it be in this show or a subequent movie) as not a threat is good writing? I know there are some serious Star Wars apologists out there, but come on. Thrawn isn't a dumb villain, he's supposed to be the cunning one.

From what I recall of the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and with no knowledge of Rebels, I think everyone is missing the obvious one here: Thrawn doesn't waste good men for no purpose, and he respects the power of the force. He's 'exiled' in a different galaxy with only his one ship & crew and no chance for resupply or re-enforcement. So at this point how costly is it going to be to eliminate a Jedi, and what does it serve?

When Ahsoka dove into the bone field, he called his ships back. He dispensed two squads to dispatch Sabine and Ezra, but only when he had Baylan and Shin leading the charge. When Baylan didn't appear and then Ahsoka joined making it a 3 vs 1 against Shin, he called his troops back. See the pattern there?

Like while Vader will force choke someone at the slightest bit of displeasure, one of the first thing Timothy Zhan did with Thrawn's character is establishing him as the opposite. A scene with a tractor beam tech that went something like: 'you let Luke Skywalker get away and you didn't follow standard procedure... but that was a very clever attempt at improvising, you're promoted.'

Now back to the Ahsoka episode where I think the writers did fail big time is while the ground battle was lost he had Ahsoka's ship completely on the ropes, why did he call back those fighters? Not like the Jedi on the ground could do anything, just keep chasing the ship till they shoot it down or it's time to leave.

 

[Hivemind]

From what I recall of the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and with no knowledge of Rebels, I think everyone is missing the obvious one here: Thrawn doesn't waste good men for no purpose, and he respects the power of the force. He's 'exiled' in a different galaxy with only his one ship & crew and no chance for resupply or re-enforcement. So at this point how costly is it going to be to eliminate a Jedi, and what does it serve?

When Ahsoka dove into the bone field, he called his ships back. He dispensed two squads to dispatch Sabine and Ezra, but only when he had Baylan and Shin leading the charge. When Baylan didn't appear and then Ahsoka joined making it a 3 vs 1 against Shin, he called his troops back. See the pattern there?

Like while Vader will force choke someone at the slightest bit of displeasure, one of the first thing Timothy Zhan did with Thrawn's character is establishing him as the opposite. A scene with a tractor beam tech that went something like: 'you let Luke Skywalker get away and you didn't follow standard procedure... but that was a very clever attempt at improvising, you're promoted.'

Now back to the Ahsoka episode where I think the writers did fail big time is while the ground battle was lost he had Ahsoka's ship completely on the ropes, why did he call back those fighters? Not like the Jedi on the ground could do anything, just keep chasing the ship till they shoot it down or it's time to leave.

I mean the first military action we see Thrawn do in Ahsoka is waste good men. In episode 7 he sends two squads in order to just waste time. No captures, no casualties inflicted, just wasting them. And in previous episodes we knew his plan was always to send two squads behind Shin and Baylan.

What purpose would chasing Ezra serve? How about eliminating the one threat to Thrawn on the planet he's exiled to? Why wait for Ezra to get reinforcements before finally sending men after him? That's such a patently absurd decision to make. "Oh now that there are *more* Jedi, I will try and kill them. Back when there was only one, I definitely couldn't have afforded it. But now that there's two and a half, this is the time to invest men!"

Thrawn wasn't afraid to commit to engaging Ezra (or Kanaan) when he had him cornered in Rebels. Thrawn didn't demand force-sensitive back-ups to attack. Having Ezra pinned on that planet with a whole battalion of Night Troopers (not to mention a Star Destroyer) at his disposal is precisely the position where Thrawn would utilize his strength to quash the lone threat to him on the planet *before* that threat had a chance to gain allies.

Besides, what else are Thrawn and his men doing during those ten years? Patching up the Chimaera, sure. Then what, 9 more years of painting their armor red and chanting "Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn?"

 

[#37]

I mean the first military action we see Thrawn do in Ahsoka is waste good men. In episode 7 he sends two squads in order to just waste time. No captures, no casualties inflicted, just wasting them. And in previous episodes we knew his plan was always to send two squads behind Shin and Baylan.

What purpose would chasing Ezra serve? How about eliminating the one threat to Thrawn on the planet he's exiled to? Why wait for Ezra to get reinforcements before finally sending men after him? That's such a patently absurd decision to make. "Oh now that there are *more* Jedi, I will try and kill them. Back when there was only one, I definitely couldn't have afforded it. But now that there's two and a half, this is the time to invest men!"

