Showing that you will be left alone if you manage to kick out your garrison is a terrible strategy for an Empire rtying to put down a rebellion, it doesn't matter if there is any tactical value in holding the planet.

7 minutes ago, That Blasted Samophlange said:

Why does something being animated need to be for kids?

To be fair, Sithborg never said that something being animated made it a kid's show. All he said was that "kids' cartoons" can't explore all issues as deeply or earnestly as other more nuanced or mature venues of story-telling could.

Certainly DISNEY could, in theory, make an animated Star Wars show for adults. Sithborg wasn't implying they could not. But it is absolutely the case that Rebels and the other previous Star Wars cartoons were made as kids shows, and run an on kids network. This is evidenced by its Rating and the fact that it sells its advertisement space (commercials) almost exclusively to toys and other kids' products, since these are who marketers have identified as its target audience and its largest audience.

1 minute ago, Ktan said:

I was thinking exactly the same thing myself.

Lothal's primary infrastructure has been destroyed and the main tactical reason the Empire went there in the first place is gone too.

If the Death Star was around still they'd have no doubt used it on Lothal. But invading a planet with a hostile population and hostile fauna that's primary useful infrastructure and tactical resources are gone? When they first took Lothal it was a trivial, there wasn't even an invasion. Invading Lothal now would be an extremely hug cost to sink for no tactical reason.

Deciding to not invade Lothal is probably the most tactically smart thing the Empire could do. Perhaps it serves as a propaganda victory but clearly Lothal just doesn't make the news in the same way. The Empire deliberately publicised the Death Star, so it was kind of hard to cover up the fact it was destroyed. They'd be committing to a sunk cost fallacy just for revenge and what would probably be a very minor propaganda victory. I doubt it's really worth it when you're dealing with various other cells and hostile populations.

Stories would spread about Lothal but I reckon the Empire deals with that sort of propaganda issue all the time. Ryloth is in a similar situation IIRC

The Romans burnt entire populations simply for resisting Roman rule. All Empires in history have shown a behavior of petty retaliation to save face for humiliating defeat.

Filoni wanted to give Lothal a happy ending because Filoni, despite his many strengths, can never muster gloom. When he does, he undercuts that soon after like he regretted doing that. He is overly attached to his characters and creations to an unhealthy point.

I think in this particular case it's less Filoni and more Disney XD.

At least I hope so because Filoni is my only hope for decent Star Wars at this point.

1 minute ago, eMeM said:

Showing that you will be left alone if you manage to kick out your garrison is a terrible strategy for an Empire rtying to put down a rebellion, it doesn't matter if there is any tactical value in holding the planet.

I certainly agree, and it's why in the Old Canon the Rebels constantly had to abandon their bases at even the whiff of the Empire, and part of the reason their bases were always on remote and uninhabited planets. It's why the Mon Calamari "exodus fleet" was a thing. The Mon Cals had to construct their navy in secret (as both underwater "housing" structures and as "commercial civilian star liners") while maintaining nice with the Empire, and when they felt they couldn't manage that ruse any longer all the MC-Ships suddenly left and went into hiding as part of the Exodus Fleet, eventually forming the backbone of the Alliance's navy.

In the old canon, I agree that resisting the Empire and blowing up a few Star Destroyers would only be met with something ranging from far harder subjugation all the way through relentless planetary bombardment, and the actual "punishment" probably only depended on how valuable your world's resources or structures were to the Empire. But this is both Nu Canon and Disney's kid-story era, where a half dozen heroes and one VCX need to be able to defeat, without repercussions, a half dozen Imperial Warships and a whole Garrison of troops. So I guess all we can do is try to dress that reality up with some head canon (which could even be that, one week after the finale, even though Sabine and Hera have since left Lothal, a fleet of Star Destroyers arrive at Lothal and bombard the major cities into dust, :D)

5 minutes ago, eMeM said:

Showing that you will be left alone if you manage to kick out your garrison is a terrible strategy for an Empire rtying to put down a rebellion, it doesn't matter if there is any tactical value in holding the planet.

Again, I think you are confusing the old EU where the Empire had and maintained total control, everywhere, and didn't suffer defeats.

The Mandalorians overthrew their installed Imperial governor and became independent. The Empire made a treaty with the Hutts, rather than trying to control any of their worlds. They also allowed the Corporate Sector Authority (referenced in canon) to act as a buffer to other systems they couldn't control. Basically, in new-canon material, the Empire frequently failed to subjugate any of the Outer Rim worlds (which, indeed, Mandalore and Lothal were part of).

Heck, the Empire even failed to retain control of Alderaan, and that a core world.

1 minute ago, eMeM said:

I think in this particular case it's less Filoni and more Disney XD.

