The Mandoverse has a villain problem, as 'Ahoska’s big bad was an underwhelming bore. Thrawn author Timothy Zahn has a solution to saving Disney+'s Star Wars shows.
I don’t think Thrawn was a bore. Is that a hot take?
I think he was the only interesting character in the show. Now that’s a hot take.
I kinda likes Darth Santa. I want to see more of him.
Unfortunately the actor, Ray Stevenson, died. So, while they may recast the character and such, his presence in the character will no longer be with us.
He was the strongest part of the show for me, then Thrawns stuff. I wish they had written Sabine a bit better although the force stuff was okay, Ahsoka herself was okay but I wish we had gotten more conflict between her stoicism and her past self. We almost got it a little bit near the end but other things overshadowed it’s importance.
Nah, he was great. The problem with great villains is they have to lose at the end of the day. So no matter how genius and brilliant of a tactician Thrawn is, you know he’ll always end up as the loser.
The problem with great villains is they have to lose at the end of the day.
Meh. The Villain always loses, but the suspense is often in how much damage they cause before that time.
For example, Thrawn could end up destroying a few entire planets or beloved characters before his ultimate demise. He could seduce a good character into joining the dark side. He can ‘win’ that way.
The whole ‘actually you’re too late’ trope is often a fun way of doing that. You can also subvert stuff. Make the villain turn out to be (inadvertently/ultimately) good and/or make the villain (inadvertently/ultimately) evil.
The problem with Star Wars, I think, is that it’s often far too obvious whether someone’s a villain or not. Characters like Baylan Skoll(Ahsoka), Luthen Rael(Andor), or Qi’ra(Solo) are far more interesting.
The Clone Wars did similar things with Doku, Maul and Ahsoka. It’s a shame Ahsoka is so obviously good in this show.
On the span of multi generations war, there are vilains who never lose.
Maybe Thrawn’s true goal, true way of winning, is to bring back the Emperor (we know he wants to bring back the Empire).
If Thrawn manages to make that whole Exogol / the emperor’s not dead thing believable, I don’t know if that makes him the ultimate villain or hero.
Since I don’t know what we know about what happened to Ahsoka and Thrawn between the end of Vador and the beginning of the New Order, I would like to make a few propositions of ways Thrawn could not be seen losing in the show.
- Thrawn could be the key player in the Emperor’s return.
- Ahsoka could die fighting Thrawn to death.
- Thrawn could kill a lot of people before dying himself.
- Thrawn could still die of natural causes, or sacrifice himself for the Emperor.