Thrawn wasn't afraid to commit to engaging Ezra (or Kanaan) when he had him cornered in Rebels. Thrawn didn't demand force-sensitive back-ups to attack. Having Ezra pinned on that planet with a whole battalion of Night Troopers (not to mention a Star Destroyer) at his disposal is precisely the position where Thrawn would utilize his strength to quash the lone threat to him on the planet *before* that threat had a chance to gain allies.

Besides, what else are Thrawn and his men doing during those ten years? Patching up the Chimaera, sure. Then what, 9 more years of painting their armor red and chanting "Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn?"

Thrawn isn't exiled on that planet, he is exiled in that galaxy. So, technically, just leaving Ezra stranded on that planet was actually a good bit of strategic thinking. All he has to do is keep Ezra's head down whenever he visits the Great Mothers and it's job done. The rest of the time his men can cruise Chimaera at sub-light speed or just orbit the planet while doing repairs, maintenance, and training.

One would think that the Great Mothers would have the greater vested interest in capturing or destroying Ezra. He is on their home planet, after all. Perhaps they are hedging their bets. If they get tired of Thrawn they could always use Ezra to put him down. Whoever wins a Thrawn vs. Ezra showdown will be weaker for it and then its just a matter of the Great Mothers mopping it up.

Also, the red on the storm-trooper armor looks like tape to me. They have no replacements and are forced to make due. Rather than giving the appearance of a rag-tag and motley crew, they come off looking like battle-hardened veterans with a high esprit de corp. It would be foolish to throw them away cheaply.

 

[MadDevil]

There's still a lot about the whole situation we don't know. Like, what happened after the Chimaera was pulled through hyperspace by the purgill? Thrawn and Ezra were both on the ship, so did Ezra fight his way off the ship and just go into hiding? Or have there been multiple encounters, leading to the dwindling of their numbers as Thrawn put it? When did the Great Mothers get involved, and what are they after? What other uses of their "dark magic" has Thrawn employed? I know the speculation is the Night Troopers are Nightsister magic but I think the cargo they've been loading for two episodes is something else they've concocted. The containers have looked a lot like coffins or some kind of stasis chamber. I wonder if this is going to be a take or remix on the cloning cylinders from the Thrawn Trilogy?

Maybe we'll get Luke vs Luuke after all.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

There's still a lot about the whole situation we don't know. Like, what happened after the Chimaera was pulled through hyperspace by the purgill? Thrawn and Ezra were both on the ship, so did Ezra fight his way off the ship and just go into hiding? Or have there been multiple encounters, leading to the dwindling of their numbers as Thrawn put it? When did the Great Mothers get involved, and what are they after? What other uses of their "dark magic" has Thrawn employed? I know the speculation is the Night Troopers are Nightsister magic but I think the cargo they've been loading for two episodes is something else they've concocted. The containers have looked a lot like coffins or some kind of stasis chamber. I wonder if this is going to be a take or remix on the cloning cylinders from the Thrawn Trilogy?

Maybe we'll get Luke vs Luuke after all.

Just to be clear, my laugh is for Luke vs Luuke.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

I mean the first military action we see Thrawn do in Ahsoka is waste good men. In episode 7 he sends two squads in order to just waste time. No captures, no casualties inflicted, just wasting them. And in previous episodes we knew his plan was always to send two squads behind Shin and Baylan.

What purpose would chasing Ezra serve? How about eliminating the one threat to Thrawn on the planet he's exiled to? Why wait for Ezra to get reinforcements before finally sending men after him? That's such a patently absurd decision to make. "Oh now that there are *more* Jedi, I will try and kill them. Back when there was only one, I definitely couldn't have afforded it. But now that there's two and a half, this is the time to invest men!"

Thrawn wasn't afraid to commit to engaging Ezra (or Kanaan) when he had him cornered in Rebels. Thrawn didn't demand force-sensitive back-ups to attack. Having Ezra pinned on that planet with a whole battalion of Night Troopers (not to mention a Star Destroyer) at his disposal is precisely the position where Thrawn would utilize his strength to quash the lone threat to him on the planet *before* that threat had a chance to gain allies.

