Oooh, yellow striped Defender. Me want.

And boo to the Kanan/Hera drama.

Defenders, name dropping Krennic and stardust, X-Wings, U-Wings, Saw Guerrera, all-out war on Mandalore, that crazy lightning weapon that is reminiscent of certain Clone Wars weapons...

October 16th cannot come soon enough.

Chopper with the Megacaliber6 Slap

So Ghost outmanouvered 2 Tie Defenders. K...

So.. it seems Thrawn was a proponent of the TIE Defender as Krennic was for the Death Star, and due to political machinations, the death star wins out? That is interesting. Perhaps Thrawn gets tired of the political structure and leaks the defender plans/allows one to be stolen so the rebels can develop the x-wing?

Well, the Death Star was well under way at that point.

Well, now that I know the Death Star was stealing budget from the TIE Defender, I hate the Death Star. Thanks Rebels!

TIE Defender factory is on Lothal, and they are mining Lothal for Kyber crystals.

Maybe they finally decided to Base Delta Zero the planet (we are waiting for this since Season 1!) to make things fater and Thrawns little enterprise is not going to survive the operation.

Thrawn telling Rukh to go after Hera is intriguing. Especially if the writers are taking the Thrawn book into account.

55 minutes ago, eMeM said:

TIE Defender factory is on Lothal, and they are mining Lothal for Kyber crystals.

Where did that come from? In the book Thrawn, they are mining Lothal for metal doonium.

42 minutes ago, jmswood said:

Where did that come from? In the book Thrawn, they are mining Lothal for metal doonium.

Maybe it's both. I don't remember if I read it somewhere or just assumed it because of the Jedi temple, but I see that wookieepedia says there are Kyber crystals on Lothal and sources "Star Wars Rebels The Visual Guide".

EDIT And there was an episode in season 1 about a kyber shipment, the one with Ezra in the academy.

6 minutes ago, eMeM said:

Maybe it's both. I don't remember if I read it somewhere or just assumed it because of the Jedi temple, but I see that wookieepedia says there are Kyber crystals on Lothal and sources "Star Wars Rebels The Visual Guide".

EDIT And there was an episode in season 1 about a kyber shipment, the one with Ezra in the academy.

I remember the episode. I just can't remember if the crystal came from Lothal or not.

Interesting how the canon has flipped; it used to be the TIE Defender was designed as an answer to the X-wing; now the opposite appears to be true.

58 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

Interesting how the canon has flipped; it used to be the TIE Defender was designed as an answer to the X-wing; now the opposite appears to be true.

I think they did the same thing with the TIE Interceptor and the A-wing.

I'm actually gonna be pissed if the X-Wing is supposed to be reverse engineered from the Defender.

Defenders eat X-Wings alive!

Well, the TIE Defender has joined the Stormtroopers in the hall of 'convenient plot devices for the Rebels crew to wipe out to show how awesome they are'. Just waiting for one of them to kill Thrawn with a painfully obvious trick now. I'm thinking a well wrapped gift with a tag that says Thrawn on it that opens up to throw a pie in his face that also has a bomb in it. Or maybe Kanan and Ezra disguising themselves as Stormtroopers for the millionth time and having one push Thrawn while the other is behind him on his hands and knees so that he falls off one of the many seemingly bottomless pits that the Empire has. It just has to be something that dissolves all the awesomeness of a classic Star Wars thing and adds it as a trophy to the throne of the Ghost crew.

Why the **** bother to do an episode on Wedge and Hobbie, then probably end up with Hera doing the heroics in an X-wing?

Classic characters are here just for cameos while the "Rebels" do more and more stuff so awesome Palpatine will soon surrender to them.

11 hours ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

So.. it seems Thrawn was a proponent of the TIE Defender as Krennic was for the Death Star, and due to political machinations, the death star wins out? That is interesting. Perhaps Thrawn gets tired of the political structure and leaks the defender plans/allows one to be stolen so the rebels can develop the x-wing?

not enough time has passed for a whole new fighter to be designed, prototyped, and produced even in small numbers. that kind of thing takes years. so more likely X-wings will end up being the fighter the Rebellion turns to as a counter for the defender, since the A-wings and Y-wings clearly aren't sufficient.

i am curious as to whether we will see an episode dedicated to obtaining the X-wing.. or if we'll find out that Yavin base and the Dodonna cell already have them.

8 hours ago, eMeM said:

Maybe it's both. I don't remember if I read it somewhere or just assumed it because of the Jedi temple, but I see that wookieepedia says there are Kyber crystals on Lothal and sources "Star Wars Rebels The Visual Guide".

