Editing Star Wars:Rebels (section)

==Thrawn==

Forget all that noise about Imperial incompetence, because the real bad of Rebels doesn't disappoint.  Grand Admiral Thrawn is in peak form in Rebels.  He's observant, he's ruthless, he plays the long game, and he's [[Frazetta Man|fucking ripped for a guy who's into art]] and strategy.  

Thrawn's first spotlight moment is on Ryloth, when Hera attempts to steal back her family's Kalikori heirloom.  Thrawn (understanding the artifact's significance) instantly realizes her identity as the daughter of Ryloth's renegade leader, while his aide Slavin struggles to put the pieces together (with Thrawn literally having to spell it out for the guy).  Taking an interest in the actions of Hera's band of rebels, Thrawn begins collecting Sabine Wren's graffiti.

Another moment was when Agent Kallus, now a double agent for the rebels, assisted Ezra in hacking the records of Thrawn's search for the rebel base and then reprogramming some combat training droids as assassins (which Thrawn beats down like a boss).  Kallus attempts to pin the incident on Lieutenant Lys, effectively throwing off everyone including Wullf Yularen... except Thrawn, who deduces that Kallus switched sides and uses him to leak false intelligence.  The giveaways?  Thrawn's knowledge of his subordinates  and Ezra's helmet.  Thrawn knew Lys isn't that skilled and that someone like Fulcrum wouldn't get caught so easily.  Thrawn recognized the helmet's custom paint-job as a symbol of Lothal and Sabine's handiwork, identifying its owner as Ezra, and the fact that Kallus didn't tell them their "captive" was Ezra combined with Thrawn's knowledge of Kallus' abilities allowed him to deduce that Kallus was Fulcrum.

In Imperial politics, Thrawn is a pragmatist standing in opposition to the Death Star project as it draws resources away from his own projects.  He sees it as [[Nazi Equipment#Wunderwaffen|a waste on big dumb object]] when the Empire would have an enormous advantage over the rebels [[meme|once the TIE Defender is mass produced]].  Thrawn was even going to make his case to the Emperor about this, but unwittingly waited too long.  Just after Thrawn left to persuade the Emperor, the TIE Defender project was ruined by Pryce's incompetence and Rebel sabotage.

Thrawn's only mistake was his dismissal of the supernatural despite knowing about the Force, Jedi and Sith.  He knew about the planet Atollon from folklore, where he found the rebel base, but didn't look further and learn about the godlike Force entity Bendu (whose intervention enabled the Rebels to escape and decimated Thrawn's forces).  To be fair, while Thrawn admitted to Ezra that he didn't know much about the Force, Thrawn had the Resistance on the ropes then and was only beaten by Ezra using the Force to call a pod of giant space whales (which Thrawn had no way of knowing would show up).

In summary, Rebels gives Thrawn fair treatment as one of the most dangerous men in the Empire.  He's not a force-choking sith lord, nor a power crazed moff with a superweapon.  He's an efficient and brutally intelligent admiral who will use everything at his disposal to hunt down the empire's enemies, and the only way to beat him is to exploit the flaws of his officers, have the attacker sacrifice themselves to bring Thrawn down with them or hit him with something nobody would expect.

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