Besides, what else are Thrawn and his men doing during those ten years? Patching up the Chimaera, sure. Then what, 9 more years of painting their armor red and chanting "Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn Thrawn?"

Those good men are zombies. I think they are described as Night Troopers, as they are Golem's created by Night Sister Magic who are wearing ST armor. Thrawn made a calculated decision that the time bought for the loss of a few witch ST's was well worth it.

I'm not a huge fan of how Thrawn has been used so far, but it's also only been 2 episodes. I'll reserve my judgement until the end of the series. He's been well written through out the series of books in the new canon, and Zahn is essentially signing off on the incorporation of Thrawn into the TV/Movie series.

 

[Hivemind]

Those good men are zombies. I think they are described as Night Troopers, as they are Golem's created by Night Sister Magic who are wearing ST armor. Thrawn made a calculated decision that the time bought for the loss of a few witch ST's was well worth it.

I'm not a huge fan of how Thrawn has been used so far, but it's also only been 2 episodes. I'll reserve my judgement until the end of the series. He's been well written through out the series of books in the new canon, and Zahn is essentially signing off on the incorporation of Thrawn into the TV/Movie series.

Night Sister magic zombies or otherwise, there was a whole scene where he discussed with Morgan Ellsbeth how many troops he should send, and treated them as a limited resource in that conversation. Additionally, follow the context of that conversation back a bit. If they're not a limited resource, it would make even less sense that he never took out Ezra. The whole "I bought us time" thing is just silly. He bought them like 20 minutes of fighting, and if anything, helped accelerate Ahsoka's quest to find Sabine and unite with her and Ezra by forcing Ahsoka out of the debris field quicker. It's just the same crutch the writers used with Thrawn in Rebels a few times where he clearly lost, but they let him have a little bit of dialogue at the end to pretend it was all part of a master plan.

 

[MadDevil]

Yeah there was quite a bit of "we've lost this battle, but it's part of my strategy to win the war" from Thrawn in Rebels. Although ultimately he would have won if it wasn't for Ezra and the space whales, which was the unknown he couldn't factor in to his strategy.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Thrawn just didn't want to get punked by Ahsoka in front of the Nightsisters and his lil baddie Morgan. If Filoni wasn't a coward there would be a Eye of Sion hot tub scene in the finale with all 5 of them.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Yeah there was quite a bit of "we've lost this battle, but it's part of my strategy to win the war" from Thrawn in Rebels. Although ultimately he would have won if it wasn't for Ezra and the space whales, which was the unknown he couldn't factor in to his strategy.

The OG Thrawn trilogy is full of these moments; Thrawn giving up land or retreating from battles to gain time to get resources, men, and equipment in place.

 

[RandV]

Yeah there was quite a bit of "we've lost this battle, but it's part of my strategy to win the war" from Thrawn in Rebels. Although ultimately he would have won if it wasn't for Ezra and the space whales, which was the unknown he couldn't factor in to his strategy.

I'm assuming the space whales provide one more get out of jail free card. They were forced to flee when they showed up in a mine field, but they're probably circling around back to perform their funeral ritual (just the most elderly, not all of them!). So Thrawn & crew will warp back leaving Ahsoka stranded, but then the whales will pop back up to give them their ride back.

 

[Dubi Doo]

I mean the first military action we see Thrawn do in Ahsoka is waste good men. In episode 7 he sends two squads in order to just waste time. No captures, no casualties inflicted, just wasting them. And in previous episodes we knew his plan was always to send two squads behind Shin and Baylan.

To be fair, he didn't expect Baylan to bail on Shin to go and have an honorable fight against Ashoka, which ultimately proved to be foolish as it allowed Ashoka to aid Ezra while Baylan was AWOL.

Thrawn even mentions Baylan deviating from the plan as a reason they lost. Winning wasn't the most important result, anyways. He wanted to buy as much time as possible to get off the planet, and providing two squads to aid Baylan and Shin bought him more time. In his mind, more time > two squads of men.

 

[Sad People]

Mortis gods coming! And Anakins force ghost was cool as hell!!!

Not a fan of Sabine using the force and in the ways that she did but it is what it is.

Ahsoka and Morgan’s fight scene was really good. Probably the best of the series.

 

[Sad People]

This show is obviously a transition or a set up series for Dave’s movie or movies.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Mortis gods coming! And Anakins force ghost was cool as hell!!!

