13 minutes ago, ceejlekabeejle said:

Could see it as an anti-squad flotilla, but my hunch is that, if Hammerheads have made it in as a small-base ship, the Braha'tok will as well.

I tend to agree - Mel estimated the Hammerhead as 90m, and the EU gave the Braha'tok's length as 90m too:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Braha'tok-class_gunship

On 14/10/2016 at 11:25 AM, melminiatures said:

It's smaller than the Corellian Corvette. I did my research back when I did the 3D model. If I remember correctly it was about 90m, a perfect ship for a Flotilla.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwarsrebels/images/3/35/The_Forgotten_Droid_33.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20160317014500

FFGs sliding scale is purely based on what they want or need in a release, nothing else.

I'd love to see an arc where they bring Raddus and Ackbar into the Rebellion with their cruisers, with Raddus leading the fleet and Ackbar refining the B-Wing. And then from that base, You could have Wedge, Hobbie, and bring in Biggs and some others to steal the X-Wings, and end with a recanonized battle of Turkana.

11 minutes ago, MajorWesJanson said:

You could have Wedge, Hobbie, and bring in Biggs and some others to steal the X-Wings, and end with a recanonized battle of Turkana.

Biggs's conversation with Luke during ANH (deleted scene) got recanonized (Databank, newcanon Complete Locations) so it might be a bit tricky to include him in Rebels, since that conversation sets him as joining the Rebellion during the ANH timeframe.

4 hours ago, Irokenics said:

I find it strange that Thrawn is all hyped up to be this brilliant tactician and Hera throughout the episode correctly predicts his next moves.

Perhaps she is the real brilliant strategist!

Grand Admiral Thrawn is all like, "Even though I tried to jam your transmission I actually really am glad you beat me up a little and sent it because it is JUST AS I PLANNED." It's okay to make mistakes, Thrawn. Must've had rough parents.

Also, that's why you never ever put your commander on a Nebulon. At least Dodanna made it out.

Future Armada content

• Thrawn as commander
• Hera as commander
• Dornean Gunship
• Weapons Team and Offensive Retrofit dual-slot upgrade "Boarding Raiders" to discard an upgrade from an enemy ship. I.e. destroy the G8 Experimental Projector, or the Bomber Command Center, or the Engine Techs, or the Xi7.
• New Experimental Retrofit upgrades for a few new grav well tricks. Perhaps one that is exhausted to prevent a ship at distance 1-5 from changing speed, or one that suppresses defense tokens.
• New Fleet Command upgrades for some of the new quotes, with exclamations of course. "Charge the blockade!" "Reinforce our center!" "Move to intercept!" "Attack now with overwhelming force!" "I'm not accepting surrenders at this time!"
• Planetary bombardment for campaign play, or an objective
• Base shields for campaign play
• Some designators for themed fleets: Phoenix Squadron, Massassi Group, etc.

I like a lot of those ideas! They sound very interesting indeed

I very much enjoyed the finale. The biggest thing that got me was honestly how ISD bombardment turbo laser blasts were raining down within scant meters of Kanab on his speeder hog and he wasn't vaporised.

One of my plans for the day is to re-watch the space battles, great to see the fleets standing off.

32 minutes ago, Alzer said:

I very much enjoyed the finale. The biggest thing that got me was honestly how ISD bombardment turbo laser blasts were raining down within scant meters of Kanab on his speeder hog and he wasn't vaporised.

I would hypothesise that Thrawn specifically wants to soften up the base without destroying it - so he can take the Rebel officers alive as Tarkin commanded - hence, the initial bolts are very weak, until the gunners can adjust their aims, ensure all their bolts are landing on the shield, and start ramping up the energies of the bolts.

The Bendu arc I thought was where the episode fell down.

Where I feel Thrawn isn't as strong as he was in the books is that in the books the empire was on the back foot & Thrawn was still managing to kick ass. In this show he has all the advantages - he should be winning. Easily.

1 hour ago, Nostromoid said:

Future Armada content

• Weapons Team and Offensive Retrofit dual-slot upgrade "Boarding Raiders" to discard an upgrade from an enemy ship. I.e. destroy the G8 Experimental Projector, or the Bomber Command Center, or the Engine Techs, or the Xi7.
• New Experimental Retrofit upgrades for a few new grav well tricks. Perhaps one that is exhausted to prevent a ship at distance 1-5 from changing speed, or one that suppresses defense tokens.

Love a lot of these, but to comment on the two above:

1) A boarding party that could exhaust or discard an upgrade could be both interesting and powerful. Indeed, it would make for some really interesting campaign play, if a Rebel ship were able to "switch off" the Interdictor's ability to stop them jumping to hyperspace.

