<Raises hand> Those books were terrible.

Heresy

IMNSHO (In My Not So Humble Opinion) the Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn Trilogy are better than the original trilogy.

Seriously though, to each their own.

Even Zahn has admitted he wrote himself into a corner with Thrawn, so there is legitimate criticism to be had.

With the generally good job Disney has been doing with Star Wars, I would love to see Thrawn "canonized".

With the generally good job Disney has been doing with Star Wars, I would love to see Thrawn "canonized".

I think returning Thrawn to the fold would run counter to their (to date) good handling of the IP.

I think you could bring him back in and do it well. Maybe have the discrimination against aliens the reason he wasn't higher in the ranks by Endor, but they were scrambling so badly after the Emperor died and the poodoo hit the fan, they would promote anyone with skill. Instead of off fighting mind control alien sludge or whatever the crap it was he was supposedly doing.

Instead of off fighting mind control alien sludge or whatever the crap it was he was supposedly doing.

???

He was out on the frontier, far from the more explored regions of the galaxy, expanding the empire.

Wasn't he involved with that mnggal-mnggal thing the Chiss knew about? It's been so long since I've read those old EU books. . .

Thrawn in his original EU capacity (beyond the Zhan books) is pretty silly and not at all applicable. Still there is alot of potential there and I think Disney could do some interesting things with the character

I'm not a fan of the EU at all, with the exception of the Zahn trilogy. So I can't speak to anything Thrawn beyond those three books, but I can speak to how freaking awesome Thrawn would be.

On the one hand this is very cool news. On the other hand it is very annoying news.

I think he deserves to be in the game as a nod to Zahn. Star Wars' resurgence in popularity in the 90s was pretty much sparked by these books, regardless of what you think of them or their characters.

Hate to be a naysayer but I am one of the few that find Thrawn overrated. Dunno. He seemed a bit obvious to me. For ne? Eh. Pass.

I think he deserves to be in the game as a nod to Zahn. Star Wars' resurgence in popularity in the 90s was pretty much sparked by these books, regardless of what you think of them or their characters.

That trilogy was pretty hot when it hit the shelves.

For the first time the timeline really seemed to move forward, and we were presented with something more than some bad dialogue and action scenes stringed together. Politics, fleets clashing, new villains, a Luke love interest, etc.

Sadly re-reading it in the current day and age left me with a bad taste in my mouth. There was so much plot lameness in there...the katana fleet, those anti-force thingies, the cloned jedi master, etc. Not going there again. Ever.

I think they were Star Destroyers just being referred to as cruisers because the term Star Destroyer hadn't been coined yet IRL

As for Thrawn him becoming canon would be cool I just hope they avoid the absurdity of his career in Legends where he was somehow involved in pretty much anything the Imperil military did competently before Endor.

Yeah, I feel like the EU had a habit of creating/taking something great, and going too far with it. Thrawn and Boba are the two prime examples. Thrawn went from this brilliant tactician who shattered the Empire's notion of human superiority to someone just waaaaaaaay too over the top. And Boba Fett. . .ugh. The EU kind of ruined him. Like the story where he destroys an entire Imperial Garrison by himself to get at one guy. . .and the guy somehow escapes.

Absolutely. This is pretty much the basis for why I feel so much of the EU is best flushed.

Eg The idea that the Imperials are a bunch of incompetent chumps. Just didn't need to be done and spoils any sense of realism.

I wouldn't have a huge problem with a couple more appropriate EU based cards, but like Greenknight says, too much lameness.

I think they were Star Destroyers just being referred to as cruisers because the term Star Destroyer hadn't been coined yet IRL

As for Thrawn him becoming canon would be cool I just hope they avoid the absurdity of his career in Legends where he was somehow involved in pretty much anything the Imperil military did competently before Endor.

Yeah, I feel like the EU had a habit of creating/taking something great, and going too far with it. Thrawn and Boba are the two prime examples. Thrawn went from this brilliant tactician who shattered the Empire's notion of human superiority to someone just waaaaaaaay too over the top. And Boba Fett. . .ugh. The EU kind of ruined him. Like the story where he destroys an entire Imperial Garrison by himself to get at one guy. . .and the guy somehow escapes.

