Just watched that a few moments ago and I've been trying to find someone to share my excitement with. So thanks for signing up!
The TIE Defends were actually revealed in an earlier episode, when their designed was flashed across some blue prints, but I did not think we would get to see them this soon. Looking forward to seeing them in space battle--also looking forward to seeing THE space battle. I'm hoping that the A-Wing pilots up their game a bit, because aside from when they show up at the end of Season One, these pilots SUCK. I'm having trouble recalling a single time these red shirts shot down ANY TIEs at all. I don't mind them getting wasted--it's war, and the good guys have to lose people too--but at least take some of the Imperials with you.
It's about time Thrawn lived up to his legacy. Because, while I was excited when he first showed up, he hasn't really done much. Just stood there, looming and talking. Which I get, because that's what he does in the book, but in the book you get to see his thought process and have him explain his methods. You also get to see him command and kick butt, something we have yet to see him do. Right now, he really feels like a copy of Thrawn, someone who wears his face but doesn't understand him on the inside. Like that scene with the AT-ST in his last episode. Thrawn took one look at it and just knew something was off. How? How did he know? It just feels cheap, but it appears there's fixing that in the second half.
I'm pretty sure Kallus is going to die. He's going to save the Rebels and earn full redemption, but he's going to die doing it. And I'm going to care when it happens, which is saying something because I didn't really like him when he first showed up, but you're right: they've done a good job fleshing out his character, and going back and watching the first season again, I can see hints that he's not okay with everything.
While I, too, feel the Mandalorians are overrated (I blame this on Karen Travis, for making them powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with pretty much ANY Jedi), I am super excited to see Sabine FINALLY getting her due. I mean, she's a Mandalorian after all, so she should be a heavy hitter, but she always seems to get relegated to the background. Looking forward to seeing her finally live up to her race's name.
I'm not entirely sure that we'll actually SEE the real fight between Maul and Obi, or at least not yet. Because while that would be cool, I find it hard to believe that they would show this in the trailer. We all know it's coming for sure, but...I don't know, this just seems wrong somehow. So I'm chalking this up to someone having a Force dream about their encounter, and that's what we saw.