At least I hope so because Filoni is my only hope for decent Star Wars at this point.

Absolutely Filoni.

Ashoka, Rex, Wolfe, Hondo, and Gregor are the only characters from Clone Wars that Filoni created and surprise, they're still alive through another series and beyond.

Filoni has the potential to be the greatest Star Wars story teller other then Lucas, his ideas are fantastic and the execution has created some of the coolest moments in Star Wars but his sentimentality is his undoing.

5 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Again, I think you are confusing the old EU where the Empire had and maintained total control, everywhere, and didn't suffer defeats.

Heck, the Empire even failed to retain control of Alderaan, and that a core world.

They never lost control of Alderaan, it was still an Imperial world when it went poof. Certain politicians aiding the Rebels is not the same as the planet declaring independence.

Eh. Nu-canon is a mistake.

24 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Again, I think you are confusing the old EU where the Empire had and maintained total control, everywhere, and didn't suffer defeats.

The Mandalorians overthrew their installed Imperial governor and became independent. The Empire made a treaty with the Hutts, rather than trying to control any of their worlds. They also allowed the Corporate Sector Authority (referenced in canon) to act as a buffer to other systems they couldn't control. Basically, in new-canon material, the Empire frequently failed to subjugate any of the Outer Rim worlds (which, indeed, Mandalore and Lothal were part of).

Heck, the Empire even failed to retain control of Alderaan, and that a core world.

I'm inclined to agree. Rebels shows the Empire is having lots of trouble with planets like Ryloth and Mandalore, amongst many others, I'm sure. They basically had to buy off the Mandalorians with a puppet leader.

Given the Empire comes into fruition off the back of the massive scale Clone Wars which the Republic was struggling to deal with independent worlds in, it makes sense that the Galactic Empire is going to be somewhat depleted and have difficulty with various worlds, especially those on the fringes. for me, an Empire still reeling from the consequences of a massive galactic war does make sense.

In Legends the Empire was so comically powerful that it beggars belief that Endor could have even made a difference. That said, one thing I like about Legends is how it dealt with the fracturing of the Empire. At least the Empire taking decades to dissolve is consitent with the way it painted the Empire.

So it's horses for courses. I personally prefer the version of the Empire that is dangerous, but also spread thin. Empires are hardly stable anyway, constantly having to put down revolts and rebellions, even the most successful ones. So that feel authentic to me.

But I want to be clear, I'm not criticising anyone who like the Legends idea of the Empire. I just like the Canon one we have atm.

If, however, you are attached to the Legends idea of the Empire, I can get why angry narwhals is not a satisfying conclusion to you.

18 minutes ago, Forresto said:

They never lost control of Alderaan, it was still an Imperial world when it went poof. Certain politicians aiding the Rebels is not the same as the planet declaring independence.

To be fair, when a 15 or 16 year old girl from the Senate is able to go around intimidating commissioned officers due to her political clout, I have to question how stable that military dictatorship is. Even in back in the first film it was pretty heavily implied that despite her obviously being a Rebel she was still a big threat politically, even to Vader. "Holding her is dangerous"

IIRC, the Senate was only finally dissolved when the Emperor though the Death Star gave him the means to rule without having to deal with administering a puppet government. Sure, Alderaan wasn't independent but it was clearly and flagrantly violating Imperial Law and they didn't feel like they had the means to deal with that until the Death Star. That's pretty embarrassing for the Empire.

I am just willing to chalk it up to Thrawn's political enemies writing off Lothal as all on Thrawn, and that continuing to try to control it was a mistake of Thrawn, don't repeat his mistakes. I am about halfway through the Thrawn novel, so that makes total sense to me. All they really need to do is to ignore it until the Death Star is destroyed, which Lothal becomes irrellevent, as I doubt they were a Rebel stronghold.

12 minutes ago, eMeM said:

Eh. Nu-canon is a mistake.

NU cannon is never a mistake.

GUNBOATS. Deal with it.

1 minute ago, GrimmyV said:

NU cannon is never a mistake.

GUNBOATS. Deal with it.

But the nu-canon removed gunboats

Let's be real. The true sin of Rebels was reintroducing the Dark Trooper before and instead of reintroducing the Gunboat.

I'm not saying the Empire would have won at Lothal if it had had the Gunboat.

But Thrawn did invent the Missile Boat.

So my Armada Chimaera Expansion Pack arrived broken and beat up...

On one hand its adding to the snark of my Thrawn experience the past few days...

On the other hand at least I know where the Chimaera ended up...

Purrgil are excellent couriers, but they do come with their drawbacks.

