Personally, Thrawn easily makes the list of my top-ten favorite Star Wars characters, and is the second-ranked villain on the list behind only Vader.

And when The Force Awakens went the direction it did, one of the bigger disappointments amongst EU fans was that Thrawn would not be the antagonist of these sequel-era stories like he previously was in the books. He’s such a respected and feared character that Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni explained that they’re treating Thrawn as a Vader-level threat in the show. Thrawn has been the subject of numerous books, and he was the first EU character to be brought into the new canon universe, as he stars in Star Wars Rebels – the announcement of which was met by a roaring ovation from Star Wars fans at Celebration. In fact, Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy is largely credited with reviving interest in Star Wars and sparking the EU craze, with that trilogy still being among the most favorite and respected EU material. Most people consider him among the very best – with many saying the best – character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. In a separate ranking, IGN listed Thrawn as the tenth-best Star Wars character period. Die-hard fans love him and many fans know of him, but there are others who wonder, “what’s the big deal about Thrawn?” In 2008, IGN ranked Thrawn as the second-best Star Wars villain, behind only Darth Vader.

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