2) How about something that prevents enemy ships from using evade? Something like "If an enemy ship is at distance 1-5, it cannot spend an evade token". Makes sense with the grav wells' ability to affect movement, but would have some interesting effects - firstly, it would make ships like Corvettes a lot more vulnerable at distance, since they couldn't auto-cancel dice and your ISD or whatever would be able to use its accuracies to block evades or the like, and secondly, it would have the fun implication of preventing the use of TRCs.

3 minutes ago, ISD Avenger said:

The Bendu arc I thought was where the episode fell down.

Where I feel Thrawn isn't as strong as he was in the books is that in the books the empire was on the back foot & Thrawn was still managing to kick ass. In this show he has all the advantages - he should be winning. Easily.

I think that you couldn't really have had the episode without the Bendu arc. As you point out, Thrawn has all the advantages, and comes close to crushing the Lothal Rebels once and for all. But in this show the Rebels are the good guys, so they have to emerge victorious, not least because we want a season 4, and because it sets up for the OT. If they are going to win (or at least avoid defeat), something has to go wrong for Thrawn, and it wouldn't fit with his character for him to make some mistake or miscalculation.

So the question is, how do you make his plan fail without undermining his brilliance? I don't think it would have worked for the Rebel's to have outwitted him on the surface - it wouldn't fit with his MO. Nor do I think that the arrival of the Mandalorians would have been enough - they created a window of opportunity for the fleet to flee, but only when the Rebel officers had already narrowly escaped capture. I think you have to bring in the Bendu, a factor that is entirely beyond Thrawn's knowledge and completely out of his control, so that he isn't outsmarted, merely taken by surprise.

With the Bendu, you facilitate the next season without reducing Thrawn's menace to the fledgling rebellion. Without it, I think you'd have struggled to do justice to his brilliance as a character.

21 hours ago, Gottmituns205 said:

Well they are headed to Yavin...so that can only mean we're getting closer and closer to Rogue One. I'm pretty sure we're going to see the Mon Calamari next season for sure as the big reveal.

Not gonna lie...Rebels with Mandalorian squadrons would be nice.

I was expecting to see that MC80 pop up and provide some cover fire whilst the Rebels escaped, but I think the Mandalorian commando route was fitting, and I agree Sato had to go in order to start molding Rebels into the timeline, I have no doubt we're going to see General Syndulla as a fleet admiral soon. Dodanna is going to get ALOT more screen time in the future, and I have little doubt Admiral Raddus is going to pop up.

My predictions:

Kallus joins the crew to fill the spot Sabine left, he becomes something like Command Kallus. The Ghost crew are integral into bringing the Mon Calamari into the fold (maybe we get to see the system where they begin converting city ships into capital ships. Thrawn ultimately loses big in season 4 and gets exiled to the Unknown Regions (or flat out dies).

Ultimate prediction, Rebels continues after Rogue One...the galaxy is a big big place, and the show is proving to be a real popular source...it's keeping starwars fresh in between the movies (which I think is a big deal.)

It states, in the rogue one ultimate visual guide, that the Mon calimari retroited there cruisers in deep space.

35 minutes ago, ISD Avenger said:

Where I feel Thrawn isn't as strong as he was in the books is that in the books the empire was on the back foot & Thrawn was still managing to kick ass. In this show he has all the advantages - he should be winning. Easily.

Exactly! What I loved about the Thrawn of the books was that he was always one step ahead of his enemies. He couldn't be stopped, no matter what. The only way to stop him was to be stabbed by his bodyguard, but he wasn't beaten once in battle. In Rebels his bukkocks are being kicked constantly and all he can say is that it was part of the grand scheme. As the season advanced my respect for the Thrawn of the cartoon decreased with every episode. Now he's barely better than any other random Imperial commander...

5 minutes ago, Norell said:

Exactly! What I loved about the Thrawn of the books was that he was always one step ahead of his enemies. He couldn't be stopped, no matter what. The only way to stop him was to be stabbed by his bodyguard, but he wasn't beaten once in battle.

His schemes were sometimes thwarted though. The Battle of Sluis Van springs to mind - Lando crippled all the ships Thrawn was trying to steal - so Thrawn retreated.

He also sometimes leapt to the wrong conclusions, such as his conclusion that his commando Khabarakh had been captured by Wookiees and interrogated for a month. Instead of having been captured, released, and having spent the last month meditating before committing to joining the Rebels.

I'd agree that cartoon Thrawn is much more prone to gloating than EU Thrawn was.

8 minutes ago, Norell said:

Exactly! What I loved about the Thrawn of the books was that he was always one step ahead of his enemies. He couldn't be stopped, no matter what. The only way to stop him was to be stabbed by his bodyguard, but he wasn't beaten once in battle. In Rebels his bukkocks are being kicked constantly and all he can say is that it was part of the grand scheme. As the season advanced my respect for the Thrawn of the cartoon decreased with every episode. Now he's barely better than any other random Imperial commander...

