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There is plenty of evidence either way pointing to Thrawn either surviving or not surviving the series.

Evidence for survival:

-Thrawn is mentioned as outliving Galen Erso by Filoni in an interview.
-The Thrawn book is an immediate prequel to Rebels. The 2nd book, following both Thrawn and Vader, would thus have to either take place after the events of Rebels or would have to be shoehorned into Rebels.
-They would not bring back such a beloved character just to kill him off in two seasons.

Evidence for not surviving:

-Bendu tells Thrawn that he sees his demise; obviously, that's an issue that would most likely be tackled within Rebels itself, instead of a future series.
-Where's Thrawn by the events of OT?
-Thrawn is being set up as Hera's arch-enemy. Would they really have a series in which two enemies survive? Not to mention that the show's younger audience will not like this seemingly evil person not getting his comeuppance.

So what do you think? I really want him to survive and become an officer of the early FO in the next series if it takes place between the OT and ST.

As you said, the Vader / Thrawn book is set after Rebels, so he will definitely survive the show.

^Afaik, it hasn't yet been revealed exactly what era Thrawn: Alliances will take place in. While we do know that one of the side-stories will detail Thrawn's past 'adventures' with Anakin during the Clone Wars, we also know the novel will "continue to follow the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn to the heights of Imperial power" -- suggesting that it will take place sequentially with the Rebels-era.



Originally posted by Mendax
Evidence for survival:

-Thrawn is mentioned as outliving Galen Erso by Filoni in an interview. Tbf, it is possible(and moreover likely) that Filoni was talking about the legacies of Galen and Thrawn there, considering the latter's in-depth knowledge/exploration of the Unknown Regions quite possibly allowed the Empire to retreat their(and subsequently form the FO) in the wake of RotJ. /shrug

Originally posted by Mendax
Evidence for not surviving:

-Bendu tells Thrawn that he sees his demise; obviously, that's an issue that would most likely be tackled within Rebels itself, instead of a future series.
-Where's Thrawn by the events of OT?
-Thrawn is being set up as Hera's arch-enemy. Would they really have a series in which two enemies survive? Not to mention that the show's younger audience will not like this seemingly evil person not getting his comeuppance. There's also Rukh- he killed Thrawn in Legends, after all... Though I suspect he is just a giant red herring here. /shrug

Originally posted by Mendax
So what do you think? I really want him to survive and become an officer of the early FO in the next series if it takes place between the OT and ST. With a Thrawn comic series currently taking place + a second self-titled novel slated for release later in the year, I will be very surprised if Thrawn is killed-off in Rebels, tbh.

Let's hope they fvcking at least accept the post-OT EU lore.

We'll see what happens

Originally posted by Galan007
^Afaik, it hasn't yet been revealed exactly what era Thrawn: Alliances will take place in. While we do know that one of the side-stories will detail Thrawn's past 'adventures' with Anakin during the Clone Wars, we also know the novel will "continue to follow the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn to the heights of Imperial power" -- suggesting that it will take place sequentially with the Rebels-era.



Tbf, it is possible(and moreover likely) that Filoni was talking about the legacies of Galen and Thrawn there, considering the latter's in-depth knowledge/exploration of the Unknown Regions quite possibly allowed the Empire to retreat their(and subsequently form the FO) in the wake of RotJ. /shrug

There's also Rukh- he killed Thrawn in Legends, after all... Though I suspect he is just a giant red herring here. /shrug

With a Thrawn comic series currently taking place + a second self-titled novel slated for release later in the year, I will be very surprised if Thrawn is killed-off in Rebels, tbh. Ah, true. Didn't even think about Rukh.

So do you think Thrawn has a deeper motive or agenda then serving the empire, or do you think he's content serving as a grand admiral for a racist organization?

Originally posted by Mendax
So do you think Thrawn has a deeper motive or agenda then serving the empire, I know he does.

The only reason Thrawn involved himself with the Empire in the first place, was to see if they might eventually become trusted allies against some of the threats that lurk in the Unknown Regions... And if Thrawn's assessment revealed that the Empire could not be trusted, it would be destroyed:


You see, Thrawn's loyalty ultimately lies with his people -- with the Chiss Ascendancy. If he ever felt that the Empire was a threat to his people, he had no qualms walking away from it:



But when it comes right down to it, Thrawn has very noble hopes for the Empire:


Originally posted by Mendax
or do you think he's content serving as a grand admiral for a racist organization? Thrawn is 'content' in the sense that the Empire has provided him with everything he's needed over the years to help carryout his true goals(ie. protecting the Chiss), yes... But as I mentioned above: the best interests of his people will always come before the Empire.