Absolutely. This is pretty much the basis for why I feel so much of the EU is best flushed.

Eg The idea that the Imperials are a bunch of incompetent chumps. Just didn't need to be done and spoils any sense of realism.

I wouldn't have a huge problem with a couple more appropriate EU based cards, but like Greenknight says, too much lameness.

But thats why people like Thrawn: Finally some Imperial Commander that is not more military incompetent than farm-boys and politicans.

That the EU pre-Disney did not always meet someone's standards of execution does not make all the ideas bankrupt. Thrawn is the foundation for some of how Tarkin is fleshed out in Clone Wars and as he is carried over to Rebels. All sorts of things we take for granted as part of Star Wars come from things NOT the films.

As DScipio mentions Thrawn is the first "Why you should be scared of the Imperial Navy" character. No sense in putting Thrawn in Rebels and not calling him Thrawn other than a "Think of something new" sort of thing. But if that is the sort of character the story needs (not up to date on the current season of Rebels or any previews of upcoming story) what is the argument other than the "EU is awful" which is just as much a reflex at this point as "Prequels are awful."

As DScipio mentions Thrawn is the first "Why you should be scared of the Imperial Navy" character.

Thrawn was interesting because he wasn't Sith yet he was an effective adversary, and he was also an alien. Which when those books came out was very odd for the Empire.

But sadly he does have the same fate as Boba Fett or Luke for that matter, they took an interesting character and kept pushing him further and further over the top until it became nauseating.

That is one of the best parts of Disney tossing the EU out, it gives them a chance to reboot and hopefully avoid destroying interesting characters. Considering that Luke is no longer the living avatar of the Force itself... I'd say that it's likely this will continue.

As DScipio mentions Thrawn is the first "Why you should be scared of the Imperial Navy" character.

Thrawn was interesting because he wasn't Sith yet he was an effective adversary, and he was also an alien. Which when those books came out was very odd for the Empire.

But sadly he does have the same fate as Boba Fett or Luke for that matter, they took an interesting character and kept pushing him further and further over the top until it became nauseating.

That is one of the best parts of Disney tossing the EU out, it gives them a chance to reboot and hopefully avoid destroying interesting characters. Considering that Luke is no longer the living avatar of the Force itself... I'd say that it's likely this will continue.

Unfortunately the new EU seems to have attracted the same lame authors the old EU did. I do not expect great things.

You are telling me that a large selection of reading material with such expansive information and canon has some bad writers amongst the ranks *sarcastic gasp*

Meanwhile Claudia Grey with Lost Stars is tearing **** up imho

I loved the original Zahn novels, read the follow ups that teased him back, but not other EU stuff with him.

The original Zahn novels kind of became non-canon with the prequels tho, as they had a completely different clone war history/tech than what Lucas did in the prequel trilogy.

Nice to see the character come back.

The Clone Wars-era EU did expand on the whole Jorus C'Baoth/Outbound Flight plot arc, IIRC. And it tied in to the Chiss and maybe Thrawn? **** it's been years.

I've always hated that they even specified Thrawn's species. He should have been left an enigma that the Emperor found and recruited somewhere. The Empire's equivalent of Yoda.

That would have been neat. A weird, alien race prodigy, and the only one of his kind.

I'm very interested on how different Thrawn could be in the series. I mean, he might just be a boring human this time around or even a new species?

Incidentally, I want to double check something. (probably going to derail the entire thread with this)

I know absolutely nothing about the species they created for Thrawn to be from. I only found out that they HAD created his species a couple years ago from reading these boards, after I started playing X-Wing. So I know their name (it is the Chiss, right?) and that they have a not-tie fighter called the clawcraft. That is absolutely everything I know about the species.

They are an entire species of military and tactical geniuses. Aren't they?

But what would his ability be?

Thrawn's ability should follow his competence in the trilogy.

"For turns 1 & 2, get everything right; for turns 3 through 6, get everything wrong."

I don't believe they were all tactical genies. I think Thrawn was special even for a Chiss. That said I haven't read much of the content that specifically included them in a long time.