[Goes the the Armada forum and starts a "Purrgil Expansion WHEN?" thread]

So.. what happens post Rebels and Return of the Jedi? What are the ramifications of the finale?

Some smaller things first; Jacen Syndulla. The whole line of we all know what his father was like was set to a tightening shot of Chopper..

all joking aside, let us assume Jacen is Kanan’s kid. What do we know of Twi’lek procreation? We do know that the females and makes have differing features (ears versus cones). Now the conjecture of course that Kanan and Hera had sex at some point, which is fair enough, they are both adults. But what if twi’lek (females) are a bit like a newer tentacle headed species, the asari? Who says that twi’lek don't take DNA from other species? Not to mention cloning being an option, but lets stick to biological musings. Perhaps all Hera needed was some DNA, say from a lock of hair to “absorb” and produce a child, if Jacen is indeed biologically related to Hera (and Kanan).

Next interesting thing; Sabine and Ahsoka. While I like the idea of Luke meeting Ahsoka at some point, it not the focus here. What is interesting is the ship Ahsoka showed up on. It looks like a republic/jedi one from several Clone Wars episodes. Yes, assets are reused, but what if Ahsoka found a crashed relic on Malachor and fixed it up? It would explain her absence, as it could take time to repair on that world.

But lets talk about her and Sabine. The idea of Sabine and Ahsoka going off to find Ezra is exciting. There is so much to explore to find him. A series where they go off the map, into the “here be dragons” unknown of the galaxy far far away has lots of potential.

Now, the big thing; Thrawn and Ezra. It is implied that they survive, so lets run with that. The purrgil will drop the Chimaera (and rest of the imperial fleet?) off somewhere. Much like Sabine and Ahsoka, I expect a story here where Thrawn and Ezra join forces to survive in an unknown place (and time?). This puts Ezra in an intersting place as the moral centre compared to Thrawn’s tactical machinations. If these two, and the Chimaera, are thrown into and placed where they can have Lost in Space/Star Trek Voyager adventure it could be really cool. Perhaps this is the new outbound flight?

The namedrop of Pellaeon was purposeful. If his character is maintained, then he would likely temper thrawns anger and Ezra’s virtues.

The idea of this type of series, much like the above idea with Ahsoka and Sabine, is appealing as it is a new area for Star Wars to explore. Plus, a Battlestar Galactica imperial themed fleet flying through the unknown is cool.

The Chimaera name leads into this idea, if the fleet was wisked away, as it was damaged and repairing it by combining multiple ships is fitting.

So, if this was a series, things I would love are; some heroic imperial characters. This can be done by virtue of them not being in direct command of the Emperor, because they are lost.

You have the visual aesthetic of the Empire. TIEs are cool. However, Thrawn may well have copies of the Defender plans. If you are going to survive in unknown space, the simple TIE may not fare well, but if you could claw together a craft that resembles a TIE, but not made by the Empire, well, that would be spiffy.

Thrawn commanding an outbound flight, with Ezra and Pelleaon at his side, with a ragtag Former imperial fleet/ship and them making the Clawcraft? I'd be down for that.

Pelleaon was not on the Chimaera. He was a part of the orbital blockade massacred by ******* space whales.

Still can't believe that.

Likely, the fleet survived, just now they are where ever Thrawn and Ezra are.

Also, I kind of want Ahsoka's big red ship in the game now.

Am I the only one who was surprised by how thorough the ending was? I had not expected the tale to stretch for several years up to after the battle of Endor. Still, I am strangely ok with how it ended. There is the mystery of Thrawn and Ezra's fate, which is a good way to end the series, I think.

3 minutes ago, Sithborg said:

Likely, the fleet survived, just now they are where ever Thrawn and Ezra are.

Also, I kind of want Ahsoka's big red ship in the game now.

Wasn't that a T-6 shuttle ?

1 minute ago, eMeM said:

Wasn't that a T-6 shuttle ?

It was, and updated the Wookieepedia page.

Soooo...

Ezra and thrawn make nice, ahsoka and Sabine find them decades later with the help of iden versio's daughter who is far in the outer rim looking for allies.

They then show up in ep9 to save the resistance!

24 minutes ago, eMeM said:

Wasn't that a T-6 shuttle ?

I’d love to see it in Armada.

maybe X-wing too. Not that we need any more shuttles...

I can live with Thrawn lost in space with the seventh fleet, fighting to return to the Empire but arrive at the outskirts too late right at the end of the Battle of Jakku. Let the whales bring Ezra somewhere special and abandon the Imperials elsewhere. There is no way that Ezra and Thrawn will see eye to eye, without one becoming good or bad.

We could get some fantastic Thrawn adventures that way.

Funny that came up given the Lost in Space official trailer came out today.