Disney Plus’ upcoming Ahsoka is expected to heavily feature fan-favorite villain Grand Admiral Thrawn. First introduced in the Legends continuity, but going on to reappear in Star Wars: Rebels, Thrawn is considered a tactical and military genius light years beyond your average Galactic Empire bozo.
Having someone actually intelligent, calculating, and driven at the helm of Imperial firepower is a scary prospect, as most of the Empire’s major defeats came from their arrogance, cutting corners, and simply being outwitted by the crafty Rebels. But Obi-Wan Kenobi has some fans on r/StarWars worried we might not get the Thrawn we deserve.
The culprit is the iffy writing, pointing to Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s finale where Vader chose to redirect his Star Destroyer to pursue his former Master, then chose to take a separate shuttle afterward to follow him to the planet. As the poster justifiably points out, “why didn’t Vader just take his shuttle to begin with” and let the Star Destroyer continue to chase the remaining refugees? In addition, a Star Destroyer comes with a full complement of TIE Fighters that could track and destroy this craft. How come they didn’t use them?
Why is this such a big problem? If Ahsoka‘s Thrawn suffers from the same “contrived” writing, then it’ll undermine him being a master tactician, which is kind of the entire point of the character. We can only agree that the screenwriters are going to have to “work harder” to get this character right.
The counterargument made in many replies is that there are many examples throughout the franchise (and in real life) where supposed military geniuses make boneheaded decisions.
It’s worth remembering that Thrawn hasn’t even been officially confirmed to appear in Ahsoka, so this may all just be worrying about nothing. Even so, if he does, let’s hope they get him right.
Ahsoka will premiere on Disney Plus in early 2023.
Published: Jul 5, 2022 03:24 am