As for the 'racist organization' bit: Thrawn is a seasoned/proven Grand Admiral now(and arguably *the* best tactical mind in the entire Empire) -- he is also one of Palpatine's personal favorites. Very few would be stupid enough to openly throw any racist/speciest BS his way. However, even before he held this level of power/authority within the Empire, Thrawn had no issues dealing with the aforementioned haters, as Tarkin himself noted:

Interesting. In Legends that greater* evil was the Vong. In Canon...Snoke?

*ofc Thrawn does not appear to grasp the true nature of Palpatine.

Originally posted by The Ellimist
Interesting. In Legends that greater* evil was the Vong. In Canon...Snoke? Thrawn implied there were/are several threats lurking in the Unknown Regions that represent far greater threats than the Empire, so possibly both..? I read that Filoni planned to canonize the Vong but never got the chance to do so before TCW ended, soooo maybe just maybe. /shrug

Originally posted by The Ellimist
*ofc Thrawn does not appear to grasp the true nature of Palpatine. At this point Thrawn does not suspect that Palpatine is an extremely powerful Sith Master, no(Thrawn's only had two brief conversations with him, after all.) That said, Thrawn is still very skeptical of Palpatine, which is why he never shared the locations of any Chiss bases/systems when he was helping map the Unknown... And also why he sent Eli Vanto on a special mission to parlay with the Chiss Ascendancy, unbeknownst to anyone else in the Empire.

Frankly, the novel gave the impression that Thrawn is using the Empire far more than the Empire is using Thrawn.

*On a related note: I suspect that Thrawn will deduce Vader's true identity when they team-up in the upcoming novel(he fought alongside Anakin in the Clone Wars-era, after all)... And from that Thrawn will be able to connect the dots and discern Palpatine's true identity/role as well.

What happens after he figures this out is anyone's guess...

whos thrawn

So in light of the finale what do you guys think now? is Thrawn dead or alive?

Filoni already confirmed that he survived.

Filoni: "I have a lot of theories about it and what I think happens and where they are. I'll say this much, they're not dead. Both of them survive, both Ezra and Thrawn I would say survive it."

...Which is no great surprise. With an upcoming novel, a current ongoing comic book mini, and the potential for a great deal of storytelling potential on the horizon, I don't think anyone expected Thrawn to be killed-off... In Rebels at least.

If anything, this presented an opportune chance for Thrawn to 'defect' from the Empire, and possibly rejoin the Chiss Ascendancy. /shrug

Thrawn has too much class to die like that. It makes sense though; the only thing that Thrawn wouldn't be prepared to counter are magic space force-whales.


Also if you rewatch the scene you can see the glass fragments from the broken windows levitating in the air right before they jump to lightspeed. Could it be that Ezra was maintaining a bubble of atmosphere?

That'd be about the only logical way he and Thrawn could have survived, given the breaches in the Chimaera's hull.

Originally posted by Galan007
Filoni already confirmed that he survived.

Filoni: "I have a lot of theories about it and what I think happens and where they are. I'll say this much, they're not dead. Both of them survive, both Ezra and Thrawn I would say survive it."

...Which is no great surprise. With an upcoming novel, a current ongoing comic book mini, and the potential for a great deal of storytelling potential on the horizon, I don't think anyone expected Thrawn to be killed-off... In Rebels at least.

If anything, this presented an opportune chance for Thrawn to 'defect' from the Empire, and possibly rejoin the Chiss Ascendancy. /shrug oh thank god, lol.

but now i cant help but wonder where in the hell Thrawn and Ezra were for all that time?

Probably rip off the end ot Heir Trilogy now that that they have also ripped off the little assassin guys from that as well as Thrawn.

Ezra will be a canon Joruus C'Baoth.

Originally posted by Flyattractor
Probably rip off the end ot Heir Trilogy now that that they have also ripped off the little assassin guys from that as well as Thrawn. wtf are you doing here? Crawl back to your rock in the gen discussion forums.

-

So by the time of the Rebels finale, did Thrawn know the Emperor's true role as a Sith?

His dialogue with Ezra seemed indicative of such, imo...

Thrawn: "Who deserves what is irrelevant. What matters is who...has...power... But that is something the Jedi won't teach you, so I'll take you to someone who will." *brings Ezra before Palpatine*

Couple that with Thrawn's preceding dialogue about the Jedi and the Force, along with the portion of the Jedi Temple Palpatine had moved to Lothal(which Thrawn was obviously aware of), and there's really no way that he didn't know about Sheev's alter ego as a Sith Master.

...Which further suggests that Thrawn has deduced Vader's identity as well, but I suspect that will be one of the central themes in the upcoming novel.