He hasn't lost on Rebels yet. This is his first battle and he won. The other battles were initiated and carried out by officers under his command.

19 minutes ago, Forresto said:

He hasn't lost on Rebels yet. This is his first battle and he won. The other battles were initiated and carried out by officers under his command.

This is pretty accurate. More importantly, it is generally Konstantine who is undertaking the missions. Konstantine is notably an utter fool. I feel the Rebels are in for a nasty time now that Admiral Incompetent is gone.

On top of this, with Thrawn on the ground Price ended up in Command of the fleet, and apparently lacked presence of mind to order her FIVE IMPERIAL CLASS STAR DESTROYERS to shoot down the smattering of ships attempting to escape. A simple " oh hey, make sure to shoot those 5 corvette- class ships before they can leave" should have done it

9 minutes ago, Ironlord said:

His schemes were sometimes thwarted though. The Battle of Sluis Van springs to mind - Lando crippled all the ships Thrawn was trying to steal - so Thrawn retreated.

He also sometimes leapt to the wrong conclusions, such as his conclusion that his commando Khabarakh had been captured by Wookiees and interrogated for a month. Instead of having been captured, released, and having spent the last month meditating before committing to joining the Rebels.

I'd agree that cartoon Thrawn is much more prone to gloating than EU Thrawn was.

Actually the Sluis Van battle was a win win for Thrawn.

Main mission objective: was to steal ships to bolster his own fleet and use them against their previous owners.

Second mission objective: was to deny ships for the New Republic to use against him.

So no matter what the outcome Sluis Van battle ended up being, Thrawns fleet would be fighting less New Republic ships in a forseeable future.

16 minutes ago, Kiwi Rat said:

Actually the Sluis Van battle was a win win for Thrawn.

Main mission objective: was to steal ships to bolster his own fleet and use them against their previous owners.

Second mission objective: was to deny ships for the New Republic to use against him.

So no matter what the outcome Sluis Van battle ended up being, Thrawns fleet would be fighting less New Republic ships in a forseeable future.

It's still enough of a setback that Thrawn described his campaign as having been "slowed down a bit" - even if "we haven't been defeated". Putting a brave face on it - glass half-full attitude to keep his troops' morale up - etc (as Zahn says in the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition). Not that different from Thrawn in Steps into Shadow, who characterises events as a first step in locating the main Rebel fleet, even if they didn't stop the Rebels from getting some Y-wings.

I can agree that newcanon Thrawn is a bit more Smug and a bit less Magnificent than his EU counterpart.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmugSnake

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard

Hopefully the Thrawn novel will increase his Magnificence some.

I would rather Thrawn not die on Rebels but if he does I hope he gets a few more major victories before so.

I want to see Thrawn use crazy tactics to beat rebel fleets. Remember even if Thrawn dies the Empire still can't lose in a major battle.

3 hours ago, Forresto said:

He hasn't lost on Rebels yet. This is his first battle and he won. The other battles were initiated and carried out by officers under his command.

Furthermore, he wasn't actively seeking to cripple or destroy the smaller rebel forces as he wanted them to consolidate so he could hammer them all. He did a pretty good job of it to.

A couple of things:

1- He was ordered to capture the rebel leadership by Tarkin. Had that not happened he would have likely just base delta zeroed the rebel base.

2- Thrawn in legends and here has a weakness against force wielders as he doesn't really understand them & it.

3- Thrawn is brilliant but not omniscient, and thus the Bendu was a completely unexpected element. (I actually like this part, and only because the Bendu was wrecking both sides).

I like that Bendu dissapeared into the force just like Obi-Wan on the Death Star and Yoda on Dagobah.

I don't think Bendu force disappeared... I think he just suddenly vanished. Given the Bendu's obvious similarities with the environment around him, I wouldn't be surprised if he has some kind of power up and above the likes of Yoda and Obi-wan, bound to the planet he inhabits. With the Rebels abandoning the world we may never visit the Bendu again, but I think it's still possible he'll be back later in the Star Wars saga.

I don't think Thrawn has ever looked weak through the season. His mission has been to utterly crush the rebellion. Small victories, let them gain confidence, then when the time was right hit them with overwhelming force. His strategy was flawless as far as execution on his part. Just done in by a subordinate with an inferiority complex and an unknown element in the Bendu. Loved the "end of him" taunting Thrawn about his weakness.

By all accounts he still had a pretty big tactical victory. The loss of the frigates, the carrier which i will argue at this point was a major strategic asset for the rebellion and even worse the death of Jun Sato a very competent commander. This was a bad blow. Its just lucky we know that the Mon Cals replace the ship losses and Hera and Dodonna are very good leaders as well with others on the way, other wise this still could have been a crippling blow rather than a major punch to the face.