EDIT And there was an episode in season 1 about a kyber shipment, the one with Ezra in the academy.

we don't know if the shipment they blew up was from lothal, but the jedi temple on lothal had khyber crystal in it, that is where Ezra got his lightsaber crystal.

9 hours ago, jmswood said:

Where did that come from? In the book Thrawn, they are mining Lothal for metal doonium.

IIRC, the Thrawn novel came out before the reveal of the jedi temple on Lothal. but mining for other minerals would make a good cover for the Empire's search for and mining of khyber crystals. and since Lothal is supposed to have a fair bit of minerals (enough so that lando saw it as a viable money-making scheme) they may well be mining for other things as well. building and maintaining the imperial war machine probably uses up a lot of materials, so any source they can get would be exploited.

11 hours ago, DarthEnderX said:

Well, now that I know the Death Star was stealing budget from the TIE Defender, I hate the Death Star. Thanks Rebels!

yeah, the irony there is that the TIE Defender, if deployed in high enough numbers, would have been far more effective at destroying the rebellion than the Death Star would have. but the TIE Defender was a weapon of finesse and skill, and the empire tended more towards brute strength and intimidation. which the Deathstars perfectly encapsulate. so the deathstars won out.

actually, since we known Thrawn still had ties to the Chiss while in Imperial service, we might find out that he had the design of the Defender copied over to them.. so even if the Empire never used it fully because of the deathstars, a future product might see the Chiss deploying a "Mk.II Defender" or something..

1 hour ago, mithril2098 said:

actually, since we known Thrawn still had ties to the Chiss while in Imperial service, we might find out that he had the design of the Defender copied over to them.. so even if the Empire never used it fully because of the deathstars, a future product might see the Chiss deploying a "Mk.II Defender" or something..

Or more likely, that the Chiss Clawcraft is built on Defender technology.

19 minutes ago, DarthEnderX said:

Or more likely, that the Chiss Clawcraft is built on Defender technology.

Visually, at least, that would make sense.

6 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

yeah, the irony there is that the TIE Defender, if deployed in high enough numbers, would have been far more effective at destroying the rebellion than the Death Star would have. but the TIE Defender was a weapon of finesse and skill, and the empire tended more towards brute strength and intimidation. which the Deathstars perfectly encapsulate. so the deathstars won out.

The Deathstar was not meant to defeat the Rebellion directly. The Deathstar was meant to intimidate and subjugate an empire that spans countless solar systems that is so large that it would be logistically impossible for the Imperial military to successfully maintain control over. Having the ability to simply have a battle station drop out of hyperspace near orbit anywhere, anytime, and destroy your entire world within the couple minutes it takes to acquire a firing solution with no possible defense would prevent the need to have a military presence everywhere in Imperial space as no one would dare rebel, and would likely end up crushing the rebellion as supporting it, like Alderaan did with the galaxies worst kept secret, would be suicide for everyone on your world.

People would be lining Rebels up against the wall for the Empire just to save themselves.

The Defender and the Death Star approached the idea of military superiority and Imperial victory from two entirely different angles. If it wasn't for Galen Erso's gambit and Tarkin's overconfidence, it would have worked. Thrawn should have been in command of the Death Star

7 hours ago, mithril2098 said:

IIRC, the Thrawn novel came out before the reveal of the jedi temple on Lothal. but mining for other minerals would make a good cover for the Empire's search for and mining of khyber crystals. and since Lothal is supposed to have a fair bit of minerals (enough so that lando saw it as a viable money-making scheme) they may well be mining for other things as well. building and maintaining the imperial war machine probably uses up a lot of materials, so any source they can get would be exploited.

I don't know what IIRC stands for, but I know you're wrong about the publication timeline. The Jedi Temple on Lothal first appeared in Season 1 of Rebels. The Thrawn novel wasn't written until last year, and wasn't published until after the completion of Season 3.

The story timeline places the events of the novel before Star Wars Rebels. It's possible the Empire found Kyber on Lothal and is mining for it during the Rebels timeline, but it isn't stated in any source material. Here's what we know for sure: Arinda Pryce sold out the entire planet to the Empire so she could be governor. The Empire wanted Lothal for doonium. The doonium mined on Lothal is for the Death Star; the Thrawn novel had a subplot dedicated to the Death Star's supply line. I'm not saying the Empire isn't mining Kyber on Lothal. I am saying Lothal's importance to the Imperial war machine is well established without speculating about Kyber crystals.

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly,

Just now, Rakaydos said:

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly,

thanks

Read the 3 novels by Tim Zahn: Heir to the empire,dark force rising and the last command. Outstanding and eye opening.