Not a fan of Sabine using the force and in the ways that she did but it is what it is.

Ahsoka and Morgan’s fight scene was really good. Probably the best of the series.

I might have missed something, what made you believe the Mortis gods are coming?

I was entertained by this finale... but so many questions remain. Nice cliff hanger. It will definitely leads somewhere. I wonder if they will recast Baylan... they kinda have to.

 

[Sad People]

I might have missed something, what made you believe the Mortis gods are coming?

I was entertained by this finale... but so many questions remain. Nice cliff hanger. It will definitely leads somewhere. I wonder if they will recast Baylan... they kinda have to.

The statue Baylan is standing on at the end of the episode are the father and the son to his to the right with the daughter (assuming) is destroyed to the left.

 

[GabeTravels]

I actually didn't mind Sabine's force usage.

A little bit of a transition episode which is a bit off for a finale, but I think one we all saw coming.

The Morgan fight was great.

Pleasantly surprised that Ezra actually made it home... Didn't quite expect that. Expected just Ahsoka to be left behind.

LOVED the callbacks to the Force Pushing on Malachor and Sabine's Saber through the face ala Rey.

Mortis statue was cool.

Dathomir being Thrawn's destination pretty much confirms what the cargo is.

Really excited for next season. Lots of potential.

 

[AlanHUK]

Wonder if you get a thrawn film or even a trilogy of films starting with one based around heir to the empire, they’d be limited with what they can do due to the sequel timeline though.

And then use season 2 of Ahsoka to explore the mortis gods in the new galaxy so it has more freedom since it can be done without the constraints of the sequel trilogy

 

[HanSolo]

Pleasantly surprised that my prediction about the ending was only half right but wrong where it counted. I can see Ezra being the catalyst for a rescue operation funded by the New Republic. He's as good a confirmation that Thrawn returned as you're going to get. (Also I have to respect the writing to the extent that on some level I really couldn't tell whether Sabine would go with Ezra or stay behind to help Ashoka, the more cliched ending ensued but it wasn't exactly predictable)

Overall it was a fun ending. Not the most satisfying ending possible but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I didn't mind Sabine getting a spike in her combat abilities. She's still shown to be quite a bit below Ashoka and Ezra's level and I can buy that she trained enough under Ashoka to be good enough at blaster blocking. Past that, Sabine was always proficient in combat albeit with blasters so it wasn't that tough a pill to swallow to see her be effective against the troopers.

Zombie troopers were more fun than I was expecting them to be. As it started to become obvious what they were, I had this inkling that I'd mentally reject the idea as out of place in Star Wars but it didn't bother me.

As I said below, the fight between Ashoka and Elsbeth was really well done and I enjoyed seeing Ezra in some good old fashioned jedi action. Still, without having been the biggest Rebels fan, I'm bought into this live action Ezra.

The only real glaring complaint I have is all the troopers going from mindlessly advancing to kill the jedi heroes to stopping cold to let Ashoka and Elsbeth fight until Sabine makes her appearance then they snap out of it. But honestly there's so many moments across Star Wars where, if you really stopped to think about what the bad guys "could have done instead" with technology where it was at and moments like Ewoks dummying the biggest military might in the galaxy, the whole of Star Wars becomes stupid. So it doesn't bother me too much. I guess the Sabine push was a bit silly too.

Bummer that they're pretty much going to have to recast Ray Stevenson.

Overall I think this season comes out in the upper end of the Disney era of Star Wars between things I did or didn't like and can rewatch. In that mix of Episode 7, Andor, Solo and the first two seasons of Mando with Andor being the only truly outstanding product so far. A fun and entertaining yet flawed jedi adventure. They could have and have done worse. I'd give it a solid 7/10.

Mortis gods coming! And Anakins force ghost was cool as hell!!!

Not a fan of Sabine using the force and in the ways that she did but it is what it is.

Ahsoka and Morgan’s fight scene was really good. Probably the best of the series.

I would argue best of the Disney era. And ironically, the previous duel between Morgan and Ashoka in Mando S2 probably held that crown beforehand.

I might have missed something, what made you believe the Mortis gods are coming?

I was entertained by this finale... but so many questions remain. Nice cliff hanger. It will definitely leads somewhere. I wonder if they will recast Baylan... they kinda have to.

Yeah I can't see how they can just off screen death him.